When it comes to the IT infrastructure of your business, how do you determine how much you should be spending? For small and medium-sized business owners these days, the cloud computing paradigm presents an opportunity to drastically reduce IT budgets, but it could be argued that many companies go too far in this regard.
You Always Get What You Pay For
Let’s say you own and operate a hotdog cart in Victorville. An adequate IT infrastructure for such an operation would be an Internet-connected smartphone and a Twitter profile; such a minimal setup may run you about $30 per month and should be enough to promote your business and offer minimal customer service.
Don’t Ignore Your Competition
You may feel like a pretty smart businessperson when you look at rival hotdog carts and food trucks that have lavish websites, several social media accounts, and fancy mobile devices that allow them to process credit and debit card payments. You can safely estimate that their IT spending is probably five times greater than yours.
Listen to IT Experts
If you want straight answers about why your business peers are spending more than you on computers and other IT solutions, talk to IT service providers. If you are not sure about what your initial setup and investment should be, ask about solutions that can be quickly scalable. If you choose to go cheap on IT, you may not be able to operate your business to its full potential, and you may never see a chance to grow and expand.
