How Small Businesses Can Make Technology Pay Its Way

By Win Jeanfreau

I've been buying, selling, and using business technology since 1986, when I started Pacific Rim Computers building computers for Salt Lake Valley businesses. Since then I've built companies in manufacturing, technology, financial services, and education. Today I lead EverForged, a wellness company with centers in Sandy and Cedar City, Utah.

Across all of it, one rule has held up: technology has to pay its way. I said it about green manufacturing, and it applies to software too. Things get adopted when they make financial sense.

Here's a practical way for small business owners to apply that rule.

Step 1: Start with the limiting factor

Every business has a few limiting factors to growth. Maybe it's how fast you can quote a job, how many calls your team can return, or how long it takes to close the books each month.

Start there. Don't shop for technology. Shop for a fix to the specific thing that's holding you back. If a tool doesn't touch one of your limiting factors, it's a distraction, no matter how good the demo looks.

Step 2: Put a number on the problem

Before you buy, measure what the problem costs you today. How many hours a week does it eat? How many orders slip through? How much revenue waits on a slow process?

You don't need a perfect figure. You need a baseline. Without one, you'll never know if the tool worked, and the vendor will be happy to tell you it did.

Step 3: Set a ceiling, not just a price

Subscriptions are easy to start and easy to forget. Usage-based fees can grow quietly every month. The costs that hurt a small business are the ones nobody is watching.

Set a hard monthly ceiling for all your technology spending, and review it every month. When a new tool comes in, something else should earn its place or go.

Step 4: Pick the leading measure

As a 4 Disciplines of Execution trainer, I teach leaders to separate lag measures from lead measures. Revenue and profit are lag measures. They tell you what already happened. Lead measures are the things you can move this week that drive the result.

For technology, the lead measure might be quotes sent per day, response time on customer emails, or hours spent on manual data entry. Track it weekly. If it isn't moving within 90 days, the tool isn't working, or your team isn't using it.

Step 5: Train, then expect adoption

Most technology fails quietly. Nobody turns it off. They just stop using it. The fix is training on real work, not on demos, and a clear expectation that the new way is now the way.

Assign an owner for every tool. That person learns it, teaches it, and reports on whether it's paying off.

Step 6: Cut what doesn't pay

Once a quarter, list every tool and subscription you pay for. Next to each one, write what it saves or earns. Anything you can't justify, cancel. Then take the cash and put it toward the next limiting factor.

The bottom line

Technology isn't a strategy. It's a tool for executing one. When you tie every purchase to a real constraint, measure it, and hold it accountable, technology stops being an expense and starts being an investment.

What's one tool your business pays for that you'd cancel today if you had to justify it?

About the author: Win Jeanfreau is a serial entrepreneur based in Utah.