Small Business Buying Guide: 9 Must-Have Tech Items For Your Business This Holiday Season
Employee gifts? Check.
Office manager gifts? Check.
Customer gifts? Check.
Looks like your business gift list is done, right? Not so fast. Why not do a little more this holiday season and give your enterprise a few presents, too?
“Most planners work hard to create a great party and the Negative Nellie ruins it for them,” laments Kearney, MO-based Suzanne Forman, who’s planned many an office party. She advises doing the best you can and don’t sweat the haters.
“There are many good reasons to check the tech during the last part of the year,” says Jason Harrison, owner of Harrison Technology Consulting LLC in Nashville, NC. “For instance, if it’s a slow period for you, installing and integrating new hardware and software are less disruptive at year-end. If a small business owner is considering moving to a different accounting or other business management solution and their fiscal year runs with the calendar year, now is the time to start planning for a 1/1/2016 start date. And all businesses can get some tax or write-off benefits from investing in tech at the end of a year.”
General Office Technology
1. Mobile Phone.Plenty of sleek and functional mobile phones have come on the market just in time for the holidays and year-end spending. Whether you use it as a mobile office or to ring up sales, a new phone gives you access to the latest apps and technology advancements.
Stay more productive on the go with a sleek mini tablet or a full-sized iPad® or Surface. Make your tablet even more convenient with a nifty stand for your desk or lap.
When you need more functionality and processing speed, you need a desktop computer. Upgrade to a Windows 10 machine and access the power you need. Get more guidelines here.
Have you checked your version numbers lately? If you’re like most small business owners, you’re probably in need of an upgrade. Payroll systems always run with the calendar year, so year-end is the perfect time to update your system or switch to a new one.
Between printing year-end reports and holiday card labels, your printer gets a workout. Buy a new unit with higher toner/ink efficiency and lower total cost of ownership.
Tune in or tune out the holiday tunes (your choice) with a streaming media device, PlugRadio or headphones.
Restaurant and Retail Technology
1. Countertop Register.You might not want to change your POS system during the holidays, but December is a great time to buy for deployment in January. That way, you start the year with an updated central cashier location that benefits from improvements in data encryption and terminal size.
Outfit your retail or restaurant tablet with an EMV-enabled mobile card reader that integrates with your POS system. Use it at the shop or restaurant to shorten checkout lines at the main register. If you don’t need the mobility, consider an EMV-enabled wireless credit card terminal, which provides the same functionality without a mobile device.
Provide even better customer service with a tablet-based self-service kiosk. Use a tablet stand or mount to place tablets on the sales floor or at tables to facilitate customer clienteling and allow diners to peruse the menu. You can even deploy tablets as signage to attract customers to sale racks or new merchandise.
But wait. There’s more! Here are three tips before you start shopping:
- Trade in your old technology to earn extra holiday cash and a gold star for diverting your tech from the landfill.
- Shop with a retailer who offers buy online/pickup in store to save time.
- Check out deals so you have more money to invest back in the business.