Making your business fly is something every founder wants. Regardless of whether you're an app developer, designer or craftsman, for most startups it's true that you can't do it without professional IT. It starts with phone and email, moves on to legally compliant file storage, and ends with CRM, inventory control or store systems. But what founder has time to take care of IT procurement on top of all the administrative stuff, productive work, and appointments with business partners?? With this tip list, you can find the right technology for your business even with a small time budget.
Don't think in features and products, define the problem first
Advising founders and SMEs on what IT suits them is a big part of my day job. Prospective customers often come in with specific product ideas. Then I ask first: what outcome do you want to achieve with this? And what does your concrete workday look like??
Here's a real-world example: a young entrepreneur is on the road a lot and wants to be able to be reached on his cell phone at his landline number, too. He wanted us to provide him with a call forwarding solution. However, the consultation showed that he is almost without exception in the greater Hamburg area is active. If you're mainly out on the town, routing can be solved more cost-effectively via mobile data with a voice-over-IP app on your smartphone. This saved our client the referral costs.
If you already think in terms of features or concrete products, you are already going one step too far. First, you should be clear about what problems actually need to be solved. Ideally you also think about it in a team. "Playing mind games" leads to the goal more quickly than if an individual takes on the topic and thinks about it in private. This is exactly where startups can leverage their agility as an organization.
Set priorities
This is closely related to the first point. Once you're clear on what problem you need to solve, you'll prioritize almost automatically. To pick up the example from above: Perhaps the VoIP app will be enough for you in the beginning. Later, as you expand your business to the surrounding areas, or as your team grows, you might install a phone system.
In the beginning, often only the three most important problems need to be solved. Requirement four and five can wait another year. If you set priorities, you will not only save time, but also money.
Pick up the phone and ask your Chamber of Commerce business incubator
The Internet holds a thousand and one pieces of information on IT, but that can also be a problem: Who processes it all? Is what it says true for my specific case as well?
Founders burn far too much time researching information – about the right information technology, suitable financing or accounting. Yet, it's much more effective to just pick up the phone and ask an expert. For example, at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The experts there are there to help you. By the way, initial information is usually free of charge.
If you don't know much about IT, get an expert to do it for you
Sometimes you may need more advice – which will, legitimately, cost money. Consider whether this investment is worth it. What's the point of researching for hours and still being none the wiser in the end. This is the time you could have put into your product.
Cashout is sometimes cheaper in the end than doing everything yourself. You don't order a loan or an insurance policy out of the blue, with a few halfway suitable answers from who-knows-what and forums up your sleeve.
Here, too, I refer you to the IHK: The incubators work in all kinds of topics, including IT, with experts who pass on their knowledge to startups as founder coaches – often at reduced hourly rates.
Rent instead of buy, cloud instead of license
You've figured out your problems and requirements, prioritized, and maybe talked to an expert on the phone – now it's time to do the actual procurement. There are pitfalls here, too: because wrongly chosen IT can turn out to be a cost trap, so always read the fine print: what features exactly are you buying and for how long? What if your company grows or shrinks?? What happens to your data when you want to quit?
IT licensing models are rigid: they have fixed contract terms and notice periods. Licenses are device and/or user dependent. Licensing models are not made for rapidly changing startup conditions.
IT from the cloud is more flexible: a CRM, for example, no longer has to be licensed for one year and five users. From the cloud, for monthly rent, cancelable at any time, the software grows with your company, in terms of users and in terms of features.
Tax advantage: Founders should keep another advantage of cloud-based rental models in mind: Due to monthly running costs, IT becomes a business expense and can be claimed one hundred percent against tax, whereas license models or hardware purchases can only be written off.
Conclusion: Get clear on yourself and then ask professionals.
What startups have almost less of than money is time. Laptops, cloud solutions or communication software – you can't just order all of that. The market is overflowing with offers. Hardly any founders are IT professionals. It doesn't work without a major research effort.
If you can't or don't want to invest this time, make a plan, think about what problems IT has to solve for you. And then ask people who know about it.
About the author:
Marten Krull studied business administration in a dual training program. From the beginning, IT played a big role in his professional career. So as a sales manager at IPD NOW, he can advise on finance, taxes and law, as well as on technical tools.
IPD NOW works in two steps. First, start-ups click together their desired IT online from a construction kit. In the second step, Marten Krull and his team advise these prospects on which products best fit their needs.