The scenario happens this way. You answer the door and a guy (or a woman) is standing at your door, holding a laptop. They tell you that they have lost their cell phone, but that it has been traced to inside your residence. They ask if they can log on to your secured home network […]
New Year + New Decade = Great Time To Regroup
Wouldn’t it be great if all small business owners had a big red button that would re-set at the touch of a finger, everything that needed our attention? It’s a nice fantasy, but I’ve never found restructuring my work strategy to be that easy. Ever. But with a new year and a new decade, it […]
Charles Dickens Still Relevant At Christmas 2019
This time every year I re-read the classic Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. We all know the story: miserly and unlikeable Ebenezer Scrooge treats his employee, Bob Cratchit, like a slave, pays him very little, and only lets him have Christmas Day off after chastising him for his selfishness. Cratchit has a wife and kids, […]
4 Tips To Help You Plan For 2020 Business Goals
I’m already planning goals for my business in 2020 and I suspect almost all small business owners are doing the same. Before I think about product improvement or personnel upgrades, though, I think about whether my infrastructure can or cannot support those initiatives. Maybe the best plan for growth starts with an assessment of what […]
I’d Love To Hear Your Specific Questions
Sometimes publicly answering someone’s specific questions are the fastest way to help that person and to educate many others on the topic at the same time. I know that most people have only a survival-mode understanding of how computers and business networks function. What if you read that there is a new computer virus going […]
Security: How Can You Know You Have It?
Security is a big, big issue in these times, and the effort to be secure has become a major daily responsibility. How can you know you are secure? Whether it’s a small gesture like locking your front door when you leave your house, or it has to do with the protection of elections from a […]
Password Manager App: This Is Now A No-Brainer
I know the thought of having to add even one more step to daily IT safety routines can bring cringes and groans, especially to anyone who has not yet had a major, catastrophic, time-consuming hack. But it’s time. Get to know your new BFF—your password manager app. A password manager app has many purposes, all […]
Working On The Puzzle of “Fit” With Your Suppliers
When you own a business, you spend much of your time working on puzzles. Your ever-changing market can be a puzzle. Maximizing employee productivity can be a puzzle. Staying on the leading edge of your industry can be a puzzle, and sometimes just finding the leading edge of your industry is a puzzle. Part of […]
Internet Privacy: What Google Knows
What don’t we google these days? I’m using the word as a verb (the action of looking something up) rather than the proper name of a company, with a capital “G”. We google how to fix our plumbing, restaurant reviews, where movies are playing, sports scores. Even if you can’t spell it right, Google can […]
Don’t Settle When It’s Your Business Technology
“Don’t settle” is a hot topic for me. Often when I take on a new client, I can be surprised at what I see this business has been using for their IT. It can be obsolete hardware, outdated software, strange network configurations, poor security and data preservation techniques, and antiquated workflows. I see businesses working […]