A company that has been functioning for several years may be stuck in their ways. Office equipment is probably in need of refurbishment or complete replacement. This is a good area for taking out a business loan or seeking additional finances. The upgrade in computerization you spend on today, will be useful in the near future. Of course, you may have employees that are leery of working with new hardware systems or learning updated forms of software. This is where having a conference, presentation or introductory class sponsored by an IT professional can be a useful tool for convincing your employees of its usefulness.
Your first step should be to do a complete analysis of how well your current equipment is working to meet the needs of your company. Computers and office machines that are in need of constant repair may not be worth repairing anymore. If you are renting your office and computer equipment, perhaps making an outright purchase of these machines from your rental company will save much needed funds later on. Where you have machines that perform duplicate functions, a consolidation of office equipment may be your first order of business.
If your office contains several machines that you either own or rent, inquire with your rental company as to whether one machine can complete all of these actions. Having a laser printer, fax machine and copy machine is no longer a requirement. There are now pieces of equipment for rent or purchase that can perform all three duties within one compact body. If each employee or office has several machines of their own, asking employees to share a printer can be implemented if need be.
Speaking with your employees is another way to make a major or minor equipment upgrade. Listen and take notes as to how they would like to work. Their input will be extremely important because they are the ones who will be using this equipment day after day on the job. If your employees would prefer to bring in their own laptop computers or mobile devices, discuss whether reimbursing them for certain supplies or bills may be an option.
As with any company upgrade, do your homework and see how you can better what you currently have in place. The equipment you now have may be suitable for a trade-in towards new office machines. If not, placing an ad to sell them can bring in additional revenue. If this is not an option, remember that your office equipment can always be donated to a non-profit group that will thank you in addition to giving you a tax deduction for next year's tax return.
Nurturing Business, Cultivating Hope
