Run Your Business for £13.25 per Month
Well, if truth be told there is a little more to it than that, but the attention grabbing title does highlight how simply (and cheaply) one can set up and run your business these days. This applies to both large and small companies and, in fact, levels the playing field by allowing small companies access to enterprise level technology. Certainly if I was setting up a business today, I would start very differently....
Capital Costs
Simple really - each staff member would require a PC or laptop, a phone and an internet connection. Oh, and maybe a printer.
Running Costs
Here’s what I would do;
Use Office 365
Microsoft’s Office 365 can provide all the tools to enable you to work efficiently and effectively:
Office suite - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook.
Email - fully featured business class email with shared calendaring and a 25GB mailbox.
Communication - Lync allows you to stay in contact with staff and clients alike with presence management and instant communication.
Document management - store and collaborate securely online, from anywhere.
Cost £13.25 per user per month
That’s the basics covered. Hardware to work on, software to do your job - it’s really very simple. With the above tools you could set up and run a business for very little capital outlay and you would be a lot better placed to communicate and collaborate with your fellow staff than many existing businesses.
Once we got past the basics I would also use the following facilities. All are still subscription based, paid for monthly per user, lowering capital expenditure and allow the business to grow easily as required.
VOIP Telephony
Access fully featured, big business telephone exchange call services. Flexible, cost effective and scalable, VOIP telephony is available on 30 day rolling contracts. More details here.
Cost from £8.50 per user per month.
It is recommended to install a separate broadband line for VOIP.
BrightPearl Business Software
Customer information, financials, invoicing and marketing all in one simple, online system. Brightpearl allows you to navigate between all aspects of client interaction, is accessible from anywhere and you only pay for concurrent users. Brightpearl also provides eCommerce facilities. More details here.
Cost from £39 per concurrent user per month