A Sure-fired Method for Helping Entrepreneurs Plan Technology for Business Growth

As an entrepreneur, you are always thinking of how to develop better strategies to attain your ultimate goal of making your company grow, and sustaining that growth.

Does your business development strategy include technology planning? 

Sadly, many small business owners give little thought to strategic planning of technology and the management of their technology.  Unfortunately, this oversight in planning will have an adverse affect on the cost of doing business as well as to curtail a company's profitable growth.

For startups and small companies, skipping technology planning can be fatal.  It has less to do with picking the wrong technology than with paying way too much for the chosen technology.  It’s far less costly -- and a lot safer for you -- if you start with cloud computing or Software as a Service.  This allows you to make inexpensive mistakes and gain experience from those mistakes as you plan your strategy.

Starting with cloud computing or SaaS conserves cash flow because:

• It allows you to buy less powerful – cheaper -- computers since your browser will do most of the work for you, not your machine.
• If you purchase Customer Relationship Management software, you still end up paying for the package even if it turns out that you don’t like it.  With a cloud CRM app, you can stop at any time if you don’t like it, and that’s it!  End of expense!
• You can avoid buying servers and programs to run your applications.  The up-front cost of setting up a small business server can be staggering.  Besides, with today’s powerful cloud apps, you can enjoy practically the same features for a lot less.

Should you find that, as your business grows, you need to invest in servers and additional software; then you need to reevaluate your technology investment strategy and realign that strategy with the current goals of your company.

Have a clear picture in your mind of where you want to be in the next two or three years.  Align your business strategy with your technological needs.  Identify which technologies can help boost business growth and plan the steps to make it happen the way you envisioned it.

Create a list of key technology areas and start monitoring IT trends and developments based on your business needs.  This list should contain information relating to growth opportunities.  This will enable you to determine which technologies are going to have a significant impact on your business, and whether or not they offer noticeable or measurable improvements in performance, and in what ways they impact customer service.  Find out whether your competitors are using the same or similar technologies and how they employ them to enhance their businesses.

Once you complete this list, you can use the information to zoom in on your technology requirements and create an effective investment plan.  Run a cost–benefit analysis.  Get the help of an IT advisor and carefully analyze the cost of running and maintaining your new system over the next two-to-three years.  Compare this with your current IT system with regard to the initial costs, the ease of implementation, and the ongoing maintenance costs.

This will help you finalize your list of business technology investments that have the potential of helping you achieve your business and financial goals.  Rank them according to the advantages they will bring to your projects or business.  Determine the time it will take to properly test and implement the new IT system.  Take into consideration the staff required to operate or support the system and whether or not additional training would be necessary.

Once you have completed the assessment, you can start taking the necessary steps to implement your business development plan.  Have a realistic expectation of the costs you could incur.  Be prepared for possible overruns!

Continue to monitor new developments in technology and update your IT investment plan accordingly.  At the rate at which technology advances these days, technological obsolescence has become all the more pronounced, and should therefore, be anticipated when creating your business development plan.

Focus on SaaS as much as possible.  It is generally more cost-effective than buying hardware and software.  Once you are convinced that you’re on the right track, you may start setting up your own IT system.

In the end, it’s how well you manage your cash flow that determines whether or not you will succeed in growing your small business.