In the Zone

Being a smart buyer for your business sometimes means saving money on an initial purchase, sometimes spending a little more up front to save in the long term, and sometimes coming up with creative ways not to spend at all. The most savvy shoppers know how to balance all three options. Here are five tactics to consider as you plan your 2012 spending.

1. Plan for the cloud - from software like your CRM or recruiting software to essential services like your phone system, more and more applications are moving to the cloud. Instead of running servers in your office–and the associated costs to keep them updated, powered, cooled, and secure–you access the apps over the network and let a provider  handle the hard work of running the back end. You can call it SaaS or hosted services if you like–but whatever you call it, cloud-based computing is making rapid gains in many industries due to the significant cost savings and flexibility it provides.
2. Think about outsourcing – From simple call answering services to PEO services that handle all of your HR work, there are loads of specialized providers who can take on specific pieces of  your workload, allowing you to focus on your primary business. In many cases this kind of outsourcing is cheaper and can be more effective than hiring additional staff in-house. Here’s some help on how to decide what to outsource.
   
3. Cut travel expenses - At many companies, travel budgets have been shrinking for years, and with good reason. Expensive travel to meet with one customer or partner is much harder to justify in the days  of affordable video conferencing, screen sharing, and a wide variety of other communication options.Don’t get too aggressive with this savings, though. Conferences and large-scale public events are often worth the expense if your employees can make valuable connections with new prospects. As always, the trick is to balance the total opportunity with the costs.
4. Upgrade your phone system – Telecommunications upgrades can be expensive–but eventually, you’ll need to replace an outdated or underpowered system. Next time you do, you should absolutely expect to move to either VoIP or a fully hosted phone system. VoIP uses data networks to handle your calls; they can save you considerable amounts of money on inter-office calling and provide easy access to advanced features like screen pops and unified communications.  Hosted phone systems go one step further, using cloud-based servers (as described above) to handle VoIP calls, so you don’t even have to have a VoIP server in a telecom closet.Either one can help you save considerably on your phone bills while giving you access to the latest phone system features.
5. Negotiate everything -  Sometimes, saving money isn’t about one big purchase–it’s about saving a little on every purchase. Almost any B2B purchase can be negotiated, either for reduce cost or extra freebies. Need tips? Here are five ways to be a better negotiator.

Want more money-saving business tips for 2012? Here are 50 from Entrepreneur and 5 ways to save while going green.

Whether you’re looking forward to your annual rollicking good time or dreading the yearly snooze-fest, the company holiday party is a December staple for businesses small and large. It’s also the cause of all kinds of unintentional problems that can range from Monday morning embarrassment to an unpleasant meeting with HR. And even if you think it went great, you could inadvertently damage your image.

Before you head off to your company party, consider these common mistakes — and maybe you won’t be the one everyone’s talking about afterwards.

1. Inappropriate drinking. By far the number one problem at holiday parties – and the cause of many of the other mistakes. We’re not suggesting you abstain altogether, unless you want to. Try this: however much you’d drink if you were out with friends, drink half as much. Order a water, or a soda with lime, or a Shirley Temple if you have to, in between each actual drink. And when the boss starts ordering rounds of shots (Is that just a BuyerZone thing?) … duck out to the bathroom.
2. Not dressing for the situation. There are two factors at play here. The first is simple staying appropriate: no matter how cute that miniskirt looks, think about how appropriate it is for a work event. The second is the location: some holiday parties take place in venues that are dressier than a typical business casual office. Other parties may take place at spots where a more casual look fits in. Take a few minutes to check out the venue and talk to your coworkers to avoid over- or under-dressing.
3. Bringing uninvited guests. If you’re allowed to bring guests at all, consider yourself lucky — not all companies invite spouses or other guests. But whatever the policy, don’t push it. Don’t bring an extra friend, a former co-worker who just wants to see their old friends, or anyone you didn’t specifically RSVP for.
4. Talking shop all night. It’s easy to fall back on work as a topic of conversation, especially when you wind up talking to someone you don’t really know well. While you don’t have to forbid yourself from talking about work, it’ll feel more like a party if you can move the conversation in a slightly different direction.
5. Losing track of  boundaries. When you are talking about work, be aware of who you’re talking to and who you’re talking about. In a party situation it’s easy to slip into gossip, complaining, or badmouthing other employees — and if you have had a couple of drinks, it’s easy to wind up saying something that gets overheard or passed along to the wrong person.
6. Not planning for after the party. Two pieces here: one is simply getting home safely. Take a cab, public transportation, or organize a carpool so anyone who’s drinking isn’t driving. The second is thinking about the next day: do you have an early morning meeting or call? Maybe you should call it an early night. If it’s going to be a late one, can you take the following day off? A little advance planning goes a long way.
7. Getting romantic. No matter what — even if you and Mindy from accounting suddenly realize you’ve been crushing on each other for months, and you’re both single, and you think you can sneak off from the main party — any kind of romantic entanglements are completely inappropriate. You’re a) probably not as sneaky as you think you are, and b) likely to wind up the subject of office gossip and/or scorn for a long time to come. Just don’t take any chances – you’ve got the rest of the year to work on your social life.
8. Inappropriate drinking. Yeah we’ll say it again. In addition to alternating drinks with non-alcoholic beverages, consider the overall inebriation level of the party. Some companies are just more free-spirited than others — but whatever’s “normal” at your event, try to stay near the middle of the group. Even in a group that parties hard, you don’t want to be the guy that partied that hard.

