As a business owner, you know that continuous, steady growth is an essential part of success. When you’re ready to get serious about scaling your organization, several vital activities must happen. Documented workflows and processes, streamlined hiring, onboarding and training, well-oiled marketing systems and more top the list.
On a recent interview about the Titan sub catastrophe, director of the movie Titanic James Cameron, who has made 33 successful dives to the Titanic wreckage site, pointed out that this tragedy is eerily similar to the 1912 Titanic disaster: the captain of the 1912 RMS Titanic was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, yet he plowed ahead at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night, resulting in the deaths of over 1,500 innocent souls.
Growing your business involves learning how to make money and hang on to it responsibly. When you’re in the weeds, it’s easy to think that a fancy piece of well-marketed software could help dig your way out. That’s usually not the case, and you’ll likely end up paying for software that you dont need and barely use, and that burns through your bank account.
Training employees on anything can be an expensive process. You incur the cost of investing in necessary materials plus the time it takes away from your employees doing revenue-generating activities. But what’s worse when it comes to cyber security training is the expense you’ll incur if that training fails.
As former President Ronald Regan once said, the scariest words you’ll ever hear are “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.”
In this case, the government is trying to help by forcing nearly all businesses to implement and maintain a strong cyber security program to protect the customer information these companies host – definitely not a bad thing, and all businesses should take this seriously without the government mandating it.
Along with the surge of people working from home or in hybrid situations over the last few years, there has also been an increase in employers looking for ways to monitor their employees’ work activities to ensure they actually ARE working when remote.
They say, “You get what you tolerate” and now more than ever, we’ve been conditioned to tolerate worse service at higher prices. Companies get a ‘free pass’ simply by saying phrases like “the labor shortage,” “because COVID,” or “inflation.
Small businesses are no less susceptible to data loss than larger organizations. In fact, it is more devastating for small businesses with limited resources to lose important data than it is for large corporations. To illustrate, a recent study reported that small businesses are a prime target for cyberattacks, accounting for 43%, or almost half, of all cyberattacks every year.
Losing business data can happen to anyone, no matter the size of the company. In fact, not having a reliable backup system in place is one of the top reasons for business failure. According to a University of Texas study, 94% of businesses fail to survive following a disastrous data loss, with 43% unable to reopen and 51% shutting down within two years.
As a small- or medium-sized (SMB) business owner, you are always looking for ways to be more productive and efficient. And while you may know about the common productivity drains like inefficient equipment or technology, there are others that can have a significant impact on your operations.
