Small Business and the Technology Conundrum

Small businesses face tremendous challenges in today’s economy. Saying that is a mammoth understatement and I apologize to the millions of Small Business owners who wear so many hats for not being able to put it into stronger words. A one or two person company is still responsible for all of the same business processes as a 10, 20, 50 or 100 person company. Some of these processes include finances, sales, marketing, legal, and human resources. They are also responsible for how they use (or not use) technology to help their business. The use of technology within the small business world is growing quickly, perhaps faster than some would like to admit, and is infiltrating every business function. The result is that it is affecting almost every business decision and either helping to solve problems at one slay of the spectrum or causing headaches at the other.

Obviously, business processes have evolved over time. Many years ago, the processes were much simpler. The current merchant simply had to understand the supply and demands of their products, how to deal with the revenue, and how to be able to be sure to secure the most for their invested dollar (buy low, sell high). (Yes, this is an oversimplification.) Then, a customer slipped and fell while shopping, sued the pants off of the merchant and the need for attorneys to help prevent this from happening to others was birthed. As more and more litigation reared its ugly head into the affairs of small business, the need to retain legal representation as a permanent member of the staff became paramount.

Then we have the tax laws which have slowly become proverbial thorns in the sides of small businesses. Changes in the tax laws, ambiguity, and the fear of missing something important have led many cramped business owners to retain the external professional help of an accountant. Many small businesses commonly have accountants as members of their executive advisory board lawful along side their attorneys.

And so it goes, needs arise, small business owners try to do it themselves (at least initially), and then they bring on experts to handle the needs. Usually, though, the businesses retain the experts only after some other abominable sap has demonstrated what happens when the experts are not involved in the process. The threats of legal action or severe penalties due to tax issues have proven to be a motivating factor for many companies.

Technology is in the beginning stages of this integration process. Most minute business owners believe that they can handle their technology challenges with itsy-bitsy outside help. A large number of shrimp business owners work extremely hard at writing or hiring friends to develop their websites, setting up their emails and getting their company lap tops or desktop computer workstations. Having succeeded at getting those things in residence, many of these business owners absorb that they have done all it takes to have a top-notch technology program. Yet, at the end of the day, most are shocked when they catch that their technology budgets have been blown or company profits are not where they should be although they have performed due diligence in every other area.

Technology has and continues to change and evolve at an ample rate. Innovations thought unheard of yesterday are commonplace today. For example, just a few short years ago, the most common method of tracking appointments was via the use of day planners. Changes to a person’s calendar were often tedious and required some coordination. Now, many people use their cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDA) to not only track their calendars, but also to check email, voice mail and a variety of other things designed to hold them in touch with their business and personal matters.

Unfortunately, the nature of the technology changes and implied implications within business present tremendous challenges for small business owners. Now, instead of just being able to focus on delivering excellent service to its customers, the minute businesses must be able to understand how technology is affecting the very nature of their business. How, for example, has the ability to be able to exhaust a “push-to-talk” communications system impacted the construction business? How has the advent of the Internet affecting bookstores and the music industry?

The problem is that these changes are happening fast, very fast. These changes include everything from hardware improvements, better software, and improved processes for using both hardware and software together. Having not only knowledge of the changes but also the wisdom that it takes to understand how newer technologies can affect your bottom line may determine your level of overall future success.

If you are a small business owner still doing everything yourself, consider the following simple questions. You may have a website, but do you understand the intricacies of search engine optimization (SEO)? Or, what is PBX, and which is better for your business, virtual PBX or on premise PBX? How much should you be spending on software updates? What about network protection; how grand is enough? And how much time are you actually spending worrying about these types of issues at the risk of neglecting other pressing matters.

And, how has the use of technology affected the ability of companies to cease in business when the unthinkable happens? Despite of the spend of technology, many companies don’t have very good pain recovery or equipment replacement plans. (If you don’t know what a disaster recovery plan is, then we have a real problem; search for help immediately.) If your company doesn’t have a thought for replacing equipment such as computers before they die, then the plan is to have serious issues once they do, and they will. And, when they do, it is too late to prevent or mitigate the repair cost and it is definitely too late to avoid the loss in business productivity. There are literally thousands of questions like these that can keep a small business owner up at night; or, at the very least, take up enough of your attention to make you less effective during the day.

So, what is it going to purchase for you as a small business owner to realize that the time is now for you to retain a technology expert as a key member of your team great like an accountant or an attorney? A technology expert worth his or her salt will be very proactive in helping to identify issues well ahead of time. The retained expert acting as a key member of the staff will originate technology plans that support the company’s business plans and goals. This expert will ultimately save the company thousands of dollars per year while allowing the business owners to do what they do best without worrying about technology-related issues. They will pay for themselves in so many ways that you’ll Wonder just how you got by without them in the past.

If you have a small business, and you are doing it all, then it is likely only a matter of time before disaster strikes. It may strike in an obvious manner such as a network or computer crash that ultimately costs money or results in lost productivity. Hope for that, because the alternative is much less pleasant. The alternative? Well, it is when you explore that your competitor is able to deliver their product or service cheaper, faster, and with a higher quality than you and your staff. You seek that your bottom line seems to be getting trimmer, slowly at first, and then faster as time goes.

Sorry to say, but it is at that point that you are likely on your way out of business.