Recession? How can technology help?
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**ANNOUNCEMENT** Postage will increase AGAIN in May 08'!
It appears that we are heading for some form of economic downturn and one of the best strategies is to reduce operating costs and improve your bottom line - e-Business Methods can really help. Probably the #1 area of low hanging fruit; the quickest and the simplest ROI is to convert to e-invoicing and expand your your usage of communcating electronically versus using snail mail (postage).
The best news is that 75% of small businesses already have the technology to do that...they just need someone to help show them. QuickBooks is by far the #1 accounting software product sold and used by small businesses and the capability to do e-Invoicing is already built-in and integrated with the various features such as: GL, AR, P&L, etc. You can even load your own logo on the e-invoices. The ovall savings per item mailed will vary but when you add in: postage, envelope, printing (paper & ink), equipment usage, labor/time and the best of all is that it removes the excuse of "it must have got lost in the mail...please resend". The potential savings could range from $.40 - $1.75 per item mailed, maybe even more. When you watch the nickles & dimes, the dollars do add up.
The #2 area of low hanging fruit is e-Faxing, whether send or receiving. There is a wide variety of software products on the market ranging from X to x and one of the most popular is the savings come from multiple directions: No paper used, including the unwanted faxes; ink, labor/time to retrieve and or send, storage of the document & searching and finding the document later and so on. It is not unusual to obtain a ROI for the software in 6 months or less. The only peeble in the path is when you have a hard copy document (no e-format) and MUST fax to someone. There are a variety of ways to address this and the top 2 are: use a scanner to convert the hard copy into an e-formated document; or fax it to them. The newer All-N-One Printer-Copier-Fax- Scanner works great for about $150 and can also cut your overall electricity costs helping you "think green" and hug a tree.
The missing ingredient is the knowledge and that is where having someone show you how and set things up for you so that is a simple click & go...are well worth the investment.
There are oodles of other ways & areas that technology canhelp reduce operating costs and better prepare your business & bottom line if you start looking and just get started. The sooner you do the ROI clock starts and can last a long time.
