Planning Business for 2011? Upgrade Your Tech!

Really, upgrade your technology.  It’s important.  If you are still running XP or anything older, you need to get off your wagon and make the change.  Windows 7, the latest Apple operating system, and Linux (Ubuntu version is best) run circles around the old platforms.

The reason it makes a big difference, even if you can’t upgrade your hardware right away, is new platforms include many portals to online communications which were not previously as easily utilized.  Now don’t sit there reading this and think to yourself that you don’t need online communication!  That is crazy thinking!  Of course you do!  Realize that newspapers, magazines, and other print materials are slowly going away.  This forces advertising to change to the online platform, no matter what! In fact, we are now halfway there, and the second half of a major change is usually quicker than the first half. 

Now you are thinking that you don’t know how to use this new online stuff.  If you are thinking that, then you don’t know how to hire expertise.  As a business owner you should be hiring people who know how to use the internet, social networking, and online advertising.  They can be employees or they can be retained through service companies or hired free-lance.  Whatever it takes, get it done.  And then learn from them. 

The big upgrade is this: These new platforms run the latest software on either an XP rated hardware platform or on the latest and greatest multi-processor system.  The new software includes, sometimes for free, Cloud Computing, Social Networking, advanced Ad design software, and many more features which the older versions of Office and other suites did not include.  If you like spreadsheets, databases, and word processing, then why not have them in an environment where they are easily loaded up to your web site and transmitted more safely than before?  (If you don’t have a web site then call me, we need to have a personal chat; something about the century you live in.)  Did you know that new scanners and most software can now convert or print directly into Adobe Acrobat .pdf format?  The time savings in this one simple thing is dramatic to any business trying to communicate their products and services.  Most new office suites, like OpenOffice can convert almost any document, photo, or graphic to almost any other document.  The computing world finally has software standards which are easily shared.

Don’t waste time, upgrade.  The learning curve is shorter with the new platforms and your employees will get more work done, and so will you. 

While you are at it, expand your business by doing much more online.  You should be able to just about double your business by doing the right things on the internet.