There are about 800,000 small businesses in Australia. Employing about 4 out of 10 workers in the country, they are the main growth engines for the country’s economy. These small businesses contribute to 35% of Australia’s gross domestic product.
Any business nowadays requires the aid of Information Technology. And If you are planning on setting up a business in Australia, you’ll be making a big investment in buying IT products and services. You’ll be needing cloud services, physical infrastructure, and eventually servers, networks, and workstations. A study revealed that Australian small and medium businesses allocate 6 per cent of their budgets for IT.
But, what if your capital expenses are already stretched thin? Well, there is a good solution to this dilemma. Not many people know it, but some Microsoft distributors in Australia have a financial program in place that will help ease the burden of investing in IT. According to data, about 35% of computers in the country are run by Windows. So, Microsoft is already the popular choice, and you don’t have to think twice to make the call.
Advantages of Getting Financed
- Create your own Managed Service Provider (MSP): The MSP is a remote technology that will allow you to provide your customers with better management services.
- Maximise your capital: If you only have $100,000 to start your business, six per cent for IT will already amount to $6,000. If you avail this financial program, instead of investing all that money into IT, you can use it to improve your other core services, and you can pay it back in easy monthly instalments.
- Bundled payments: You can create a whole IT ecosystem where all your technological needs are met. Bundling the payment will make it easier for you to track your expenses. Work only with a Microsoft distributor that has an in-house financing program, so that you would not be at the mercy of the changing terms and rates of banks and brokers. In the same vein, for resellers, you can also offer bundled packages to the end-users and only send them an invoice each month.
- Track inventory: Some Microsoft distributors in Australia will help you with tracking and managing your leased inventory using the stock-keeping unit technology. It will help with the submission of reports to regulatory agencies.
Who Qualifies?
The financial assistance program is available for Microsoft resellers and the end-users, which are small businesses.
For resellers, the distributor will finance the purchase of equipment from its inventory. The purchased equipment would be sub-let by the reseller to the end-user. The distributor will collect the lease payments from the reseller and the reseller makes money by adding a margin to the wholesale price, as well as service fees from the customer.
For end-users, the reseller will offer the equipment. After that, the reseller and the customer will sign a service agreement between them. The distributor will then assume the reseller invoice and then collects the payments directly from the customer. For an easier payment scheme, the distributor can send one invoice to the customer by adding up all the payable amounts.
For those entrepreneurs and small businesses struggling with their budget, this might really reconfigure your business once and for all.