The Pieces of Tech you Should Invest in When Starting Out in Business

When you’re starting out in business, money can be very tight. You will probably have had to pay out a lot of money on things like stock, raw materials, tools, and even things like insurance before you can make your first sale. As you’re spending so much already, you might be reluctant to spend money on things you think might not be essential to make those sales. There are some pieces of tech that will not only help you save time when it comes to completing a job, but could also help you save money and gain new customers. With that in mind, here are some of the pieces of technology anybody who is starting out in business should invest in. 

A Reliable Computer

No matter what business you’re in, one tool that everybody needs is a reliable computer or laptop. Even if you’re involved in one of the most traditional industries imaginable, like farming, pottery, or even replacing horseshoes for a living, there are lots of tasks you’ll need to log onto a computer for. These include everything from buying new supplies and stock, to creating invoices and even recording important tax details. If you want your business to strive, you’ll also want a computer to help you produce new promotional material, post updates to any website and social media accounts you may have, and keep in contact with all of your customers. There isn’t one perfect computer for everybody, so make sure you think about what features you’ll want your laptop to have. For example, if you’re regularly going to use it out and about, a laptop with a long battery life would be ideal for you. If your laptop is going to spend most of its time sat on a desk completing really big tasks like editing video and images, you’ll want a device that has a lot of memory and a fast processor. 

The Right Software

Now you’ve got a good, reliable device to work on, you’ll want to make sure you have all the software you need to complete each job. If you’ve just left college or an office job to start your own business, you might just presume that every computer comes with Office as it’s very rare that you will have logged onto a computer without the software. Despite its worldwide popularity, Microsoft Office is actually an added extra that you’ll have to pay for. You might think that you’ll need to buy it as you’ll need things like a word processor and spreadsheets, but there are alternatives to Word and Excel that you can buy much more cheaply and sometimes even download for free. 

The place where it’s important to invest in is the specialist software that will really help you with your job. No matter what line of work you’re in and how small your industry is, it’s highly likely that someone will have developed software to help you with the rather specific problems you might face. 

For example, if you work in a job where you’re required to translate a number of different documents into different languages, you’ll need an effective way or organizing these documents. If you simply emailed documents that needed translating to your different translators, it can be difficult to keep track of who is working on what file as well as which ones have been fully completed and which are still in need of attention. 

Instead of relying on long email chains to organize a job, by using a translation management system you could reduce the amount of confusion caused by completing this taxing task. This software allows you to upload the file only once, and then everyone including your translators and any other colleagues or clients can edit the same document. All they’d need to do is log onto the same software on their own computer and no matter where they are in the world, they’ll be able to find the latest version of the text. 

A Smartphone

Now you run your own business, you won’t be able to simply clock out at the end of a shift and leave someone else to deal with the business overnight. There will be times when people will want to contact you either in the evenings, on a weekend or simply at a time where you’re away from your computer. If you don’t reply quickly to one of these messages, or you fail to reply at all, you could end up losing a customer to a rival business. That’s why it’s so important that you have a smartphone that you can use to receive and reply to all of these messages no matter what time of day it is and where you are in the world. If your business has a social media account, make sure you have the relevant apps installed and turn on your notifications so you know as soon as a potential customer has sent you a direct message. If you have a WordPress website, you could even update your website from your smartphone. Make sure you buy a smartphone with a good camera so you can take high-quality images of your products that you can post on social media and use in future marketing material. 

A Back-up Plan 

While all of these devices can be massively useful when they’re working correctly, your business could grind to a halt if one of these devices malfunctions. To make sure this doesn’t happen to your business, it’s important to regularly back up all of the important data on these devices. Buy an external hard drive for your laptop and regularly copy the most important files onto it. 

When it comes to your smartphone, make sure your phone is set up to regularly back up all of the data onto a cloud system. It’s also important that you have access to your social media accounts even if you forget the passwords. Make sure you regularly update any security information, like emails and phone numbers, which you can use to reset your password if you ever forget it.