If you run a small business, you probably keep a close watch on costs. That means that when it comes time to make a substantial purchase, such as buying laptops for your company, you need to get it right. This can be stressful as you’re probably an expert in your particular industry but not in choosing laptops. Below are a few things you can do to help ensure that you make the right purchases.
Talk to Your Team
Even if you don’t have an IT department and your staff is no savvier about computers than you are, this first step is an important one. You have to know what their needs are to make sure that the laptops you buy have the capacity to accomplish their necessary tasks. This is not necessarily just about what they can do right now either. Think in terms of what kinds of upgrades might be appropriate at this time. If you have a fleet, this could be a good time to see what kind of equipment you could purchase to help operate safely and efficiently. Dash cams are a good example of this type of equipment. They can help lower costs and increase safety, but if you are going to purchase them, you want to be able to easily run any relevant software as well.
Know Your Budget
It might seem like something that should go without saying, like protecting personal data, but there are a few different aspects to the budget to keep in mind. First, while you may ultimately decide to go a little over budget if it really is the right move for the company, starting with a limit in mind will help you avoid the temptation of too many add-ons that just amount to bells and whistles. Starting with the budget may also help you better mix-and-match. Not every department will need the same capabilities, so you can buy some lower-end devices for some people and use the savings to buy higher-end ones for those who need them most. Keep in mind as well that you might want to stick with a single brand to make maintenance easier.
The Three Components
There are three components in particular that you need to look at when you are making your selection, and those are the speed of the processor, how much RAM you need, and what kind of storage space is available. You can easily add RAM if needed, so don’t hesitate to save money by going for a low amount for employees who will only be doing such basic tasks as spreadsheets and browsing online. However, do get the amount that is necessary for workers who will be demanding more of their machines. Similarly, you can get additional storage later in the form of cloud storage or an external hard drive, but the former can be slow in some cases and the latter makes the whole operation less portable, so keep this in mind as a future solution if necessary and not an expectation out of the box.
