Shoestring Technology Project

Shoestring Technology Project

Building my own business and helping others with theirs, I have found the need for the Shoestring Technology Project.  I want to help microbusinesses (businesses with less than 5 employees) with their technology needs.  There is information for small businesses, but it doesn’t seem relevant, because microbussinesses don’t have the employees, money or the need for large systems.  Then there are a lot of books that focus on one particular aspect, Quickbooks, Facebook etc., but it doesn’t give you other options or tell you how it works with other programs.  The information is disorganized and unconnected.

A lot of the technology today is simple to use, but does it fill your need?  Are you overspending because you aren’t aware of a particular resource?  Are you doing time consuming work, because you don’t know what products, free or paid, can do the same thing? Due to this issue, I want to create a resource center that helps you determine the technology options for your business.    But I need your help.  I have a solid background in technology and know the options out there, but I need to know more about you and your business to find the right solutions. I want to know about anything related to technology and your business. First, I would like to get to know you and your business better?  What do you do?  Why?  As for the technology aspect,  I am focusing on three categories: the office (administrative), marketing and financials.

• The Office: Did you buy a specific computer, phone, printer, etc for the office?  What about software?  If so, why did you choose it (i.e. price, the features)?  How do you store your files, computer or cloud?  Do you back up your data?
• Marketing: What medium do you do your marketing in? Social media? Print? Email? Online ads?  What about your website? Do you have one? Did you build it?  Did you get someone else to do it? Was it too expensive
• Financials: What do you use for your books?  Do you like it?  Why, why not?  How about taxes? Payroll? Point of sale systems? Inventory?

The bottom line of what I want to know is how you decided on the technology to run your business? Did you create a technology plan?  What works really well (your brilliant hack) and what do you want to do more efficiently (your most time consuming or annoying task)?  What lessons did you learn in terms of technology?  What do you do yourself and what do you hire out? Why?

Please feel free to email me at breanna@digitalnativescoach.com with your answers.  This blog is where I will be posting the information I learn along the way.  And by January, you can attend the first Shoestring Technology Project. Thank you for your valuable input,

Breanna