BNMC Blog

Listen in to The Mass Business Podcast as Roger Michelson, CEO of BNMC is interviewed by Matt Ward, to discuss tips and advice around growing your business. Roger mentions in the Podcast that “I’ve found industry conferences to be very valuable in helping grow the business. It’s a time to focus on business and technology updates and to do a ton of networking.” Roger also mentions that you should “Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you or have gone through what you’re going through so you are getting advice and learning from them to help grow your business.”

The Mass Business Podcast is a 5x a week show with one goal – to help you, the small business owner, grow & be more effective in your small business. The guests and topics provide information, education, and insights on how to grow and scale a small business and in particular with a focus on understanding networking and referrals.

www.MassBusinessPodcast.com/podcast/018

The modern business is heavily reliant on technology, perhaps more so today than ever before. In the wake of a pandemic that forced millions of employees to adapt to remote work, the need for technology and support has never been greater. Even as we transition back into business, as usual, it’s safe to say that remote technology is not going anywhere. Today, we would like to discuss how our organization was (and still is) helping businesses just like yours maintain operations through comprehensive IT support, even during the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, remote work has exploded, and many organizations expect to continue it to some extent after the pandemic turns to an endemic. Let’s take a look at some of the technology choices your business can make to make your remote workforce more effective.

I bet you can’t name the amount of network switches at your office. How many licenses of Office do you have? Do you know if your router warranty has lapsed?

Nearly everyone uses Wi-Fi. Wireless gives people the increased flexibility to use their mobile devices in more places. If your business’ Wi-Fi isn’t set up properly, you’ll find that your coverage will be lacking. Today, we thought we’d give you a few tips on how to set up your Wi-Fi connection so that it works best for your business.

Your business’ wireless is an important factor to consider in your operations, which means that your choice of router is crucial for your overall success. Here, we’re going into a few considerations that you should keep in mind as you select your router.

There are many reasons that your team may want (or need) to work from home, and there are many reasons to allow them to do so. A 2019 survey by OwlLabs indicated that 71 percent of remote workers are happy with their job (as compared to 55 percent of on-site workers); remote workers responded that they are 13   percent more likely than onsite workers to stay in their current job for five more years than onsite workers will; and when respondents claimed to be working longer than 40 hours per week, onsite workers were doing so out of necessity, while remote workers did so out of desire and enjoyment.

It’s not uncommon where a situation arises and you will find yourself working from home. To make this work, it is important that you keep a few additional issues in mind so that you can make the most of it. We have put together a few simple best practices that you should keep in mind as you operate remotely.

Time hasn’t been kind to the password. It’s continuously put down as one of the least secure methods of protecting systems. It’s not due to any fault of the password, though. People just have a hard time remembering long and complex passwords. To aid in security, it’s recommended that you use some sort of multi-factor authentication. While some users prefer easy SMS message two-factor authentication, there are actually many different types of multi-factor authentication available.

Tablets are definitely becoming a staple in the consumer electronics world. For the longest time, the tablet PC was an expensive, clunky device that just didn't wow consumers. Some businesses had adopted tablets back in the day, but they were difficult to use, hard to support, and they simply didn't perform for the price tag. However, like many consumer electronics, Apple reinvigorated the tablet market with the original iPad, and now it would seem tablets are here to stay. The question is, are they right for businesses?

Email is (and has been) a prime method of communication for businesses of all sizes. With email comes a whole slew of issues that are essentially synonymous with the technology; spam, information overload, phishing, and information privacy. Even New England small businesses that only do business locally are at risk of these issues. Personal email accounts are equally at risk. Employing proper precautions and practices whenever communicating via email is very important to prevent the risk of security compromises, monetary loss, and even legality issues.

Sometimes when your workstation feels bogged down, a relatively cheap and simply hardware update can make a huge difference in performance. Adding more RAM (Random Access Memory, often just referred to as memory) can be a game changer for your bogged down PC.

Your identity has quite a lot of value, especially in the wrong hands. Security firm ZoneAlarm put together some numbers in 2011 concerning identity fraud, and it even shocked us. Let's talk about a few of these statistics and what it means.

When you mention the term 'disaster recovery,' most people think about the big ground-shattering events like earthquakes, fires, floods, tropical storms, etc. While these natural events are certainly disasters and devastating in their own right, smaller things can constitute as a disaster for your business, and they aren't seasonal.

Saving a little on your technology can go a long ways, but cutting too many corners can lead to additional problems and expensive downtime. Here are a few ways you can cut costs without creating long term issues.