With the boom in home businesses and the trend towards monetizing hobbies into profitable startups, knowing what technology you need is not always easy. Many of these small businesses are so focused on their niche market, on providing a unique service, and on tapping into new markets that they do not always think about what technology they need to ensure their sustainability in the future. Here are a few essential tips for any small business to consider.
Use cloud-based storage and platforms
With the cloud computing market expected to be worth more than $800 billion by 2025, taking advantage of the innovation, investment, and technology in this market is an essential strategy for any new business. Knowing that you can access your data from anywhere, at anytime is becoming more important for many businesses, particularly those that are relying on employees that are based remotely.
Being able to store your data in a remote cloud is not only cost-effective as it means saving on hardware and the space to house servers but also provides some protection to your business from potential data breaches, cyberattacks, or other threats to your data.
Outsource your IT services
Being able to focus on your core business, ensure you are meeting the needs of your growing customer base, and strategizing for the future means that you do not have a lot of time to think and manage your own IT. This is the value of considering the value of handing that responsibility to a team of IT professionals that can provide those services year-round, 24/7.
Not only does this mean you know you have a support system if something goes wrong, but it also allows you the freedom to think big without having to reskill or upskill your current employees. Any professional IT service that you bring in should be able to think not only about what you currently need in terms of security, hardware, or software, but also be thinking about what you might need in the future and start planning for that.
Security is key
Secure your email data. Learn more about send email using external SMTP Servers from Linode.com .Knowing the cost of not investing in good cybersecurity might be the incentive that many small businesses need to make that initial outlay. The average cost ofa cyber-attack on a small business in the last year was just over $25,000, certainly not a small sum for many small businesses. While you may think that your small business is immune to attack, you will be surprised at what cybercriminals are targeting. Rather than make yourself vulnerable to attack, it is best to invest in a good security system for all your digital assets.
The first step is to make a list of all your digital assets, including any data, websites, portals, and apps that have any kind of value. Next,you will need to think about where they are vulnerable to attack and then plan how to mitigate those attacks.
Regardless of how many employees you have or the size of your bank balance, managing and strategizing the right technology is not something you have to do alone. If you find the right service to provide a professional managed IT service, it can include most if not all of these.
