Selling products can be a difficulty in economic downtimes, and that’s not saying anything about getting paid for our services from clients who owe us money. Perhaps overlooked by many small business owners is the potential to reduce expenses on technology by making due with what we already have, or what we can virtually get for free. Virtualization and free online tools can save our home businesses from unnecessary, and downright expensive, software upgrades.
We can turn to things like virtualization, free online tools and apps, as well as learning to use our current software more effectively.
There are some good tools available online, such as Zoho’s free CRM (customer relations management) software. Some of us may have already caught on to some of these freebies, and probably most of us don’t take the time to learn about features such as analysis charts. Ledger functions often lay dormant in the software, probably because we, as small business owners, like to do everything independently. In economic downtimes this should sound an alarm, because we also want to survive a very difficult time with as little extraneous trouble as possible. The features in our software are not, however, extraneous nuisances. On the contrary, they’re friends to our business. Automating some processes can allow us to focus on selling our products, gathering information about which clients purchase which products, and cut the products that take more money out of pocket than they bring in.
Furthermore, we may overlook the power of our current operating systems. Take Windows XP for example; Why purchase Windows Vista when we’re trying to reduce spending?
Now, let’s not overlook hardware. Sometime we just have to upgrade, but usually we’re just fine with what we have. We shouldn’t spend just because the newest hardware has come out, or advertisements prompt us to buy. But if we must upgrade, why not buy used hardware? Know of a small business selling used hardware that is reliable? Circulate the money to small business and home offices.
