Business budgeting is a very important part of running a business, regardless of whether you are a startup or an established company operating for years. Creating a budget is not a problem for most business owners. The challenge is sticking to the budget as the business grows and the spending expands.
If you are like many owners of small and medium-sized businesses, you probably focus on the services and products you need when making a projection of your business expenses, which is what you should do. However, do you also consider the hidden costs of all these services and products? Are you even aware that many vendors today charge these hidden costs to unsuspecting business owners?
If you don’t regularly assess your purchases for these hidden costs, there’s a good chance that you are spending far more than you should be. You might go over your allotted budget. This mistake can have implications for your business.
To bring down spending, many companies resort to the solution of laying employees off, believing that a smaller payroll can help the business get back on track financially. Unfortunately, cutting down on your workforce will increase the load of your remaining staff, which can then lead to stress, job dissatisfaction, and reduced performance.
Loans are a quick fix for any financial problem, but they can have heavy long-term consequences. If you get a loan with high repayment terms, it might eventually lead to even greater financial problems for your business.
As hidden costs eat away at your business funds, you and your employees will naturally try to curb the spending. In doing so, you will inadvertently take people away from the jobs that you hired them to do. Your employees’ focus will need to be split between their actual duties and trying to solve the problems with business budgeting. The result of this would be much lower productivity.
Besides the blatant overcharging of some vendors, there are a few other sources of hidden costs that all business owners should know.
Most business startups run on borrowed funds. If you have taken out a loan to help you establish your business, you need to include the interest on this loan in your business budget. You will also need to be very responsible for repaying such loans on time. Otherwise, the interest cost will increase and might take a heavy toll on your business funds.
In business budgeting, many new business owners make the mistake of accounting only for their employees’ salaries. They do not consider the employees’ benefits, which they will also need to grant.
No business owner expects to pay legal fees because no one wants to be involved in a lawsuit. But if these problems happen, you need to allocate funds for this in your budget.
If you were an employee in the past, your company automatically deducted taxes from your salary. Now that you are a business owner, you will still need to pay taxes, and you will have to compute these on your own. If you forget to consider this in your business budgeting, you might be short on funds, and could even have problems with the IRS.
Staying within your budget can be a tough challenge with all the hidden expenses some vendors charge. To ensure that you do not spend more than you need to, you can use this business hidden expense calculator. This tool will reveal which services or products come with extra charges that you don’t need to pay. Once you are aware of these costs, you can plan your spending more efficiently and start saving valuable funds for your business. If you have any other questions, please contact us any time.
Doing business in this digital era comes with many advantages, thanks to the developments brought about by new technology. But this same technology also brings a new breed of threats that could have negative implications, from minor inconveniences to serious security risks.
You can install an antivirus program and take safety precautions to protect your business. This precaution is for anyone who wants to stay protected from viruses and other digital threats. However, the online environment is rife with potential threats that easily penetrate basic anti-malware programs.
Just think about it. How many email advertisements have you received in your inbox this month alone? Probably dozens, right? You don’t even need to open these emails, but if you accidentally click on even one of them, it will expose your system to other online threats and compromise the security of your business.
Of course, the scenario we mentioned above is just a very mild example. Hackers these days are remarkably creative and aggressive in their strategies. Some hackers will steal your valuable data and destroy your business with just a few clicks, especially if you do not have a proper IT security system.
If you do not defend your business with a reliable security system, you put your entire organization at risk and give cybercriminals an open invitation to infiltrate your network. Here are some potential problems you might face if you don’t invest in proper IT security for businesses.
While your employees are online, they can unintentionally pick up malware from the websites they visit or the links they click on. These malicious programs can easily attach themselves to your system and infect it.
With information stored digitally, it is easy for hackers to steal personal and financial information, either for selling to others or for personal use. If your system is weakly protected, your employees might suddenly find themselves locked out of their workstations or discover that hackers have wiped their bank accounts clean.
Viruses, worms, Trojans, and other malware can cause damage that causes your website to go down. You might recover with the help of an IT professional, but the hours or even minutes you have lost while you were offline can cause a massive loss of revenue for your business. Some malicious programs can have long-lasting implications that can drastically pull down the performance of your business.
