If you are a SMB owner and have ten minutes to spare, I have a scenario for you to consider. Picture this. You have grown your small business over the last five years, very successfully I might add, and are now even considered medium-sized due to your success. The loyalty of some of your longest serving staff who have worked for you for years makes them feel like your extended family.
When you arrive at work one Monday morning you are told that your computer systems are playing up. It might have been that no one can log onto their computers; or it might be that you are receiving dozens of irate complaints from suppliers, querying an email sent to them that had a virus attached to it; or one of your finance staff, who is visibly upset, tells you something has gone wrong with your business invoicing/payroll/accounts system; or, maybe you received an email from someone who claims to have stolen your customer database and wants ten bitcoins or they’ll release it to the world.
You will invariably remain calm and spend some time trying to sort out the problem, but this is bigger than you can cope with: it’s all your IT systems and you’re lost. You call your IT support guy/girl who is full time/part time/a friend/a friend’s son who is studying computers at University to help. Looking around at the team, there is no real panic in the office. You even joke about computers saying no, and someone offers the ‘3-day weekend’ musing. Everything will be fine.
Fast forward to Thursday and there are no more jokes. When your staff talk to you, they look scared. They are afraid because you look like scared and in shock; this silly computer problem is much worse than anyone thought. You have lost all control of your business and your IT guy/girl has no answers. You don’t even know who you should be calling. Your business is crumbling before your eyes, with the personal, professional and emotional fallout for you and your staff likely to be profound, and on your shoulders.
This is not a scenario that I have created out of thin air. Nor is it something I read about online. If you are reading this article on a Monday, somewhere in Australia there is a business owner who will be making jokes about computers and if you are reading this on a Thursday, well you get the point. Some businesses will survive an event like this, but many will not…Click HERE to read full article.
