As many people in the business community are trying very hard to make the most out of a year when all the cards seemed to be stacked against us, it is easy to put off the task of figuring out what we will spend next year to move our businesses forward again.  While budgeting for technology can seem daunting at times, it is the best way to make sure that you take into account all of the things that will help your business run most efficiently with minimal downtime.

We must first consider the standard operational items such as preventative maintenance and support - which every business should have in place.  There are also a myriad of other items that often get overlooked during the budgeting process that can pop up during the year causing undue stress on the budget and the management.  Some things to consider include  software renewals,  such as anti-virus or backup software.  You should also review your current hardware to determine what is out of warranty.  Based upon the function of the device, a warranty renewal or hardware replacement may be in order.

For those of you who have already considered the items above, congratulations!  You are ahead of most businesses at this point.  There are a few more strategic items you might consider,  a new business resumption plan or updates and testing to the one you have to ensure its viability.  Also, in today’s world of hackers and viruses, many businesses are being proactive about auditing their network and web site security to protect their valuable business data.

While this all may seem overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be.  You can use a budgeting template much like the one we use for our clients or simply hire a technology company to review and plan all of this for you.  We have seen many cases where our involvement early in the process has helped our clients plan better and avoid unexpected expenses during the year.

Download the Technology Budget Planning Worksheet

When I first started my business, I was always looking for ideas from other people about how they…well…ran their business.  In 1997 when I started ForeSite, the Internet wasn’t quite what it is today and finding templates on things like business plans, cash flow models, legal documents, proposal templates etc. were few and far between.  In comes 2009  and there is so much stuff out there, you don’t know where to start.  Go ahead, type “business plan template” into Google and see what you get (444,000 results in case you don’t want to bother).  Now Google does a pretty good job of trying to get you quality results, but some are articles, others are blogs, others are people trying to get you to click through thinking you are getting a template but you really have to buy something.  It can get pretty tiresome.

Luckily, there are new services that help filter out the good from the better.  For example,  Docjax.com is a site that will only return links to actual documents.  If you decide you only want Word documents, you can filter for only those.  Now when you start clicking through, you know that you will get back a document that you could begin to modify to suit your needs.  If you are fairly specific, you might even find exactly what you want on the first page (try: “small business farm template” for example).  You still get 1059 results, but right at the top are some pretty relevant documents.  Have some fun and download to your heart’s content.  Most of the results you’ll get will be free!