How Strong Is Your Business?

Monsoon season in Arizona takes hold in a month or so and it had me wondering what business owners do to weather storms -- both literal and figuratively. With the weather that has been striking across the nation -- hurricanes and tornadoes, floods, forest fires, earthquakes -- a business owner needs to have a contingency plan in place to deal with these events. Do you have one?

Do you wonder what could these weather events have to do with your business and its success or viability? Imagine this: A physical business location could be harmed by a storm if there is a flood,

fire or even loss of electricity.

Running a virtual business, such as my coaching business -- means I have to have access to Internet, electricity to run my computers and much more. I also need to make sure my computers and all of my systems are backed up in the event of a computer meltdown. It happens and if you don't have your systems backed up, you could lose your client lists, your inventory tracking and your invoicing systems. Could you recover?

Do you use cloud storage? Do you back up your computer systems to an offsite location regularly? If you back up weekly, have you considered what you might have lost during those previous six days?

There are myriad items that many business owners don't consider when thinking of whether they could weather a storm or a computer meltdown. If you want a walk through and an idea of what could be lost and how you can protect yourself, your business assets and your company's bottom line, give me a call!

Three Ways To Work More Efficiently

Guest post by Robbi Hess

The great equalizer is time: We all are only given 24-hours per day. It's what we do with those hours that can set us apart from the competition.

What can you do to make the most of your hours and work more efficiently and effectively? Here are

my three thoughts:

1. Plan your upcoming week. Whether you plan your upcoming week on Friday before you leave the office or if you sit down on Sunday and plan for the week ahead, planning is crucial to success. It's a cliche that "if you fail to plan you plan to fail" but it is true. Having a written plan means you can check items off when they're complete. 

Are You On The Verge Of #Manufacturing Business Growth?

It's a great problem to have -- your #manufacturing business is on the verge of growth. Are you ready? If so, what can you do to make certain you and your staff are truly ready for this forward momentum? 

If you believe that your business is teetering on the verge of a growth spurt, here are three questions you will

want to ponder before you take the leap into that growth:

1. Are you competitive with those in your niche market? Consider that if you've been operating "under the radar" and if this growth will propel you into the spotlight you need to be prepared to make certain your business stands out from the crowd. 
2. Will growth mean you will have to jettison some of your smaller (in most cases, the loyal customers who helped you get where you are today?) clients?  Is it your smaller clients that helped you get where you are today? Will your new business model mean you will now only work with clients on the XYZ level where in the beginning you worked with everyone from A to Z? Will growth mean you lose your loyal base? 

Part 2: Lock It Up Or Lose It

In my December newsletter, I wrote about the need to secure your data and hardware. You can read the article here.

For manufacturers,securing data and hardware is only half the battle. You’ve still got quite a bit of valuable information in your shop that you are contractually bound to secure and protect.  In a recent conversation with a large aerospace manufacturer’s IT security professional, I was told that a new DFAR (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation) will be issued and then “flowed down” to smaller suppliers that will require compliance in the cyber-security arena as well as the information you keep as part of the production process.

#Manufacturers: Get Your S@$%&*@# Together

I was at an IT conference recently and one of the topics discussed was Software Asset Management. Sitting there, I was thinking that most companies, especially smaller ones, probably have no idea where all of their software install discs are, let alone have a system in place to manage them. Hence the title of the blog “Get Your SOFTWARE Together.” I know it was a bit cheesy to get you reading by using some cheap trick but here we go.

Bring your own Device or Bring your own Danger: What Internet Security Risks Does Your Manufacturing Company Have?

I have to be honest, I grabbed the title above from a recent IT seminar I attended. The seminar posed this question; Should your employees be allowed to bring their own personal devices to your facility and/or use them remotely?

Most people are pretty enamored with their phones, iPads and computers. The problem is that unfortunately, and especially in the case of phones and iPads and other tablet devices, the users of these have no way of knowing if their equipment has been compromised.

Jeez. I'll bet you are thinking that you finally got your employees to install anti-virus software on their computers. You also drilled into them the need to not click on every neato-nifty link that gets sent to them via email or pops up when they are surfing the net.