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We all make mistakes

Entire businesses may have been built on unexpected results – think Post-It Notes – but outright errors aren't going to get you anywhere, especially where tech's concerned.

I admit it: I messed up. The first time I wrote this, I didn't save the document. Anyone who has ever written something on a computer knows what's coming next: the slow horror of a frozen screen, the painful realisation that nothing was going to break the spell, followed by the dull throb of resignation as the "restart" button is pressed. And when the piece proved to be "unrecoverable", well... neither was the time spent writing it up in the first place.

It was a mistake. And had I thought ahead, it was one I could have easily avoided, saving me time and a lot of frustration. But technology's like that sometimes: if you take it for granted or don't pay attention to what you're doing, it can bite your backside down the line.

What's an entrepreneurial business to do? It's not like it can be ignored completely – IT is too integral to business today. And the IT decisions you make are always going to be an issue, from the PCs on people's desks to the software that keeps them up and running to the networks that keep them connected. How can you be sure that the choices you make are the right ones, in the short and long term? We offer some clear-cut steps to help take the pain out of the process:

First: ask someone who knows more about IT than you do.

"As Alexander Graham Bell said, 'Great improvements involve the co-operation of many minds'," says Ivor Morgan of Morpheus – eBusiness Solutions (www.morpheus.co.uk). "Collaboration inside and outside the business will be key for most entrepreneurs as they try to create new products, services, ways of working, etc. This gives IT the chance to be more than a service provider; it can be a business driver – but only if it leads to collaboration-friendly business processes and systems."

Second: don't think you know better.

"Many entrepreneurial businesses try to build bespoke solutions internally, rather than using the expertise of an external specialist," adds Morgan. "Typically these companies get so sucked into the technology that they stop focusing on the important skill they possess, which is running their business.

"Consider the Chinese proverb: 'If you chase two rabbits at the same time, both will escape' – if you're from the business side of your company, don't get sucked into technology. Your role is to explain to your IT partners where you are, where you have to be, how you intend to get there and what's stopping you. It's their job to figure out how to make the technology support you."

Third: make sure the thing's actually working.

It's easy to be seduced by the latest tech, especially when you're bamboozled by sales talk. Even if you're confident that your IT choices are right for the business, check with the people using the system. Duncan Shores of Orb Data (www.orb-data.com) points to recent research published by his own company: "Canvass opinion from the users who benefit from the newly delivered services. When the response is positive, then their feedback is a powerful tool that can be used to support your claims. Should their response be less enthusiastic, it gives the project the opportunity to investigate the cause of their issues and resolve them, thus improving the image of IT."

Fourth: do more with less.

Everyone's saying this about IT right now, but that's no surprise: it's good advice and increasingly a necessity for your business. The scattergun approach of the past is being replaced with directed, long-term strategy, helped in part by an IT industry that is growing out of the off-the-shelf mentality.

"Businesses can get the most from their IT by looking at how they manage data and business content," says Ian Stewart of InfoSys (www.infosys.co.uk). "The focus should be on taking advantage and getting best value from what exists, rather than adding additional competing, complex and expensive hardware, services, databases and applications.

"Often what is most needed are the tools and skills to capitalise on the existing data and turn this into secure and protected business information that is really accessible and valuable to those who need it. This idea is not new, but what business must have is a clear, realistic and achievable way to accomplishing these goals."

Fifth: don't forget why you bought the IT.

It's a simple one, but possibly the most important. As Shores explains, "Entrepreneurs often lose sight of the business benefit that an IT project should have provided."

Again, the evolution of a company's IT can work against it in the long run. In the early days, IT decisions are often made out of necessity. As the business grows, more staff and procurement layers are introduced, and decision making become communal. And with new tech popping up along the way, it's easy to lose track of why you chose that original server, network hub or email system and even more difficult to change things.

If your business is growing at a pace, if you're bringing on staff and IT faster than you expected, do yourself a favour: take a step back and look at the big picture. Because if you don't, you could find yourself with the makings of a tech museum in a few years, no matter how successful the business turns out.

Cochrane’s Top Ten Errors of the Uninformed Entrepreneur

If you're looking for clear-cut advice on tech, who better to ask than Peter Cochrane, co-founder of CreativeLabs and columnist on Silicon.com? We asked him for a few tips on tech errors to avoid, and he came back with ten gems:

1. Wasting time creating emails that look and read like letters.

2. Creating complex filing systems when the "Find" function does a better job.

3. Failing to back up locally and remotely on a regular basis.

4. Buying IT toys without evaluating the potential ROI.

5. Failing to search out new tools and techniques – sticking with the tried and tested!

6. Travelling when a shared space would do.

7. Not using the document precis/summarise function in Word to cut down on our document reading time.

8. Not networking and not creating self-help groups.

9. Not joining groups like Linkedin.

10. Thinking that Microsoft is the only source of cool software!

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