5 Steps To Setting Up Your Own Small Business Office

Starting a business can be exciting. The thrills of finding new customers, seeing revenue growth and the occasional falls can be quite adventurous. However, one of the more boring aspects is setting up your office. Besides the legal paperwork, setting up the infrastructure for your business can be a daunting task. Thanks to technology, this process has now become simpler. Here is a 5 step process to get your own small business office started.

Set Up The Hardware

Computers are ubiquitous at the workplace today and setting them up is one of the first things that you should be doing for your own office. Depending on your budget, you can either buy brand new PCs or get used computers. Since you will be buying several computers, avoid the regular retailers and instead try procuring it directly from the wholesaler. Depending on where you are located, it may be illegal for a wholesaler to directly deal with a end customer. In such cases, take the discussions through a reseller. Regardless of whom you approach, be ready to negotiate hard. If you are someone buying several computers in one payment, you should be asking for heavy discounts. If you are a very small business and do not want to take in the hassle of hardware setup right away, look at BYOD as an alternative. In these cases, businesses ask employees to bring their own devices and only pay for the software setup.

Set Up The Communication Infrastructure

Once you have the computers ready, the next step is to set up the communication infrastructure ready. This not only includes telephone lines, but also the internet and tele-communication lines, if required. Of late, Unified Communications as a Service is becoming increasingly popular. In this, all communication platforms are outsourced to a third party service provider who then offers these solutions as a service through an internet line. If you are in North America, then check out the business internet offers from AllStream since they are one of the leading UCaaS providers in the region.

Set Up The Software Tools

The third step in the set up process is installing the various software and application that is required to run your day-to-day operations. Thankfully, many times, the software applications come out of the box on Microsoft Office. If not, you may pick to buy one of Microsoft Office or Google Docs. Besides them, most small businesses may require to set up applications to manage ERP, CRM and their help desk. With cloud based tools, this process is extemly simple since modern day ERP, CRM and help desk applications may be accessed over the cloud much like popular email tools like Gmail or Hotmail. Some of the popular providers to consider are Zoho, SalesForce and Zendesk.

Set Up Email & Website

The penultimate step in getting started on your small business is to set up your emails and websites. To do this, you will need to find the right domain name and install your website on a web host. These things can be quite complicated for a small business owner who is not tech-savvy. Most of the major hosting services like Hostgator and GoDaddy offer an umbrella service that includes domain registration, website setup, website builder and email setup as part of their offerings. Go through the major providers and pick one depending on your budget and the hosting provider should be able to set your basic site and email for you.

Set Up Various Department Tools

The final step to getting started on your business is to set up the tools for your various departments. For instance, your sales team might require you to set up a Google Adwords account, your accounting team will need you to set up a QuickBooks account while your Human Resources might want a Monster account. Now while starting up, you may be the person responsible for most of these tasks. Regardless of this, it is recommended to set the systems up for all these if you see a need for it. This makes it easy to outsource or delegate responsibilities to others as and when needed without the need to learn the process at that time when you are busy with the daily operations.