Starting a business? Here's the tech, in the right order.

New founders buy technology in the wrong order constantly — signing a broadband contract before the premises is confirmed, printing a mobile number on signage they'll regret, building the brand on a Gmail address. The right sequence: domain first (it anchors email and web, costs pounds, takes minutes); business email on that domain immediately — every supplier and customer interaction from day one looks established; the phone number as a cloud number that will follow you through every future move (never print a personal mobile on anything); broadband ordered early — lead times are the classic launch-delayer, so order the moment premises are certain; then WiFi, Microsoft 365, card payments and security as the fit-out lands.

A new business doesn't need enterprise anything — it needs the small, correct version of each thing: one or two 365 licences, a cloud number on the founder's mobile with a professional greeting, business broadband with failover if you'll take payments, WiFi sized for the actual room, and MFA switched on from birth (retro-fitting security is always worse). The whole stack typically costs less monthly than founders expect — and because it's all cloud, it scales the day you hire, without re-buying anything. We set this up as one project: one order, one install, one bill, and a business that looks established from its first email.