With flashy TV ads inviting home users to “move to the cloud” and the widespread popularity of services like Salesforce, and Amazon’s S3, the concept of cloud computing is everywhere these days. But what does it really mean – and should your business be taking advantage?

Cloud computing in a nutshell

As often happens with emerging technologies, the term cloud computing means different things to different people – particularly among competing cloud service providers. The general sense is clear: cloud computing is using external computers to handle some of your IT work. Whether that means just remote servers or more traditional hosted applications is up for some debate, but the term is often used to mean any kind of remote IT service, from simple data backup to virtual servers to hosted apps.

What services are available through cloud computing?

Simply put? Almost anything you do on a computer. Some are primarily for IT departments or companies that sell software: distributed web or database hosting, APIs and web services, and even the old familiar remote backup service.

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When buying for your business, saving money isn’t just a good idea – it’s essential. However, smart business people know when to focus on saving every dime, and when to concentrate on getting the right product from the right supplier, even if it costs a little more.

In the long run, “saving” a few bucks when buying important equipment or services can cost you. The simplest reason is that price often correlates to quality: a $69 office chair from a superstore just won’t have the same durability as a $300 chair from a furniture dealer.

However, that’s not the only reason. Here are some suggestions on how to know when you should concentrate on saving money, and when you should look for the best deal – not the best price.

Spend to support your primary activities

If the product you’re purchasing is essential to getting your work done, you should concentrate on quality, not price. Kitchen equipment in restaurants, computers for Internet-based companies, tools for construction companies – all of these are so central to how your work gets done that you should make sure you get the best, not the cheapest.

In addition to making sure the products meet your needs, you’ll also want to buy from a company that provides top-notch support. Ongoing service and support once you make a purchase is one area where low-cost providers often fall short.

When buying supplies or equipment that plays a supporting role, you can concentrate more on saving money.

Commodities: focus on long-term needs

Buying commodities – raw materials, or products that don’t vary much from one supplier to the next – may seem like the time shop for bargains. But this isn’t always the case. Consider the frequency of the purchase you’re making. If it’s something that you’ll be purchasing over and over through the years because it’s part of your core activities, you should focus on establishing a good relationship with the supplier.

Haggling over a few dollars on commodities is short-sighted. In these cases, creating a working relationship with the supplier is more important. Suppliers are human, after all: they’re more likely to give you price breaks, freebies, or the first shot at new products if they like working with you. If you’re constantly pushing them for better pricing, you’re not going to be on their good side and may wind up paying more in the long term.

Here’s a summary of these two issues:

Here are a couple of other points to remember.

Total cost – Keep the total cost of your purchase in perspective. Saving $150 on a $1,000 purchase is pretty good. Saving $150 on a $10,000 purchase is insignificant. Try to ignore price differences of less than 5%.

Service intensive – When making purchasing decisions for services, or for products that will require you to work with the supplier on an ongoing basis, be sure to spend some extra time evaluating the provider. Again, it comes down to the relationship: if your interactions with the supplier consistently focus on pricing, you may not get the benefits of a solid working relationship.