Many business owners face tough decisions, often on a daily basis. Global economic woes don’t help the stress levels of your average entrepreneur, which tend to be high enough as it is. We always look for an advantage. Financial, marketing, sales, whatever the subject, small business owners can stress over it.

And over the past 12-18 months, the global economic situation has made a lot of us tighten the purse strings. Purchases have been deferred, spending slashed, budgets cut back. So the latest major economic news can actually be a bit of a relief for some of us. And maybe it also provides your with an opportunity to save some money. Here’s how.

One of the biggest news stories this past week has been how the Canadian dollar is approaching parity with the US greenback. Over the Easter weekend, news outlets here in Vancouver were all over how the lineups at the border were huge, and that masses of people were making the trek south of the line. American economies of scale help their prices stay lower than the ones north of the border, along with their extremely competitive business environment.

For Canadian, this might mean that it’s time to think about brushing off that credit card and making some purchases. Software especially can be a good bargain, if it’s purchased through channels that are directly tied to the exchange rate. Many software vendors will adjust their pricing on demand to reflect changes in the currency conversion rate. Just ask them. Anti-Virus, for example, is an extremely competitive field for software, and the vendors are looking for some edge to allow them to develop market share.

And some of the bigger ticket hardware items can really drop in price with a change in the foreign exchange rate. Items like NAS (network attached storage) and SAN (storage attached network) devices can offer savings in the hundreds or thousands of dollars, if the timing is right. Canadian companies who do not keep inventory, opting instead for Just In Time supply chains, can be the ones that offer you the big savings. For example, compared to this time last year, a 4-bay business NAS device is over $350 less expensive. All because of the exchange rate.

Where will the exchange rate top out? Accountants and economists might know, but that’s not us. So let your computer support people to help you decide where the real value is for your money.