By Paul Peng
Before I started my veteran-owned business, Sentri Institute Inc., in 2019, I worked as a manager at the Ports in Southern California. During that time, I and several other managers would always discuss the huge amount of money the Director of IT received as yearly compensation. At the time, it was unanimously agreed that their compensation was much more than deserved.
It wasn’t until I started my own business that I finally realized how vital the role of IT management was, even for a small business. Marketing, emails, social media, phone calls and internet connection all have one thing in common: IT. Let’s not forget the other related items of small businesses like credit card payments, software updates, software upgrades, hardware upgrades, website navigation design, understanding malicious software (viruses, malware, ransomware, etc.), ease of use, online reviews, understanding algorithms, SEO (search engine optimization) and the list goes on and on.
I discovered time and again that it only takes one of these cogs in the business to break down to bring your business to a screeching halt. A recent example would be the CrowdStrike debacle, which shut down operations for more than half the world. This just goes to show you that no matter the size of your company, in this modern day and age, IT has become so integrated into our daily lives that it is right on par with our daily need for food, oxygen and toilet paper.
Software Updates
Software updates have probably been among the top five IT headaches. Since most of my sales are conducted online—including a payment platform—any disruption to it can essentially halt the business. Since 2019, our company has been adversely affected by software updates going wrong more than a dozen times. Each time, I must go through the painful process of contacting my IT contractor, who contacts the website service provider (usually based overseas), who fixes the issue and sends it over to my IT contractor, who implements the change. This whole process generally takes about 72-96 hours, which in many cases means thousands of dollars in lost revenue. There are temporary workarounds for this—i.e., taking manual payments over the phone—but this usually is only for people who call in, not those who see the problem and move on to a competitor.
Email Providers
I learned very quickly early on that having a free email provider—while cheap—can lead to a series of issues, especially as your own business starts to thrive. Just over a year into my business, I had to switch to a monthly subscription-based email service provider vs. a free one because of malicious software and its compromising effects. This was a costly one-week mistake that, again, potentially caused thousands of dollars in lost revenue for the business. The monthly subscription cost? A whopping $6.99/month. Is it worth it? Looking back, I should have started with that to begin with.
Malicious Software
Perhaps the worst headache—since most of my sales are done in the online marketplace—was learning relatively quickly about all the newest types of malicious software out there. From my experience, this type of headache will generally not rear its ugly head until your business has started to flourish. This is because, in the beginning, your business is in the weeds with thousands of others trying to make it, and malicious software perpetrators generally go with what people can easily see (i.e., as your SEO improves).
I have had a series of malicious software attacks throughout the years; however, the biggest one occurred earlier this year when a new type of malicious software evaded typical virus and malware detectors by remaining dormant until a specific series of actions were taken. In my case, the user would have to specifically hit the “website” button once they have found my services on a search engine. Then, this software would activate by redirecting it to whatever the malicious software perpetrator would desire. In my case, it was a generic iPhone 15 sale page.
This whole headache took over five months to solve because it was hard to trace. It resulted in a detailed investigation, finding the root cause, switching internet service providers (ISP) and introducing “Site-Lock” onto my website. The issue cost hundreds of dollars and thousands of dollars in potential lost revenue. This has perhaps been the most mentally draining event that has impacted my business, as many potential customers went away because they thought my business was fake because of the malicious software redirects.
ISP & Static IP
Choosing the right ISP is crucial, especially as your business starts to take off. When you sign up for an ISP, you have a low monthly bill because your IP address is linked to hundreds of other users. In other words, your IP address is used for a generalized location that is not specific to your home. So, if a malicious user is on the same IP address community as you and does something suspicious, your domain provider (website host) usually blocks that IP address, which, in my case, blocked my website. To fix the issue, we had to switch domain hosts and switch ISP with a static IP address (a business account with my own IP address). Did I have to pay a hefty premium? Yes, but it is still much cheaper than the alternative of losing business.
My company went through more headaches relating to IT, but the above are some of the worst. I am sharing these experiences because I do not want my brothers- and sisters-in-arms to step on the same IT landmines I have already stepped on myself. My sincerest wish is for an ever-increasing number of veteran-owned businesses throughout these United States. Let’s get after it!
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