Easy Ways To Save On Electronics As A Startup

Starting your own business is a risky venture. Technology is everything in this day and age, and getting the right equipment for your office is expensive. Here are some easy ways to save on electronics for your startup.

Bring Your Own Device

Image via Flickr by DennisCallahan

Incorporating a BYOD policy is a wise idea. With a BYOD policy, employees will use their own phones as work phones. This will save you a ton of money because you won’t have to buy phones, activate them, and sign them up for data plans. With the BlackBerry 10 OS, people can separate their phone profiles into personal and professional sides, so you won’t get confused with apps and information on either side. You can also use mobile management software so you can keep all of your employees in sync.

Another area where you’ll save money by having a BYOD policy is with office phones. If you’ve got a BYOD policy, you have employees with cell phones — there’s simply no need for an office phone. By not having an office phone, you’ll save hundreds, if not thousands.

Buy Used

Most retailers offer used or refurbished electronics at deep discounts. Take advantage of these deals. They’re under warranty and guaranteed to be as good as new. Check discount stores and online sites such as Craigslist for used furniture. On Craigslist, you’ll often run across people that are just parting with their furniture because they’re moving, so you’ll be able to strike up a good deal.

Search for Deals

Image via Flickr by analogkid281

If you have to have an item and can’t find it used, you’re going to have to search for deals. Sites such as RetailMeNot, Groupon, and CouponShack host deals from around the web, so before you buy anything from any website, check with these sites first. You may end up with free shipping for a percentage off!

Another way to look for deals is with Google Alerts. With Google Alerts, you can have Google send you an alert whenever a product drops in price. This is perfect if you’re waiting for an item to go a few dollars lower before dropping the money on it.

Move to the Cloud

Cloud computing isn’t really anything new, but its popularity is soaring. By moving your servers to the cloud, you’ll save your company thousands of dollars annually. The up-time with a service such as Amazon is likely going to be much better than your current provider, and you can use Amazon for storing data and backing up files. This is ideal for employees that want to work out of the office as they can simply log in, download the files, contribute, and upload it again for the next person to work on. With cloud storage, there’s no need for a centralized office!

If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll quickly sink a ton of money into your startup and it’ll fail before it even gets a chance to start.

Have you tried some of these tips? What other tips did you use?

DJ Miller, a graduate student at the University of Tampa. He’s an avid gadget geek and spends most of his time reading or writing. He is a huge fantasy sports fan and even runs his own blog for fantasy help.

How To Start A Small Business From Your Phone

Starting your own business is exciting, invigorating, and easier than ever. These days, if you have a smartphone and a Wi-Fi connection, you can plan a startup in catering, web design, or any other industry. First, you’ll need to come up with some essential information, then you can find comprehensive apps that will help you do the work.

Put On Your Thinking Cap

To start a small business of your own, you need a great idea. Ideally, you should do something that you love, even if you have to work at it. You also need to take a look at your competition. A brand new business in a saturated market really has to work for success and it doesn’t always happen.

Say you want nothing more than to start a mail order baking business. There are tons of similar businesses, but that doesn’t mean you can’t continue with your idea. You have to make it new, fresh and give it a twist or a gimmick, but make sure the gimmick works. Don’t do something to gain attention if it won’t work for the long haul.

Come Up with the Perfect Plan

What do you hope to accomplish with your business? After you polish your idea, you need to sit down and think about how you will define your business. Come up with short-term and long-term goals, as well as details such as size, expected volume of sales and your target market.

Your business plan isn’t just for you. It also needs to contain information about viability. You have to prove that you’ve researched the market. This is essential for attracting investors and business partners. To that end, your business plan should also outline how you intend to finance your business.

Explore Education Options

You have to educate yourself. If you already have a business degree or experience, you don’t necessarily have to take classes, but brushing up never hurts. You can also take classes that relate to your big idea, such as cake decorating classes, art classes or automotive classes.

There are things you need to learn as the person behind-the-scenes as well. Learning about tax information for small businesses is invaluable. You may also want to learn how to create marketing strategies, how to choose your operations people and what to do about insurance. That way you’ll also figure out if you need to seek professional help from outside sources.

