High Tech for Hard Times - Part one

So can your high tech hardware save a small business in these bleak times ? The short answer is always no as only cash flow can do that and I don't see any government bail outs for small businesses and interest free loans at this crunch time. But looking at the the way tech stuff is now so portable and the need for office space or other sundry products (fax stationary postage etc) is reduced it would make good sense to do a real tech audit to see what you need for your business and more importantly look at the way you use that tech too.

For those bold enterpreneurs that are just starting out take a visit and have a scheduled one to one enterprise meeting at any Apple store for example, give your budget and needs to these consultants you might get a good up to date package that will best meet what you want to spend and they will train you to use it for free afterwards.

At the end of day with most portable or even desktop solutions most of us surf,email and write documents so a state of the art pro system will hardly be taxed by that so always see what consumer models are on offer.

It's always possible to save on buying the last but one software/hardware upgrade but really check first as those ever so high discounts may just mean really outdated stock and a year or so down the line you might find yourself in need of another upgrade.

On the mobile office front be very aware that the latest and greatest may give you the ultimate flexible lifestyle and all you can eat anywhere data option but this will be tied into the very expensive contracts that basically become a new 2 years overhead cost before you've even thought about writing an invoice and god forbid if you use these smart phones abroad as i did recently - one data download session of less than five minutes cost me almost 20 quid for a bunch of messages and a load of spam that the wonderous iPhone has no way of sorting so you end up paying for the whole lot.

So what would you buy as a package if you had £1000 to spend today on a tech system for a start up ?

More tomorrow...