Common Small-Business Technology Mistakes- How to Avoid Them
As a small business owner or manager, if you are not tech-savvy, the prospect of investing, maintaining, and securing technology for business can be frightening because IT is expensive, confusing, and evolving as well. Small business technology solutions including hardware and software become outdated within months. And budget limitations are one of the major reasons small businesses tend to make expensive technology mistakes like hiring inexpert staff to address IT related issues and use of illegal (non-licensed) business tech solutions. Improper implementation, use, and maintenance of IT can lead to an abnormal loss of business data, inefficiency in operations, and much more to collapse your enterprise or brand.
Thankfully, there are several ways small business owners and entrepreneurs can learn from the mistakes of others. In this article, we have listed common small business technology mistakes along with steps that IT experts can take to avoid in the best possible way.
Using Consumer-focused Tools to Run Business-class Tasks
Using mass market and consumer-focused technologies to run business processes and tasks is one of the fatal errors small businesses should avoid achieving optimum efficiency and productivity. For instance, a cheap internet router will not provide you greater performance like a business-focused one will. Technologies specifically designed for businesses are a bit expensive but keep your business running smoothly. Most of the business owners have a tendency to cut business overheads down by investing in consumer-focused products. But as a result, it can cause an extraordinary loss of efficiency, productivity, and resources. That’s why you should always invest in heavy-duty and commercial tech solutions to increase the productivity and operational efficiency of your business.
Overstretching the Tech Lifecycle
A 4 to a 5-year-old laptop that your customer services representative is using probably won’t hurt your operations when damaged. But ten years old business server does when broke down or failed due to some technical reasons. Tech solutions come with a set lifecycle and this lifespan of every tool or solution depends on how the equipment or tool is being used. That is the reason, you as a small business should replace your tools and equipment to make sure your business operations are running smoothly without facing downtime.
Disposing of Old Technology Erroneously
Tossing out the damaged computers, corrupt storage devices, and business gadgets in the trash improperly are one of the common small business technology mistakes that can cost your business a million dollars in terms of doing it improperly and availability of business data and information in those devices and gadgets that malicious persons can use to destroy your reputation in the market. So, you should dispose of the old business tech and tools properly to make sure no one can use to steal your business secrets or customer data. Instead of reselling old tech, dispose them appropriately to keep your business protected from data breach and other data security concerns.
Insufficient Training
According to experts, most of the office staff understand less than 20% of features that a business software or solution offers. It shows that 80% of the awesome productivity-boosting and cost reduction functions & features are unused. Insufficient staff training is the major reason behind that. Lack of proper training introduces a greater likelihood of mistakes entering the business processes. So whenever you employ a new tech tool into business operations, make sure to conduct training sessions for your staff to let them know how they can perform incredibly.
Failing at Social Networking
Social media sites like Facebook LinkedIn and Twitter are some of the excellent resources for small businesses not only to promote their products but to engage customers and provide them with an excellent experience. Just creating social media profiles is not enough, but you need to optimize and update with all important details and quality content to achieve what you want. Social media marketing automation is also a superb option to put your social media marketing on autopilot and to save time for core activities.
Failing to Back Up Correctly
Backing up important business data and information is one of the most vital aspects of any business but most of the entrepreneurs neglect this crucial step or employ improper data backup strategies. Thanks to the advanced technology, cloud data backup solutions can handle all your data related operations to keep it safe and protected from malicious persons. However, you should choose a reliable cloud data solution for your business as per individual needs and requirements.
