Published September 19, 2017 | Updated March 2, 2023
Struggling with the cost of staying current with business technology? On the one hand, you can’t afford to fall behind in a rapidly changing marketplace. On the other, it can be hard on your budget to keep up, especially with rising inflation and the competitive challenges your business is now facing.
That’s why it’s so important to make the most out of every tech dollar you spend. Here are five things to keep in mind before you take the technology plunge:
- Think usage, not ownership. Paying in full to own technology saddles you with a quickly depreciating asset. By financing it, you pay less for more capability, with no asset management hassles.
- Put your resources where your money is. What are your most profitable products and services? Concentrate your technology investments there to drive revenue that allows you to upgrade other areas later.
- Spend enough, but not too much. Aim for the sweet spot between paying too much for capabilities you’ll never use and the false savings of buying budget technology that will become obsolete too quickly.
- Don’t move too fast, but don’t move too slow, either. Think twice about bleeding-edge technology, which makes you pay a premium to be a beta tester. Wait until the hype dies down a little to get a clearer picture of the technology’s value to your business.
- Picture it old while it’s still new. It’s hard to think about replacements for shiny new tech you just got. But it will happen. What’s your upgrade plan? If you finance, do your terms make it easy to upgrade? If you pay to own, do you have ready access to the secondary market to recoup some of your investment?