Certain viruses can attack even the most powerful servers. Even if you don’t fall victim to cyberattacks, the gradual deterioration of your computers’ speed and performance will significantly reduce the productivity of your employees. This issue can lead to a decline in their job satisfaction and cause problems for your business.
An easy yet effective preventive solution to all these problems is to implement the right strategies for your IT security. Work closely with your IT provider or a managed service provider who specializes in IT security for businesses to get the best results.
The solution will begin with a comprehensive IT security audit where your MSP will thoroughly assess your IT infrastructure and check for vulnerabilities in your network. After this, they will create a custom security solution that fits your business requirements perfectly.
In our on-demand webinar, we discuss how we can help improve the IT security of your business. Click here to register for the webinar, where you will also discover the many ways that a managed service provider can positively impact your business. Or, if you have any other questions, please contact us any time.
The cloud network for businesses is a new development. While widely used today, before it came into existence, many businesses had to make do with the limited in-house resources that were available. If you have not yet signed up for a cloud network for businesses, you are probably experiencing these limitations that can hold your business back.
Business growth and success are the primary goals of any business owner. If you want your business to grow, you will usually have to hire more people, invest in more advanced IT infrastructure, buy more complex equipment, and allocate more resources for the different operations of your business. But doing this will require massive funding that most small business owners do not have. Fortunately, the cloud network for businesses has come to the rescue. Let’s look at the following scenarios.
When you rely solely on your own company’s resources, you will have no choice but to buy all the software and hardware that you will need for your business operations. We all know how expensive these products can be, but you will have no choice but to buy them if you want your business to grow and succeed.
Whenever IT issues arise within your business, your in-house staff will have to take time off from their regular duties to address the problems. IT might not even be their specialty, so there is no guarantee that they can resolve the situation. It reduces their productivity because they won’t be able to focus on their core responsibilities.
Software and hardware both need regular upgrading so your business can keep up with the rest of the industry. But installing these upgrades takes a long time, perhaps a couple of hours or more than a day. During these periods, your business will essentially be on hold. And this creates a hassle for your employees and customers.
Traditional business setups require employees to be tied to their desks for the entire business day because everything they need is on their workstations. If you assign one of your employees to work in the field, for instance, they might have to wait until they get back to the office before being able to access their data.
These scenarios present an assortment of issues that can drastically limit the performance of your business. While the cited situations are very different, we can improve them with a single solution: cloud computing. If this is an unfamiliar concept to you, there is no need to worry. Your IT provider can give you a thorough overview and assist you in getting a custom cloud solution for your business.
A cloud network for businesses costs very little compared to purchasing all the needed software and hardware. You will enjoy the most advanced IT tools for a modest monthly fee. It can also maximize your employees’ productivity. With the right network in place, you will no longer have to pull your staff from their regular duties to fix IT problems.
Upgrades for software and hardware will still be necessary, but with a cloud network, these upgrades will only take a few minutes. Most of the time, you won’t even notice that an update has taken place because the cloud service provider will handle it all for you.
If you want to find out more about the advantages that you can get from cloud networks for businesses and from working with a managed services provider, tune in to our on-demand webinar. This webinar will enlighten you on the benefits of cloud computing and its positive impacts on your customers and staff. You can contact us anytime!
Mobile phones have evolved tremendously in recent years and now have many powerful features never seen in previous phone systems. Many businesses rely on mobile phones as vital tools in business operations, and some have ditched their phone lines completely in favor of mobile devices. But is this the best decision? Have business phone systems become irrelevant or even obsolete?
The value of modern communication systems is incontestable. But this doesn’t mean that traditional business phone systems are no longer needed. Let’s look at some of their main uses for modern businesses.
Business phone systems remain in place because they allow multiple phone functions to integrate into one efficient hub, making them easy to manage.
Conventional features like call forwarding, call screening, and call logs are staples of all business phone systems. In addition, we can seamlessly integrate them with some of the most popular online tools, like Google Apps, Microsoft Outlook, or your helpdesk application.
Compared with conventional phone systems and their high maintenance costs, modern business phone systems are very cost-effective. From installation to operation, maintenance to updates, modern phone systems are incredibly affordable.
