Home Office Tech for Small Business

Most small businesses are run, at least partly, from a desk at home. The tech that makes that desk productive is not the newest laptop but the pieces around it: a second monitor, a dock that connects everything with one cable, a reliable webcam and headset for calls, and a backup drive for the files you cannot lose.

A second screen is the cheapest real productivity upgrade — invoices on one side, email or the bank on the other. A USB-C or Thunderbolt dock then turns a laptop into a desk setup in one plug, which matters when the same machine goes to the shop, the client and the kitchen table.

Back up anything that would hurt to lose. Records typed into a browser app live in that browser; export them regularly, and keep a copy of exports, receipts and contracts on an external drive or cloud storage you control.

What to look for when buying

• Check your laptop's ports before buying a dock — USB-C and Thunderbolt docks are not interchangeable.
• A 24-inch 1080p or 27-inch 1440p monitor covers most office work.
• Wired headsets avoid Bluetooth dropouts on long calls.
• Use an external drive for backups, and test restoring a file once.