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Clue #4 - Buy No Less Than You
Need
Buying too little, like buying too much, will always
cost you money. A small business whose web site or email go offline
for a few hours a month will lose business through poor customer
service and a flaky reputation.
Equally, packages that constrain you and do not
let you easily add as the need arises are false economy. If your
site is down, or you can’t access your email, what is the
impact on your productivity and reputation? If you add a team member
but can’t add a new email account for them easily, or update
your web pages quickly, what is the lost opportunity?
Given this, there are four key steps that you can
take:
- Don’t commit to the cheapest package if it doesn’t
meet your existing and future requirements. You may end up paying
more to change it than what you paid for the package itself.
- Ensure that your email and web are hosted in a quality environment,
which is typically a data centre specifically built for this requirement.
- Protect your reputation, and make sure your Internet environment
is backed up, is robust 24x7, and has guarantees to prove it.
- Make sure you can upgrade quickly and easily without
penalty.
A well run business is one that has the right tools for the job.
Your people can do their job, and the systems just work. Nobody
wastes time trying to get out of constraining packages, and your
Internet environment can grow with you.
In this brief recommendation, we have suggested that buying too
little can be as wasteful as buying too much. Small businesses need
a robust environment, and one that can change as they do. Providers
that can not offer a robust environment will end up costing you
money. Packages that don’t give you flexibility will likewise
end up being expensive.
Write down what really matters. Assess the cost
of having your web site or your email down for a few hours, and
the cost of not being able to add email accounts or change them
as you need. Then, shop for a provider that provides you the best
flexibility at the best price, and don’t buy the cheapest
package if it doesn’t meet your requirements.
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