Start Downloading ASAP

Once you have your plan in order, turn to your phone. With the right apps, you’ll find you can easily start and run your business right from your BlackBerry 10. Some of the most essential apps for small business owners include:

Mint.com: which helps you keep up with your investments, bank accounts and payments
Appointment-plus: which helps you keep track of appointments and sends out reminders to reduce your no-shows
GoPayment: an essential mobile payment app and built-in card reader that will allow you to accept money straight from your phone

With a good idea, business know-how and these apps, you’re guaranteed success. How has your phone helped you manage finances or business?

About the author

DJ Miller is a graduate student at the University of Tampa. He is an avid gadget geek who spends most his time writing on anything tech related. In his spare time he likes to travel, play soccer, and watch movies. You can follow him on twitter @MillerHeWrote

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6 Innovative Technology Waves That Your Startup Can Ride to Success

The success of your startup is dependent on so many things — your employees, your investments, your business plan, and even the technology you use. That’s why you can’t neglect a single detail. So, take a look at these six innovative technology waves that your startup company needs to employ to drive success.

Geo-Positioning Technology to Target Customers by Location

Smartphones and tablets can pinpoint your location with accuracy of only a few feet away. This is because of the geo-positioning sensors in each device. The main reason people use this technology is to get real-time directions from one place to another, especially while driving. It is simple to use and so much easier to follow than a map. However, the GPS isn’t the only useful feature of geo-positioning technology. You can use this technology to your advantage in your business.

There are several things your business can do with geo-positioning technology. You can create an app that helps customers find your location and make appointments. For instance, Great Clips has an app to do this very thing. You can also register your business for the check-in games, like Gowalla and Foursquare, where customers can tell you when they visit your business and then you can reward them in various ways.

Ambitious mobile startups are always finding new and clever ways to take advantage of the smartphone GPS trend. Back in March, Apple paid a cool $20 million for WifiSlam’s indoor pinpoint location tech. There’s no question about it, geo-targeting is big business in the mobile space.

Contact Management Software to Stay Connected with Customers

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 50 percent of new businesses fail within the first five years, for various reasons. This could be because of a lack of experience, poor credit arrangements, bad location, competition, and a myriad of other issues. It could also be because the startup failed to grasp the demands of their target consumer and their expectations.

One example of this is when a new business doesn’t use contact management software or similar technology to track their customers’ data and stay organized with their customer service. Customers today expect a deeper and more intimate level of connection with their chosen brands. Social media, newsletters and notifications are a huge part of customer service. Even the startups with great products struggle if they fail to truly connect with their customers.

There are many great CRM platforms available for brand new or early stage companies. Industry giants like Microsoft CRM and SalesForce offer tiered pricing plans, cloud SaaS services and mobile apps, but they also can be very pricey and overpowered for some startups. The CRM extension Streak provides a free alternative in consumer management by giving smaller startups the tools they need without the bells and whistles offered by larger platforms.

Targeted Advertisements to Reach Customers through Online Search

A Harris Interactive Poll shows that the average U.S. adult goes on the Internet for 13 hours per week. This time is distributed between social media, email, online search, and other online tasks. This gives startups a unique opportunity to use technology to reach customers in a way they couldn’t do in the past — targeted advertising.

Both social media and search engines sell advertising space that can target virtually any demographic a startup wants to reach. This is because users allow social media sites and search engines to collect user information as part of their terms of use. This means that when you place an advertisement, it is only seen by the people you want to see it. This saves you money and helps you reach a more targeted audience. Startups that don’t take advantage of this are losing out on hundreds to thousands in sales and will have a much tougher time breaking through the clutter of their competitive niche.

Mobile Devices to Connect with Customers Anytime and Anywhere

Businesses used to be tied down to one location because desktop computers and servers were not portable, and neither were phones. This meant only doing business during the day from a typical 9:00 to 5:00. However, businesses now have the flexibility to do business wherever they want thanks to cloud computing and always-on mobile devices. These technological advancements open up your startup to customers around the world and to people that want to contact you during off business hours.

Cloud computing basically replaces traditional business servers. This is because all your business information is stored online in one secure place that can be accessed from anywhere there is an internet connection. Cloud computing also reduces the amount of down time, meaning your business can run more efficiently at a lower cost.

