Getting high tech in business has never been cheaper

For anyone wanting to start a business, there is no better time from the perspective of cost. Thanks to the booming economy of China, the production of most electronic consumer goods, like PC’s, has moved offshore. Dell, Acer, Gateway, even IBM computers, all bear the label “made in China” now. It is now possible to have a fully equipped, computerized office, with a powerful PC, 17” flat panel monitor, and color multifunction printer, the whole package costing south of $1000. A color laser printer, which only 5 years ago cost $6000 or more, can now be had for under $500.

When it comes to software, the news is even better – most of it is free these days. Except for Microsoft, which has managed to buck the trend and still charge exorbitantly for its software, it is now possible to obtain nearly all your essential software tools off the ‘net for zero cost. Even the cost of internet is cheap, so setting up an office is significantly less expensive than it would have been ten years ago, I would venture to guess one tenth as expensive.

With ubiquitous internet everywhere, suddenly there are an endless variety of online services that can also save money. Online banking, online recruiting, online payroll are all easy-to-use, cost-reducing services. Services like Vertical Response and Intellicontact provide sophisticated marketing tools for as little as $10 p/month. One of my customers brought to my attention a service she uses called Virtual Assistant, which is a contracted employee who does computer tasks from a home computer. The virtual assistant concept makes a great deal of sense – a worker that you use only when needed, a worker that does not need to be supplied with a computer or workspace, who invoices only for work done (no payroll hassles), a worker that does not need to be provided benefits. The virtual assistant can work from any town, or indeed any country. Virtual assistants are not paid for cigarette breaks, sick days, powder days, whatever, and can be fired and replaced without hassle. My customer claims that virtual assistants are a higher caliber worker because they don’t need to be trained to use computers; this is a given. Virtual assistants usually have an entrepreneurial mindset too – if they aren’t good at their work, they won’t have any. The virtual assistant enjoys many benefits too – no commute, no transportation costs, no micro-managing boss; it’s a perfect fit for a stay-at-home parent. I just love win/win ideologies.

Most big businesses use Microsoft Exchange in conjunction with Microsoft Outlook and Blackberry devices. To set this up used to be very expensive because it involved the installation of dedicated file servers, expensive operating systems, expensive backup solutions, and expensive professional installation and configuration. Exchange Server systems usually require a full time IT staff to keep it humming along, and any downtime will cripple a company, as it strikes at the very heart of its communications. This type of system has also become virtualized, and now it is possible to use Exchange with a Hosted Exchange provider like AppRiver; all the server equipment and IT staff are already in place, and the user can “rent” Exchange on a monthly basis for as little as $20 p/month, and enjoy most of the same benefits as big corporations with deep pockets.