If you have taken the Introduction to Entrepreneurship: Financing and Marketing a Business course as a precursor to this course, you learned about finance options available to your business. Although you selected one option, you will want to continue to explore other options, as they may change throughout the growth of your business. Other small business owners may be able to provide you with additional advice that may prove helpful.
This lesson explores the link between technology and the small business. Small businesses have limited dollars to invest in expensive technology. Therefore, identifying your specific technology needs and choosing the right technology are extremely important. This lesson will help you determine what types of technologies will be important to your business venture.
This activity explores your familiarity with technology that is used in business. From a simple letter to a complex spreadsheet to a complicated point of sale device, technology is all around.
If you have worked for businesses in the past, create a list of all of the technologies that you have used in past jobs. What did each of the technologies do? How did they contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the business?
If you have not worked in a business, ask someone you know what types of technologies that he or she has used in a business setting. This will help you think through the types of technology required to effectively and efficiently manage a business today.
Recommendation: Capture your responses to the "Check Prior Knowledge" activities and other various exercises presented in this course in a journal or notebook. Since many of these activities and exercises will not be turned in to your instructor, you should capture the information in one place. By writing this information down and reviewing it, you will begin to see themes emerge that will help you as you complete the course.
Official Course Competencies
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
Key Terms
As you read your assignment for this lesson, pay close attention to the key terms and phrases that are listed throughout the lesson. These terms and concepts are important to your understanding of the information provided in the lesson.
Every company, large or small, uses technology. Technology generates both efficiencies and effectiveness in a business that can ultimately create a competitive advantage. Therefore, technology planning must be a part of the business planning process. For every business process that saves money or time, engages customers, protects the company, or improves quality, the entrepreneur must ask, "What technology will be the most efficient for this process?" "What technology will be easiest for me and my employees to use?" Technology is used in many small business functions so it is important to get the right technology in place to do the right work with the right financial investment. You will look at a variety of hardware and software options used in small business today.
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Note: If you are not familiar with business technology, your instructor highly recommends that you go through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Learning Center's Business Technology Simplified Certificate in the Online Training Center. It comes with a downloadable book and a certificate. You can find it on the SBA Web site. |
Many software, hardware, and application options are available to entrepreneurs today, and there are just as many salespeople to sell them to a technology novice. Before you make a purchase, you will want to plan every aspect of the technology you need to run your business. If planned out in detail, you may find a bundle that you can purchase that ensures all of your hardware (computers/printers/monitors, etc.), software (Word processing, spreadsheets, document management, presentations, etc.), and applications (inventory, human resources, customer loyalty, etc.) work together. If you are not familiar with the technology options, be sure to consult a trusted technology advisor. You want technology that runs your business today and that can expand or upgrade as your business grows. Walking through each part of your business process will inform the technology you need in each area.
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For Example |
Your planning document might look like this:
Business Process |
Description of Process |
Technology Needs |
---|---|---|
Customer service/sales |
Customer checkout station in the store |
Point of sale system/software <vendor name> |
Inventory management |
Sale items need to be logged into the inventory system and then taken out of inventory when sold |
Point of sale system/software <vendor name> |
Customer retention/marketing |
Identify customers in an effort to create customer loyalty – need to manage customer database |
Customer loyalty software <vendor name> |
Administrative functions |
Need to send letters, create flyers, create/manage spreadsheets, etc. |
Word processing, presentation and spreadsheet software, also need access to the Internet. <vendor name> |
This pre-planning process could potentially save an entrepreneur thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time. In addition to identifying the technology, the entrepreneur should look for technology that is easy to use and learn; simple to manage for any upgrades or maintenance issues; and easy to combine with other technology solutions in the business. Small businesses cannot afford for their technology to fail for any time period. Therefore, vendor support is extremely important to all small business owners. In today's connected world, technology solutions should be accessible no matter where the business owner travels. Finally, cost must be considered. Cost, however, is more than just the initial price of the technology; it is a more holistic view of the technology solution. When dealing with technology solutions, you should consider yearly subscriptions and licenses, training, upgrades, maintenance, technology stability, and the availability of technology support needs. The initial costs may be higher when investing in a higher- quality system, but the supporting platforms, overall cost, and overtime could be lower than a technology solution that is cheaper, without the total support package.
Review Using Technology to Stay Competitive from the SBA for strategies to help with growing a business. Consider the following:
As this lesson closes, think about how you can use the information to help you with starting, managing, growing, and running your business. In addition, think about how this technology can assist you with future planning, strategic analysis, and decision making in your business. All of these functions and processes are critical to the success of your entrepreneurial venture.
In this lesson, you learned about planning for and using technology in your business venture. Technology is an expensive investment for any small business owner; therefore, it is important to conduct a pre-planning technology solution analysis to determine the best, most cost-effective solution for the business.
In the next lesson, you will examine resources that will support your entrepreneurial journey. These resources include online resources, networking resources, support organizations, and various local entities.
Non-Graded Activities
The following activities will help you practice the concepts from this lesson. You are not required to submit them to your instructor.
Graded Assignments
The following is a required assignment for this lesson.
This work is created by the National Information Security and Geospatial Technologies Consortium (NISGTC), and except where otherwise noted, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Authoring Organization: Rio Salado College
Written by: Lori Wieters
Copyright © National Information Security, Geospatial Technologies Consortium (NISGTC)
Development was funded by the Department of Labor (DOL) Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant No. TC-22525-11-60-A-48; The National Information Security, Geospatial Technologies Consortium (NISGTC) is an entity of Collin College of Texas, Bellevue College of Washington, Bunker Hill Community College of Massachusetts, Del Mar College of Texas, Moraine Valley Community College of Illinois, Rio Salado College of Arizona, and Salt Lake Community College of Utah.
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