Remember traveling to a place you’ve never been before? You were both thrilled and jittery. You looked up your destination, planned your itinerary, went through your budget, checked your travel documents, made reservations, and packed your bags.
You hoped all goes well. What about when your business is scaling up? Do you have everything you will need? Are you ready for fresh opportunities?
How do you prepare for the hurdles ahead, especially in your IT?
Reinforce Your Cyber Security
You want to feel safe on any journey. But as your business grows, your cyber risk increases. Why?
First, you will most likely hire new employees, increasing the risk of human error (such as clicking on a suspicious link).
Second, you will add new systems, devices, and/or applications, creating new potential entry points for cyber threats (the attack surface).
Next, you will collect, store, and handle more data – a likely target for attackers who are out to steal identities, information, or intellectual property.
There may also be an increase in partners and third-party vendors. This can increase the risk of a supply chain attack through a third-party vendor.
Finally, you will need a more complex IT setup. This will make it harder to manage and secure the environment, increasing the risk of a cyber-attack.
Just as you prepare ahead before travelling, the best way to be ready for cyber risk is to be proactive. Look into the IT security gaps in your business before they widen. Get a cyber security assessment from a business IT support provider, then take it from there.
Move to the Cloud
All sorts of things can happen when travelling, so you need to be flexible. If you miss the shuttle bus, you may need to rent a car. If the car breaks down, you’ll have to walk. Directions can often get hazy, and you can end up somewhere else.
The same is true with business growth. You need flexibility and scalability because you will have more customers, more staff, and larger operations. A cloud-based system is most suitable for that due to:
- Scalability: You can easily add or remove resources on the cloud, as needed. This is important when you need to scale your IT infrastructure faster as needs change.
- Cost-effectiveness: Unlike traditional on-premises IT solutions, the cloud can be less expensive. Pay only for the resources you will use. No upfront costs of hardware and software.
- Agility: The cloud can help you do things faster. For instance, you can quickly deploy new applications and services in the cloud.
- Innovation: You can get access to new cloud-based technologies and services, helping you to innovate.
When migrating your business to the cloud, you must consider:
- Your specific needs – the size and complexity of your business, the types of apps and data you need to store, and your budget
- Your budget, because the cost of cloud computing can vary based on the provider and the services you choose
- Your security needs – choose a cloud provider that offers strong security features and has a good track record of security
- Your team’s skills – get IT support staff with the skills and experience in managing a cloud-based IT environment, whether in-house or a third-party provider
Adjust Your Data Policies
Growth means your business will be collecting and handling more data. They can be sensitive and more complex than before and may require better levels of protection and management.
As it grows, your business may also be subject to new regulations governing data handling and privacy. Some regulations can change often, so you need to keep updated.
Risks to your data can also change and new policies may be required. So, as you scale up your business, review your existing data policies so you can:
- Protect customer trust and uphold your commitment to keep client data safe
- Avoid legal liabilities that may arise from data breaches and related incidents
- Streamline data management workflows and boost efficiency
When updating your data policies:
- Be open: Get input from employees, customers, and partners
- Be clear and concise: Guidelines must be easily understandable
- Be specific: Include details about how data should be collected, used, and shared
Your data handling and data privacy policy reviews should be done regularly, to ensure that your policies are always up-to-date.
Business Growth is a Package
When you go on holiday and sign up for a tour, you get a whole itinerary of items – whether you like them all or not. It’s a package, just as growing your business is filled with both excitement and challenges.
The important thing is this: BE READY.
Prepare your business now before you get swamped with more customers and more work. If you’re not sure where to start, get a free consult with Inspired IT today – our specialists will be happy to help you.
