Today’s guest began his company with one simple goal, providing the best technology support to local small businesses and giving back to the community. For over six years, that simple formula has led to a great deal of success with his company, Tech Masters Computer Services.
We all struggle from time to time in the technology world. There’s a lot to learn and know. It can be overwhelming. One of the biggest things affecting small businesses today are the cost of maintaining and upgrading our technology.
Wade shared that one of the biggest things that’s affecting small businesses right now in terms of costs, is how so many of the services that must be relied on require the purchase of a subscription. In addition, there are frequent updates and replacing of technology required. How do we as business owners manage this?
Tracking your costs, compartmentalizing them and making sure that you understand where your money’s going is incredibly important according to Wade. His advice is that when you get a new piece of hardware in, note when you got it, how much you paid for it, and then track every single one of those so that you can get a feel for how long it’ll be before I have to replace it. That also helps to figure out if it’s worth repairing or not as it ages.
When it comes to updates, tracking those costs are key too. Wade suggests noting when your renewals come up because they’re always on a one-year cycle. The best time to ask for a cut is about a month before your renewal comes up because then they know that you are paying attention.
Tracking your company’s technology, both hardware and software, allows you to stay be prepared and budget for the future. It is amazing how fast time goes by from the time you purchase it. A spreadsheet works well for this, or companies like Wade’s have asset tracking services that will manage that for you.
Having a relationship with an IT professional is important in the growth, longevity and success of your business. There are so many things that happen in business that will have an IT impact or an IT impact will have on. It will have an impact on some of you business decisions. For example, if you want to move your office. You want to just pack up all your stuff and move over there, but does your new office location have internet? Did you know that for that particular location you may be waiting 45 days for it? Little things like that could be a concern. This is where you IT professional can be very valuable.
It’s nice to live with a little peace of mind when you have some help!
The one thing that you can do after listening to this podcast is reach out to your tech person, and if you don’t have one, reach out to Wade at [email protected] and get some systems in place so that you are not scrambling when there’s an emergency to get it handled.
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