How your Business can Beat the Technology Blues

Sat, 11/26/2011 - 6:05pm | by monicadear

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Norton Small Business by Symantec for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

When starting up a business and during that critical first 5 years, women business owners face multiple challenges around technology, typically the need for good quality hardware, high-speed internet, telephony, and mobile access, a functioning website and e-commerce system, and ongoing access to updates, security fixes, and software upgrades. Small businesses, in particular, cannot afford to lose any time due to infected or dying machinery.

Why should women business owners have to struggle with malware, viruses, phishing, and problems with the hard drive? In a recent survey, almost six out of ten business owners admitted to experiencing malware (malicious software) on their machines in the past three years. If you are not yet set up with a dedicated IT professional, but you still need single computer or office-wide support, Norton Small Business by Symantec offers a variety of products to assist with your technology needs.

Stick to a clearly defined maintenance, backup, and diagnostic plan to keep your company in tip-top shape, especially in today's lightning-fast world, where a single mistaken keystroke might result in a shutdown of your operating system or the theft of your confidential information.

Maintenance: Calendar an ongoing cleanup for your computer on a weekly or monthly basis, and schedule tool and software updates quarterly. By checking in regularly with your machines, you can keep on top of any issues or emerging problems, before they turn into a crisis.
Backup: You don't want to lose your collection of product photography or your best customers database that's stored with no backup. Move to a cloud system or set up an ongoing backup plan to avoid the challenge of data loss. What if one of your teammates mistakenly downloads a malicious .exe file to their hard drive? Don't let one dead PC take down your business.
Diagnostics: Adequate software is key, so invest in appropriate diagnostic tools: with 2012 Norton Small Business products now available for 30% of you can get a head start on the 2012-2013 fiscal year. Run a check regularly to sniff out any issues or problems within your PC, and get technical support to help you make fixes, changes, or rebuild the registry.

Note that there are two plans of interest to women business owners: the Norton 360 and the Norton Internet Security 2012 launched in September 2011. With a little foresight and some long-term planning, as well as diligence in sticking to the process of consistently removing viruses and avoiding phishing attacks, you can focus on your business and beat any technology problem blues.

Leave a comment and let us know which Norton product would most benefit you, and why.