Another plus for modern phone systems is that they are completely scalable. You don’t have to worry much about how many phones you need or which features to install. Modern business phone systems expand as your business grows. If you need to cut back, it is easy to eliminate the units and features that are no longer useful for your business. This way, you don’t get stuck paying for services you don’t need.
Despite the many advantages that modern business phone systems offer, some traditionalists still think they are an extravagance. They stuck with their old phone systems, believing that they were still serving them well in the modern business age. Unfortunately, this loyalty might lead to several problems for your business and your employees.
Without a proper business phone system, it’s hard to keep business and personal communications separate. Using your mobile phone number for business calls might sound practical, but it won’t be long before this practice takes a toll on your private life. Business associates will reach you even while you’re away from the office or vacationing with your family.
On the flip side, losing or misusing mobile phones is bad for business. If you lose your mobile phone used for business calls, critical business data might be at risk. With a proper business phone system installed, we can easily separate business and personal calls with simple automation and forwarding settings. And it can store business data as needed.
If you do not have a modern business phone system in place, your clients will only be able to call you during your business hours. If your business closes at 5 pm, your customers will have to wait until the morning to call you back.
While some clients might wait for someone to answer, others will move on to the next open shop and do their business there. The lack of a business phone system can cost you many potential customers.
These are a few ways it will limit your business if you do not have a proper business phone system installed. Fortunately, the solution is simple. All you need to do is get in touch with us and ask about a custom phone solution that fits the specific needs of your business.
Each business is unique, so there are no one-size-fits-all business phone systems. As your IT provider, we will assess your needs and provide you with the exact phone system that you need.
To learn more about the benefits of a proper business phone system, you can check out our on-demand webinar where we talk about how managed services providers can help you with your business communication system requirements. And, as always, please let us know if you have any questions.
For your business to grow and develop, there is one thing that absolutely must happen, and that is change. If things remain the same, there will be no growth. A business needs to be dynamic to evolve and continue the path toward long-term success. Technology is the key to such growth.
Depending on the nature of the change, it can come with a lot of excitement, hope, anticipation, or perhaps worry and dread. In any case, a business change brings several challenges, especially now when we are still amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has taken the world hostage.
Let’s look at some of the more challenging changes that businesses are going through two years after the onset of the pandemic.
Setting up a brand-new branch of your business in a new location is a sign of progress. It can dramatically increase your customer base, improve sales, and bring in more revenue. But the process is not always smooth sailing. Finding local sources for the supplies you need is one of the first tasks you should accomplish. This task includes everything from construction materials for your new buildings to all the merchandise and raw materials you need to run your business.
Being in a new location, it is likely that you are not yet familiar with the surrounding businesses. It might take time and effort to scour the area for the best materials. Also, the pandemic has made procurement much more challenging, with more stringent requirements along the way. But if you work with a reliable MSP, we can help you with these tasks, and you can focus on the other core tasks in expanding your business.
During the onset of the pandemic, many businesses had to downsize or undergo a reshuffling of employees to stay afloat. Now that industries are slowly getting back to normal, many companies are fine-tuning their office needs. Saving money by downsizing office space has helped many businesses stay open.
With a competent IT provider, employees can access everything they need, regardless of where they are.
As technology advances, businesses should regularly upgrade their hardware and software. This step will keep them ahead of their competitors. But business equipment can be expensive. Therefore, many business owners might choose to keep using their outdated machinery instead of purchasing the newer models. But what most do not realize is that this attempt to cut expenses will lead to reduced business productivity and lower profits, ultimately becoming more costly in the long run.
Change is necessary if you want your business to grow. During these transitions, you’ll need to have a trusty IT provider who can make the process easier, more efficient, and less disruptive to the overall flow of your business. We might just be the partner you need to help your business grow and succeed!
We understand that businesses have many expenses. We also understand that expenses can sometimes be tricky to track and forgotten. You may be forgetting about the hidden expenses. That’s why we have built a Business Excessive Spending Calculator for you so that you can see exactly where those hidden costs may be. If you want to go a step further, hit submit once you are done calculating because we may be able to help alleviate some of those hidden costs. Download your free calculator here.
