Small businesses aren’t only one of the largest revenue creators in the United States. They also employ a great number of individuals. As of 2020, statistics revealed small businesses retained 59 million workers. These employees and the people that own the small businesses tend to handle multiple tasks throughout a normal workday. That includes technical issues. For a small business, the tiniest of problems results in a loss of productivity and income. This can’t happen at any point. Thus, some suggestions are required to fix common tech problems in your small business. Here are a few.
System Updates
Granted, system updates can momentarily halt productivity. However, they’re a must to fix common small business tech problems. Especially if they’re the ones the update details. If you know they’ll affect your work time during normal business hours you can schedule system updates for off-hours. Rarely do contemporary updates require user interaction to complete. Thus, you should be able to log back in and be operational before you open the next day.
Security Updates
Updates to correct security issues are even greater in importance to system updates. Not only do these prevent potential tech issues by correct ones that were the result of some form of cyberattack. Without the right updates, your company’s productivity is frozen due to hacks or other malicious activity.
The good thing about security updates is they happen in the background. Though they could slow your system down somewhat, they don’t stop operations. Like system updates, any reboots that are required can be performed during off-hours.
Restart Regularly
Today’s computers are definitely more resilient than previous versions. Hard drives, expansion cards, fans, and other internal equipment last for years if properly maintained. One way to do this is to regularly restart the computer. We’re talking about a hard reboot as opposed to a soft one. The latter is similar to logging out of an existing session. While that closes some applications down it doesn’t clear everything out.
On the other hand, a hard reboot helps prevent issues like the error “msvcp120.dll missing.” This error occurs when a computer gets overloaded or has a problem finding the right command library. as a result, the system behaves erratically or not at all.
Normally, a system reboot helps resolve this issue. A full shutdown and restart properly closes everything and puts it back where it belongs. Unless something has seriously gone wrong, that type of issue tends to disappear.
Compile A Knowledge Base
The key to the first three items is to be well-informed about them ahead of time. They shouldn’t come as surprises to you. Therefore, you want to create a knowledge base of information to help you get through every issue. It doesn’t matter if the problem occurs once or regularly, it must be recorded somewhere for easy retrieval. That wouldn’t be on the system itself. Instead, add a document to a cloud storage area for quick retrieval.
This list of tech problems isn’t only for the computer itself. It’s also required for peripherals like monitors and printers. Errors and resolutions for these items should be part of the knowledge base. Make sure they’re separated into proper categories for quick use.
Don’t Panic
This is the most important way to fix common tech problems for your small business: don’t panic. Hysteria is the worst thing to resolve an issue. It develops a fear that you’ve lost everything. As a result, you attempt drastic fixes that make matters worse. You must take a step back and look at the facts. For instance, if you constantly get a blue screen of death it doesn’t mean your system is about to crash. A quick review of tech sites might recommend an upgrade of the system’s BIOS to correct the issue.
Even if you can’t find a solution to the issue you shouldn’t panic. What you might need to do is bring in a specialist to look at your system. Being a subject matter expert, they should know the best way to correct the problem and save your work.
Conclusion
Use these above suggestions to maintain a healthy tech environment for your small business. It will provide you with a sense of peace to continue growing your business.