Digital transformation for small businesses: Key things to consider in 2024

According to the National Cyber Security Alliance, data breaches can destroy small businesses, with 60% of companies closing within six months of beginning. A recent study on efficiency through automation reported an increase of 58%. Paying attention to automation and cybersecurity can yield unexpected productivity.

Adopting advanced technologies can maintain competition among small businesses and streamline business operations. Digital tools and technologies like document automation and cybersecurity can do this.

Explore digital transformation for small businesses, right from automation to cybersecurity.

Why do small businesses need a digital transformation?

Digital transformation helps businesses be organised. Instead of involving manual labour, technology comes to the rescue. It makes small businesses well-versed in technology, marketing strategies, and helps reduce time and effort. The same inputs could be utilised for other outputs.

Manual labour is prone to errors and sometimes costs the company. Automation makes it easy to delegate tasks and divide the workload. To illustrate, when the same task could be performed by technology with less time and more output, it is time to switch!

The switching might take time for the workforce to process, but it eventually increases overall performance. Several businesses need the aid of automation, mainly because they're established in the technology field. However, it is essential to consider the workforce and adapt accordingly. The team should be aligned with the process, or else it would be rather troublesome for the team to operate.

The best way to determine the appropriate tool is to try several options and compare their results. 

What is cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is protecting your data, device, and documents safe from disruption, destruction, or any unauthorised access. It's more like keeping your locks in check at regular durations. One easy way of choosing cybersecurity is to update the software. Regular updates improve your security patches, avoiding even the chance of being cyber-attacked.

It helps to fix the possible points of breaches that cost us heavily. So, apart from regularly updating software, it is also essential to keep strong passwords. Avoid obvious and general passwords. Make sure to use an unexpected combination to form your password. 

Encrypting sensitive information is one of the major tasks, apart from password concerns. This feature turns the data into a secret code, accessible only to selected, understanding individuals. Even if your data is hacked, it will take another lot of effort to figure out what it is!

Dependability comes with a responsibility to ensure credibility. This is why businesses of all sizes and individuals are potential targets for cyberattacks. Surveys confirm that 87% of small businesses have customer data that could be compromised in an attack.

Why do small businesses need cybersecurity?

The operational disruption of a cyber attack can be severe for small businesses. Installing cybersecurity not only safeguards data but also addresses the following concerns:

1. Protecting sensitive data

Data is a business's asset. Customer data, financial records, and similar sensitive records must be protected. The loss of this information might harm the business in the long run. Unauthorised access must be denied, and breaches must be avoided.

Keeping your customers' information safe is vital. Laws like GDPR and CCPA help with this. They tell businesses how to handle personal data. You must gather information legally, handle it carefully, and keep it safe from hackers or other risks.

It's crucial to share important information with those who genuinely require it. This step helps reduce the chance of others getting into it without permission and protects your customers' data from harm.

2. Preventing financial loss

Cyberattacks cause data loss and cost the company financially. If a business spends its funds just on recovering the lost data, it's a loss of collected resources. Installing cybersecurity eliminates such anticipated losses.

3. Maintaining business reputation

Repetitive data breaches or security failures don't affect a business’s goodwill. It builds a negative reputation and loses the trust of its customers and partnerships. The inability to maintain security protocol tampers partnerships and creates mistrust among potential alliances.

4. Protecting intellectual property theft

Small businesses depend heavily on intellectual property such as patents, proprietary software, designs, or trade secrets for their competitive advantage. The cost of losing them should be lowered. Unauthorised access must be addressed at all costs to safeguard the business's intellectual property.

In conclusion, cyberattacks are frequent for small businesses, yet more measures need to be taken to adapt methods. It's essential to safeguard possessions, be it data or documents. A business's growth is not just a result of increased operational output. Factors like workforce, technology, and security play a crucial role. Overcoming the cybersecurity threat is a gradual process. Changing the data will take more methods and effort, which outlines cyberattack breakout time as 84 minutes in 2022.