Mobile devices also give businesses the portability they need to serve customers. This means your employees can answer phone calls and emails, and do business from home, the park, a restaurant, or anywhere else. Thanks to the BYOD phenomenon, startup business owners have also been able to keep in contact with their consumers using their best Android tablets, ultrabooks or smartphones anywhere and at any time.

Biometric Authentication Instead of Passwords

Information security has been a growing concern ever since the Internet was launched. However, new innovation in technology is changing that. Startup businesses can now use biometric data to accurately identify returning customers. And, this can be done instead of using passwords that people always forget.

One example of this technology is on the new iPhone 6. It has a fingerprint scanner that can unlock the phone. Plus, many smartphones and tablets already use facial-recognition software. Your business can start implementing this same technology to verify customer information, which will help your customers feel secure, and happy. Adapting cutting edge tech from the ground up can also help to define your startup as a company that understands the modern consumer and differentiate from the competition.

Increased Payment Options and Rewards for Customers

Startups can also reach more customers through the Internet because they are no longer tied down by physical locations. However, some customers are reluctant to buy things on the Internet for fear of being ripped off with no transparent accountability. Technology that guarantees security is changing the way that many users think about purchasing things on the internet. For instance, you can be more transparent with your consumers by offering trusted digital payment services like PayPal, Square or PayMill in addition to the traditional credit card option. Consumers love choice, especially when it comes to their wallet!

What other types of innovative technology do you think can help startups succeed? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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4 Decisions Every Startup Should Make Before Launching

Owning and operating your own business is exhilarating. It’s a time to work as your own boss and create a successful path for yourself. Yet, starting a business is also quite daunting. While every business owner shouldn’t hold back in terms of goals or strategy, he or she should also take plenty of time to get a deep understanding of what having a business actually means. This includes all of the caveats, legal responsibilities and financial risks that come with it. Before launching your start-up, make these all-important decisions

When you have your own business, it’s tempting to simply write off everything and anything at tax time. Deciding ahead of time what to write off will eliminate any confusion from business owners and employees on what is a practical write-off, and in effect, reduce the chances of getting audited come April 15^th.

Travel, cell phone use, home office, rent and business supplies are all popular write-offs, but the important thing is to decide on a policy, and understand the regulations, up front. Preparing your taxes at the end of a new business’s first fiscal year is no joke and making the right preparations months in advance is crucial in helping owners avoid financial issues down the road.

How will you structure your business?

In the beginning stages, a decision about business structure has to be made. Ask yourself these important questions about how you’ll structure your start-up business:

Do you want to have a business partner?
How much liability do you want to have personally versus liability for your business?
Do you want yourself, and any partners, to have a lot of flexibility in the handling of the business?
How many tax liabilities do you want to be responsible for?

Depending on the answers to these questions, you might be looking at forming a Limited Liability Company, a Standard Corporation, a S-Corporation, a Professional Limited Liability Company, or something similar. Each option incurs different taxes and has its own caveats and structures. It is wise to consult professional help to see exactly which structure is right for your business.

Which banking option is for you?

In the time leading up to starting a business, it’s important to create a cushion for yourself. After all, many start-up businesses fail and it’s important to have a back-up plan or exit strategy should your business model go south. Start off by looking into the rates, yields, minimums and other options for different banking accounts. Setting up the right type of banking option can make help to alleviate some of the financial risks that come with launching a new business.

Each bank offers its own set of advantages for business owners. For example, those who choose to do online banking at Discover Bank can opt-in for various rewards and cash bonuses for making businesses expenses. By establishing a financial cushion and working with companies you trust is one of the most sure-fire ways to stay afloat in the awkward launch process.

Who will you employ?

After deciding on the industry of your business and going through the preliminary steps, it’s time to decide who you’ll hire and what those individuals will be doing. It’s a very delicate line when trying to hiring a proper amount of people to complete all tasks.

Hire too little and you risk exposing your team to over-extension leading to faster burnout and lower employee retention. Hire too many and you run the risk of confusion over responsibilities and a bloated payroll you can’t justify. The best course is to find qualified individuals for the job who you know you can trust. A few bad eggs can take down companies with even the most sound business models.

Even though launching a start-up isn’t the easiest of tasks, especially among the new information and rules that need to be learned and understood, decisions made ahead of time will make the process as simple as possible. Tasking yourself with making these important decisions from the beginning will help you draw a navigable path into the future.