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Net Watch Article - Doing Things Right The First Time

I remember the first computer I ever bought. It cost about $1800 and had 8 megs of ram, 120 meg drive, 24/96 fax modem, and the final specification started a long expensive trend, a Cyrix 486 processor with separate math co-processor. The trend I’m referring to is the practice of cutting corners to save a few bucks. I’m yet to run into a small business owner that has not been plagued with the same problem.

I spent my first years in the computer industry working with small startup businesses. I would help consult them on what technology would help them get their small business off the ground. Unfortunately the mentality of nearly all our clients at the time was that technology was a “necessary evil” not an important “business tool” to accelerate their businesses. So for years, I would try and look for ways that our clients could spend the least amount of money and still get their immediate needs accomplished.

I began to realize after a couple of years that my real job as their consultant was more to look out for their “big picture” needs not their immediate needs. I started to realize this when our business began to focus on serving the legal market. Frankly they had more money to spend and were already invested in a certain level of technology. Don’t get me wrong, attorneys were some of the hardest folks to convince to spend money on technology, but once the return on investment was shown, they were willing to spend whatever it took to get their offices running smoothly.

As time progressed I could see a very clear line between those clients that had invested in the big picture and those that had only invested the minimum on immediate needs. One client in particular had asked us to evaluate their system of 11 workstations and fileserver. While in the immediate I knew they could “upgrade” the various workstations to get by for the next year, I chose to recommend that they scrap every workstation and replace them with new identically configured computers. This was a very difficult decision as they had just spent around 30,000 the previous year with a different consultant to “upgrade” their systems. I really thought they were going to show me the door the moment I opened my mouth, but they had a secondary consultant, a friend of the family that had already told them that their only choice was to start over. We got the contract and we replaced every workstation in the office with the most current computer and twice the ram they needed at the time. They ran, basically problem free for the next 4 years. In contrast we had clients that opted for the “cheap” fix and they were always calling with problems. The money they “saved” by trying to patch old systems was just spent two and three times over on service calls.

In late 2000 I moved down to South Carolina and soon decided that I wanted to start my own business. I was very excited to have the opportunity to start Dog River Design and focus on the internet and marketing side of technology and get away from computer hardware for a while. I also came to a startling realization that it was hard for me to spend my own money on the “big picture.” I was doing the same thing that I used to advise my clients against doing time and time again. I was spending for the immediate and not for the future.

The biggest example would be a purchase I made about a year ago. I knew that our business was moving toward providing printing services to our clients. I needed to get a color laser printer that could handle the jobs that I needed to print. What I really needed was a color printer that was under a service and toner contract, much like many leased copiers. I called Ikon and Xerox and after recovering from sticker shock about the $9000+ price of these units, I opted to get a Minolta Desk Laser 2200 from Staples for $900.

Let tell you a little story once conveyed to me by a good friend. I was adding oil to my car one day and he asked me when I had last taken it for a service. I jokingly said that I change the oil one quart at a time. His next statement stayed with me. He said “what do you get when you add one quart of good oil to three quarts of bad oil?” “I don’t know” I replied. “Four bad quarts of oil” he laughingly said.

So how does that apply with my printer issue? Well the $900 Minolta, while a great printer for small office color printing, did not last a year and the consumables cost as much as the whole printer! I did not save $8100 I lost $900. I should have waited until I could afford the appropriate printer.

Fortunately prices have really dropped and I recently leased a Ricoh 7000. I now have a piece of equipment that will last for many years and is under a service contract for repairs and consumables. All I have to do is hit the print button and the job runs. If there is a hitch, it is not my problem it’s Ikon’s problem. Every time the Minolta would hit a bump or need toner, it would take my time and cash to deal with the problem, which brings me to my last point.

I used to think that it was all about saving money, if I “saved” a couple of bucks that was a good thing. But what I’ve come to realize now, it has only taken 3 years of running my own business, is that time is far more valuable then money. I can make more money, I can’t make more time. If I save a couple of bucks on a piece of equipment or software, but spend three weeks fighting with it, I’ve lost all my initial investment as well as all the time and energy, hence the “four quarts of bad oil.”

My advice to any small business owner is, don’t let yourself get trapped into saving money over getting the right technology for now and your future. If you can’t afford it now, then just wait. Start a saving’s program for what you really need for your business not what you can afford right now to get by. Believe me in the long run you will save money and more importantly you will save yourself time and aggravation. By the way, I was never happy with that first computer that I bought because I did not get the Intel processor which was only $200 more…