As we all keep going and the pandemic drags on, there’s a temptation to just “hang in there” until normal comes back around. But as many people have realized, normal isn’t coming back. The events of the pandemic have forever changed the ways that we live and work. And while that isn’t wholly good or bad news, it does mean that you need to make accommodations for life as it is right now, not how you expect it will be in six months or a year.
The biggest area where I see people delaying new expenditures is in tech. After all, nobody wants to spend money on hardware or programs that will only be temporarily useful. However, the unfortunate reality of this situation is that you’re likely running into problems with your team. And those problems need to be addressed now rather than being put on the backburner in an indefinite wait for a return to normalcy.
And by now, you’ve probably run into a few hurdles. You’ve had six-or-so months in a new environment, so what isn’t working? If you’re still working remotely, as many of us are, what current tech solutions do you have that could be removed or replaced? Certainly your team is using new tools to adjust to the current climate, but there’s a real possibility that the new tools are overly burdensome or redundant. And if that’s the case, then you want to upgrade sooner rather than later.
Ask your team what tech really works for them, and what tech they’re using because you’ve asked them to. Six months ago, we all had to make snap, immediate changes to adjust to entirely new working environments. And even if certain programs or tools made it possible to get here, that doesn’t mean there isn’t something else that can save your team time, money, and a lot of headaches.
In the Internet Age, it doesn’t take a Fortune 500 company or a mogul to get their hands on new tech solutions. Most new products are relatively inexpensive and highly accessible to smaller ventures, so there’s nothing stopping you from making upgrades.