There are lots of ways for your business to save money, no matter what size it is. We’re small business owners ourselves, so we know first-hand what you or your company may be going through.
Your business needs proper software and technology in order to function most effectively, however don’t get into the mindset that you “have” to purchase a full Oracle license to run a small database, or that you “have” to purchase Vignette in order to have a dynamically-powered website. There are tons of tech-alternatives out there that may fit your need without bursting your budget. Note: These recommendations are in no way tied to product endorsements or advertising. We just wanted to give you some ideas of how to save your company’s money — keep in mind that these solutions may not fit your business needs, so your mileage may vary.
Database
If you run a small ecommerce website where you don’t have thousands and thousands of people simultaneously querying the database, why not switch to MySQL? For small- to medium-sized databases it performs just as well as the big guys, but at a fraction of the cost. And by fraction, I mean it’s free. It still runs standard SQL, so you don’t need to learn anything proprietary to use it.
OS and Web Server
If your company isn’t neck deep into ASP or .NET development, why not move to Linux? If you have a small tech team, and performance and stability is at the front of your mind (and what else would be?), then you may be able to save your company money by moving to an open source operating system. No more expensive product upgrades, no more serial number nightmares, no more huge security holes or nasty viruses (for the most part). Now that you’re running Linux, you can move over to Apache and bask in it’s warm, beautiful glow. Apache runs the world’s largest websites, so I’m sure that it’s good enough for yours. It’s amazingly stable and extensible, and you’d be hard-pressed to find something you want to do with it that’s not already documented on the internet somewhere.
Content Management
D. Keith Robinson moved an entire hospital’s intranet to MovableType — software that is traditionally thought of as a “weblog tool”. Nope, not anymore. You can use weblog software (such as the free and open-source WordPress, among others) to power your entire company’s website. Distributed authorship, workflow publishing, version control, and easy updating without shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for commercial content management systems. Companies are making the switch to low-cost solutions such as MovableType and WordPress everyday, so why not give it a shot?
Phone Calls
The Business Logs team is physically separated — Paul’s in Florida, Matthew’s in Illinois, and I’m in Virginia (for now). Sometimes chatrooms just aren’t enough, so instead of killing our cellphone bills, we just fire up iChat, hook up an Audio connection, and chat away. Now all you pay is the cost of an internet connection, and you can have real-time voice conversations with anyone in the world for free.
These are just a few tips for saving money, they may not work for you, but on the other hand they may save you thousands of dollars.
