Common Tech Mistakes Small Businesses Make

The demand for innovation, 24/7 access and a sharp rise in competition has meant that even the smallest of businesses need to invest in tech to keep up with modern trends. However, this doesn’t mean that all business owners are using technology in the wisest of ways. In fact, there are plenty of common errors which are being made time and time again. As a company owner yourself, it make sense that you fully understand what some of these mistakes are so that you can avoid falling into the same traps. Check out these common tech errors which have been made too many times before.

Lack of Tech Support

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If you are not too adept at using technology yourself and you don’t have a professional who works at your business to help out in this area, you could find yourself in difficulty. The most obvious way of getting around this issue is by hiring an IT support organisation such as Nestar to manage this for you. If you try to do everything all by yourself but your are not all that experienced, you can end up wasting a lot of time fixing faults when you could have been working on other areas of your business.

This is particularly true if you are running an accounting firm. You need to be able to rely on technology to keep your business running smoothly, and in this case, working with a company with experience in providing IT services for accounting firms can make all the difference. Not only will you save time, but you can also gain access to valuable expertise that can benefit your business in the long term.

Hardware/Software Issues

Though you may think that this falls under the category of not enough tech support, it is actually something different. This is the issue of installing hardware or software which is not directly useful to your business. Perhaps you have failed to standardise your systems and you are left trying to troubleshoot a wide from a wide range of service providers. Maybe you have not updated your systems in a long time and they have slowed down significantly and no longer perform the same functions as they once did. You should make sure that you are reviewing your hardware and software needs on a regular basis as these are likely to be continually changing over time.

Not Enough Training

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Not only do you need to be operating your tech efficiently, so too do all your staff members. If you have not provided enough training on the subject, you may find that they are struggling and things are not running as smoothly as they could be. In fact, it is estimated that the average person understands less than 20 percent of the functions that their hardware and software can perform. As as direct result of this, they may not be getting the most out of the systems which you have paid a lot of money to install in the first place. Therefore, it is worth taking the time to ensure that both you and your staff members understand everything as fully as possible. There are plenty of computer-based training aids which can help out with this. Otherwise, you can hire in some external training agencies to assist with getting all your staff members up to speed as quickly as possible.

Not Prioritising Security

In the modern world, criminals no longer need to break into the building directly to get their hands on everything that you have. Many of them are looking to hack into the servers and files of businesses – and it is not only the large ones which are at risk. Compromised systems and data theft are common issues which all kinds of company are facing, but the main targets are the businesses which have left themselves exposed by not putting the proper security measures in place. First of all, you and your staff members need to have strong passwords in place, which are updated on a regular basis. Update your operating systems on a regular basis, as well as your firewalls, anti-virus software etc. Make sure that all WiFI networks are secure and prohibit any suspicious file-sharing platforms. Security audits need to be performed on a regular basis.

A Lack of a Backup Strategy

Since so much data and so many important files are being stored online these days, it should follow that you have clear backup strategy that ensures that all of them are properly protected. Data losses can end up hitting your productivity levels hard. Even worse, they could potentially threaten the future of your business. Cloud-based storage systems have quickly become a very popular means of protecting the data of businesses, but no two are the same, so you need to ensure that you are choosing one which suits your business needs.

Leaving the Door Open to Spam Email

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Spam emails have pretty much been around since the dawn of the internet, but there are plenty of companies which still fall victim to them on a regular basis. There is plenty of filtering software out there which promises to reduce the amount of spam which gets through your servers, but there are also some simple actions which you can take and practices which you can put into place to help out with this. First of all, you should avoid publishing your email in plain text which can easily be copied by robotic tools. Don’t forward on any chain emails that you receive and avoid the most common of email solicitations. You should also read up on some of the most common scams out there at the moment so that you know exactly what it is that you need to be looking out for. Before you ever submit any email addresses to an external party, you need to read all the conditions thoroughly.

Technology is constantly changing all the time – and so to are the mistakes that small business owners are making with regards to this. These are just a few of the most common mistakes out there which you need to watch out for. Simply avoiding these in the first instance can help a great deal in not falling into the common traps which are out there. Even if you are not all that tech savvy to start off with, this is the world we live in now and you need to make sure that you are keeping up with it.