subject: How To Choose The Best Software For Your Business [print this page] If you're self-employed, most likely you're the one who's responsible for running your company. As the decision-maker in a small business, odds are that you can identify what your biggest assets are. Your biggest assets are time and money, in that order. A lot of people like to think that the best tool is the one that will save them money, but if said tool is taking you three times as long to use and implement, there's a great chance that you're actually not saving money.
A good piece of software is the one that efficiently allows you to manage both these assets. Ideally, you're looking for software that allows you to save money because it's competitively priced, and allows you to save time because it's written well enough for you to accomplish tasks in a fraction of the time it used to take. Then you can be both effective (you get the job done), and efficient (the job is done at the lowest possible cost).
Because of their small size, many businesses only have a handful of employees to carry out the day-to-day stuff. We're referring to activities such as accounting, payroll, inventory management, billing, marketing, and other financial priorities that come up naturally as you conduct business. In the end, everybody ends up being pretty much a jack of all trades, simply because there's just not enough resources to get the job done. If the company only has four or five employees, they're constantly moving from one area to the other, and therefore cannot perform to the best of their abilities because they're not playing to their strengths.
A lot of times, entrepreneurs have excellent business models. But they're entrepreneurs, and their set of skills doesn't exactly lend itself to being good managers. They lack the skills that are needed to run the day-to-day operations of a business. They're good at coming up with ideas that will help the business go further, and at identifying what needs to be done to put together those ideas. At this point, they need software to help patch their weaknesses. Software will help both the boss and the employees in carrying out their day-to-day tasks, so the business can be as profitable as possible.
Using software to help with day-to-day tasks is one of the best decisions you can make as a business owner. No matter the area where the software is needed, there's a number of factors that you need to pay attention to, in order to make sure that your money will be well spent.
Complexity of the software. You're looking for something that will not take long for employees to master. If it takes too long, that software ends up costing you money instead of saving you money because that employee could have been doing something productive while they're learning to use the software. Or, it takes them longer to do something using the software, than it did before.
Required updates. The software should be updated on a regular basis, but without it having to disrupt your business. You should also get a certain package of updates for a set price.
Level of customer service. When you're facing a problem while using the software, you should be able to reach someone quickly, who's qualified to help you get the software back in working condition as quickly as possible.
Price of the program in relation to your budget and the cost for maintenance and updating the software. This is all about choosing something that's right for the size of your business. It makes no sense to go for something expensive, with all the bells and whistles, if you're only going to use 10% of its capabilities.
Extra components to run it, including extra employees. Will you need to upgrade your existing hardware? Will you need to hire someone to use it? Will you need to train them? Will you have to contract with an outside firm?
Before investing in a piece of software, be aware of your company's needs. Research the various products available to meet those needs using the points mentioned above. Choose the best product for your budget and for the size of your company. This will help your company's profitability in ways you may not even imagine today.
