Small and medium-sized enterprises account for 99.5% of the businesses in every major industry in the UK. Along with your great ideas and expertise, it takes courage to start a small business, and a lot of legal paperwork to make things official. The last thing you want to worry about is the equipment you’ll need to turn your idea into a successful business. Covered here is all the tech you’ll need to get your business up and running.
Start with the Basics
Before you buy anything else, you’ll need to set up an internet connection to link all of your equipment. What type of internet you’ll need depends on how many employees you’ll have and what type of business you’re running, but you’ll need some kind of connection. Next thing you’ll need is computers, and with the current business climate becoming ever more mobile, laptops may be the way to go.
Next you’ll need a website. Depending on how extensive your website needs to be, you may be able to build one yourself. If your business will have a heavy web presence or your business involves e-commerce, you may want to find a specialist in your industry to build a site for you.
Be a Communications Specialist
Once you have the basics covered, you’ll want to cover communication. You’ll need phones, as well as a phone system. It’s important, when choosing a phone system, to take into account all the features you’ll need. Will you be conducting conference calls? Will you need multiple lines and the ability to transfer calls amongst employees? These answers will dictate the type of phones and system you’ll need.
Perhaps even more important than phones, you’ll need email accounts for yourself and all of your employees. Additionally, you’ll need email storage, and an email application installed on all of your computers. If you intend on mailing any kind of correspondence or packages containing your products, a mail machine might make things more efficient.
All the Bells and Whistles
The last things you’ll likely need are a photocopier, scanner, and printer. You can get all of these features in one multifunction work centre if you have the space. Depending on how you plan to deal with and store documents, an external hard drive, or some kind of cloud storage may be necessary to consider. Finally, if you have any sensitive documents you will be handling, you should invest in a shredder to destroy those you no longer need and a possible cloud solution with augmented security.
Once you have all the equipment you need to run a business, you’re off to the races. Go through this list and make sure you’ve ticked all the boxes. The sky's the limit when you have all the proper technology to make your small business idea a reality.
