The Zen of Small Business IT

Based on some of the questions and comments I’ve been reading from the community in Business on Main, it seems that many small-business owners are getting bogged down in the details of small-business IT. They’re swayed by techno-hype, feeling anxious about keeping up, and trying desperately to understand one esoteric tech term after another.

Well it’s time to take a deep, cleansing breath.

Here’s an easy-to-remember principle to guide every one of your technology decisions from now on: Technology is just a tool. Whenever you find yourself compelled to spend time or money on business technology of any kind, I want you to stop and repeat this mantra three times: Technology is just a tool. Technology is just a tool. Technology is just a tool.

Then ask yourself a simple, but challenging, question: How will this technology tool help my company make more money? It seems so obvious. But the truth is that most businesses of any size will, at some time, consider a technology strategy that is not supportive of their business objectives. Large corporations even have a fancy word for this phenomenon: misalignment. They hire consultants and form teams just to make sure that their information technology is aligned with their corporate strategy. And quite often they find that it is not.

For small-business owners, the solution is much cheaper and easier. Just say the magic words: Technology is just a tool. If you can’t answer the question of how this tool will help your business make more money, then it is not a wise purchase. This has worked for me and companies I’ve worked with. And I bet it can work for you, too.

Learn from my mistakes
I once worked as a technology and communications consultant to a very well-known global firm. One of the people on the team I worked with thought wikis were the greatest invention since the Internet itself. (Wikis are online collaboration vehicles that allow many different people to enter, add and edit information on a particular subject. Think Wikipedia, only for businesses.)

This group was so keen on getting a wiki up and running, it scarcely mattered what it was for, or whether it was in service of the business. We set it up, spent many billable hours populating the thing with content, and waited for customers to come and join the conversation … and waited … and waited. Nothing. That’s because their customers were not nearly as enamored with wiki technology as the company itself was. It was a toy. And the wiki had no business imperative.

Learn from others
A friend of mine runs a modest hedge fund. I could tell you the name of the company, but then he wouldn’t be my friend anymore. So let’s just say it’s a virtual company, meaning it has no central office, and each of its 10 employees works from home. When the iPhone came out, my friend was so enthralled by some of the impressive features that he decided his company would standardize on the iPhone as its mobile-communications device. But he later learned that getting the iPhone to work with his corporate e-mail service was not nearly as easy as it was with BlackBerry. And despite the many useful features, the iPhone was not an ideal corporate device for his environment.

Both of these examples were expensive mistakes. But they were mistakes that could have been avoided if the business owners would have fought their inclination toward “gee-whiz” technology and reminded themselves that technology is just a tool.

The lesson
Technology must either help your company achieve a strategic goal — such as increase efficiency and profits — or it’s useless. So, repeat after me: Technology is just a tool.

Dan Briody is the author of two books and the former Executive Editor of CIO Insight Magazine, a leading publication for information technology managers. He is also a frequent contributor on technology topics for Wired., Inc. and Business Week magazines.