The Net Cost Savings of Investing In Technology

Many individuals will try to stay away from spending big money because small business owners have a ton of risks to take in the game. When you are attempting to do nothing but build something from the ground up and focus on increasing sales, then it is very hard to switch to a mentality of making significant expenditures. At the same time, however, you can’t just look at the amount printed on the price tag. The most accurate way of looking at any cost is by determining what benefits and efficiencies you will get out of it. When it comes to current technology and the accompanying benefits, there could be some real value gained when you invest in better systems.

Added (Hidden) Costs of Employees

The general expenses you will shell out for a single employee is far more than an hourly wage. When you consider increased taxes, the amount of money you need to put out in order to give them equipment, buying clothes for them or reimbursing for uniforms, and even the possible legal fees and licenses, it is easy to see how your expenditures can add up. Throw in the new things you have to pay for that are constantly being added to the responsibilities of every company, and you can easily see why some employers cringe at the idea of adding additional staff. In short, adding another body might actually lose them money at first.

The positive side to this dilemma is that when you consider the increases in technology, you can track anything. You not only know where your down time is in many industries, but some apps and programs will even do everything from helping to monitor the effectiveness of your advertising and website marketing all the way down to the speeds and locations that your workers are driving. Having additional knowledge thanks to technology means you can easily spot the low hanging fruit that is ripe for the picking when it comes to both knowing and minimizing the true costs of what your people are doing.

Downtime Costs

You technically do agree to give them a salary or an hourly rate for their efforts and their work, but the expectation is that you also expect those people to provide you with their best effort. Thanks to historical data it’s not hard to assume that many personnel spend enough time getting paid to slack off, and that’s before you account for apps that can distract them like Facebook and other social media or games. To put it simply, your staff could be getting paid to sit around and do nothing.

The good news is there are literally multiple technologies and apps out there that will allow you to monitor your staff’s web habits as well as block websites that simply do not relate to work. Some may think that this isn’t a great benefit and that it could actually drive away some people. That being said, you also need to consider the root of the argument. If your workers are mad that they can’t access a website or a game while they are working, the question you should ask is this: why are the even getting mad for something unrelated to their job? When it comes to maximizing your resources, making sure that your staff isn’t bogged down with tasks that aren’t even related to work should be priority number one as it immediately frees up time that you were already paying for. This is efficiency at its finest.

Instant Communication

When it comes to increasing communication abilities, this one already makes sense. If you are using a computer and have had access to a fax machine then you know the net benefits of being able to transfer information as quickly as possible. However, you also have to remember that even physical and postal mail or landline telephones were at one time new compared to Morse code.

The fact isn’t that people are always trying new fads when it comes to communication just because they come along; the fact is that when you can get more information and get it more quickly as well as more often, helping you make better decisions. That’s exactly the reason why so many businesses are starting to switch over to new instant communication systems such as polycom video conferencing for IT by Blue Jeans. The trend shows that everyone will be moving there next, but if you can get the jump on it now then you can gain ground on the competition before everyone else can adopt the strategy.

Costs aren’t the worst thing in the world when it comes to businesses. This is simply because if you can get more out of something than what you put into it, you aren’t just spending money. You’re actually investing your resources into something better. Instead of just investing in machinery or equipment, why not invest in a quicker and more efficient way of doing things?