There is a lot more to broadband than high definition TV programming. Which is not to say that great looking TV content is anything to sneeze at. With modern, fiber offerings, you can have an all-digital network at highly competitive prices. But those fiber offerings from companies like AT&T are not universally available. U-verse availability info is not difficult to come by. If you find that you don’t have availability right now, you probably will very soon. There is presently a big push for consumer fiber network options.
But the consumer realm is not the only area of interest. The implications for small business are even more exciting. In online gaming, for example, the difference in winning and losing often comes down to who has the fastest connection. It is the same for business. Having the faster connectivity could be the difference between closing the deal and closing shop.
Here are a few examples:
Meetings Without the Travel Expenses
Travel is stupidly expensive. Occasionally, it is unavoidable. Reducing those occasions of unavoidability can be the difference in a quarterly profit or a quarterly loss. In a small business, every thousand dollars matters, a lot.
Online conferences have taken a lot of pressure off the travel budget. So many companies have sprang up to serve the growing niche, it is difficult to know which to choose. Rich conferencing services used to be the domain of big companies that could afford exotic Internet connections and speeds.
With even consumer-level fiber options, small businesses can do their own video conferences with interactive presentations, screen sharing, the works. Once you’ve saved your first thousand by eliminating unnecessary travel, there is no going back.
Skip the Postage
Another area of small business waste is the expense of sending packages from place to place. Again, there are times when this is necessary. But a lot of what is sent can be done online a lot faster, more secure, and for less money than calling FedEx.
There is nothing particularly secure about physically delivering contracts and important papers. How well do you know that bicycle currier? The papers have to go out from your mail room or front desk. That means the package is sitting around for a while with no one paying close attention to it. It has to be picked up by a stranger and carried to another stranger’s front desk, where it waits around to be picked up by you. 128 bit encryption beats that process every time.
If the package involves a lot of visuals like brochures or spec work, you will benefit from a fast connection that can not only get the material to the right person securely, but quickly. You want the most reliable connection you can get when sending a lot of data-heavy, mission-critical information. That little advantage means you get your proposal to the client before the competition.
Always Come in Loud and Clear
If your business still depends on a land-line phone using POTS, you are definitely at a disadvantage. To enjoy the improvements in voice call quality in recent years, you are going to have to upgrade. Yet going to a full, PBX system also has a lot of drawbacks, not the least of which is expense.
A great alternative is something like SIP trunking which uses your high-speed Internet connection for business telephony. You can even do things like using your personal mobile as a part of the business system. This communications advantage is made possible by high-speed Internet connectivity.
As you can see, there is a lot more to broadband than 4K TV. It just might be the advantage you’ve been hoping to find for your small business.
Featured image credit: ShutterStock
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