I don’t get too uptight about many things but when one of my team told me last year that we couldn’t receive any emails, I have to say I did (slightly) hit the roof.
When people talk about not wanting to know their numbers or be involved in the financial side of their business I often use the IT analogy. I don’t like IT, I never have, but I have to have a certain degree of knowledge about it because without it, I don’t have a business.
So when I found out that we could not receive emails we went into crisis mode. Maybe not every business owner will freak out as much as I did but because I am an impatient person I have drilled into my team and the fabric of my business the necessity of speed of response. Its difficult to respond though when you don’t know people are talking to you.
We did fix the problem within hours but we had to shell out a couple of thousand to upgrade systems and buy new memory. Remember, those unplanned expenses of a few days ago, well – I know all about them.
Sitting down with my IT supplier though, the whole thing could have been avoided if I had listened to them earlier. If I had taken time to plan our IT there would not have been a crisis.
IT is my black spot and I failed to plan, what’s yours?
