Tech Tips for Start Ups

Maybe you’ve been looking to open your own business or side hustle, or maybe you already have and are stuck on what to do when it comes to tech.

Well you’re in luck. Today I’m going to give you six tips that are going to help you get your tech over the line for your start-up so that you build on a solid foundation when it comes to IT and cybersecurity.

So let’s that with the most simple one.

Register your domain

Before you pull the trigger with your company or business name, I strongly suggest that you check your domain is available along with some similar domains if possible.

In order to use many services and to look professional, you are going to need your own domain. Please, don’t make the mistake of using popular free domains as your email address. A domain is cheap, and you’re probably going to need it for your website anyway.

Another quick tip here is to try and buy the surrounding domains as well. For example, if your business name is ACME, and you are registering ACME.com, then consider registered ACME.net, and ACME.cloud, or some other similar ones. This will help you retain control of these domains in the future when you’re business is making millions.

Setup your emails

This usually goes hand in hand with registering your domain and maybe setting up your website. In this day and age, it’s likely that your emails will be used for communication more than any other medium. My suggestion is to use a good, reputable service where the data is stored locally and where cybersecurity is taken seriously.

My two suggestions here would be to go with either Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Both these platforms are great for any size business and you will find both are packed with features that most organisations will utilise either now or down the line when your organisation is growing.

Document Management

I’m going to pre-face this tip by saying that your mailbox is not are document management system. If you think you are going to be saving files and sharing data with other organisations, strongly consider the use of a document management system such as SharePoint Online or Google Drive – both which are available in their respective licensing agreements.

Ensure that any user data that you handle is stored safely and securely in accordance with your local privacy laws. It is too often that we come across organisations that are storing data inappropriate due to a misunderstanding of the security or compliance laws that surrounds their organisation.

Get this sorted early to save you a headache later of migrating data between platforms if you’re forced to change!

Social Media

Social media is no doubt going to be part of your marketing plan and strategy. I’m not a social media specialist but my suggestion here is to try and make your names all the same. For example,

TikTok: acme1
YouTube: acme1

Instagram: acme1

Facebook: acme1

This will help you streamline advertising later and also allow you to direct your customers to the correct page easily.

If you can’t do this, it’s not the end of the world but just a suggestion.

Cybersecurity

Your business will be attacked my cyber criminals. Fact. Now, your job is to deter these cyber criminals and to slow them down as much as possible. On top of that, your job is to also be prepared for an attack.

This article’s purpose is not to give you the ins and outs of cybersecurity or to give you everything you need but instead to make you aware of what is going on in this space.

The single easiest way for you to deter up to 99.9% of attacks (also fact) is to enable multifactor on your user accounts. So, the tip is here to enable MFA on every single platform that you use for your business and for your personal. Easy – and if you need more help in this space, then reach out to a cybersecurity professional – there’s plenty out there who want to help you.

As usual, if you have any questions, reach out to a professional or get in contact with us at Cloud Context.