The Long-term Pros and Cons of Being a Tech Savvy Business Owner

Of course, this pertains to small or medium business (SMB) owners since large businesses normally have their own IT department and aren't necessarily owned by multi-billionaire tech savvy people, unless you're Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.

If you run traditional business, you may have your hands already full with productions and distribution, purchasing, marketing and selling, HR management, and accounting and finance. As an SMB owner, you may not have an in-depth understanding of any of these fields or any have a good grasp of some of them, so if HR came to you and talked about a new labor law, with a sufficient explanation you could make the best decision.

However, to run a modern IT company, you really need to be tech savvy. In fact, it would be better if you were both tech savvy and a degree holder in any computer related course. Naturally, it's understandable that if you're not tech savvy and a degree holder in any computer related course. Naturally, it's understandable that if you're not tech savvy you'll have a hard time hiring or assembling IT team and employees who will become the bread and butter of the business. While you can always hire a consultant to do it for you, you won't even be able to evaluate the quality of their advice. It's hard to make cost effective decisions when you have no idea what's really going on.

However, in the long run, there are still pros and cons of being a tech savvy SMB owner.

The Pros:

You Can Run the Business with no Blindfolds
Being a business owner of an IT company and not being tech or IT-savvy will be like running a business blindfolded. But if you're tech savvy, you can easily sit through IT staff meetings without a blank look on your face. And you won't be stumbling in the dark because:

  • You know why the technology works.
  • You know how the technology works.
  • You know which technology works.
So, instead of being a naive business owner who gets taken for a ride by consultants and IT employees, you will be able to make informed decisions rather than running your business with blindfolds.

You Can Communication With You IT Team
If you have a computer science degree, you will get a broad understanding and have intelligent and meaningful conversations with the members of your IT team. You can easily talk to your whole IT team regardless of position or task and discuss everything from designing, modifications, customizing, problems, solutions, installations, security, and the like.

You Avoid Expensive Business Blunders
Technology is too complicated for any one person to be familiar with all its specialties, but the knowledge gap between a non-technical person and technical person is an immense gulf.

Just a Couple of Cons:

You Earn What You Earn
You have no assurance of a regular salary and compensation. It all depends on you, your business, your clients, your market, and your business offering. The small business owner doesn't have an employer setting a stable compensation plan. There is no real assurance of how much you'll have next month. So as a tech savvy person, you still need to study other non-IT stuff like marketing, inviting investors, business and finance, etc.

You Depend on Yourself Too Much for Tech Support
You may be a tech savvy owner, and you may think that because of this and the fact that all your employees are IT or tech savvy, you won't need tech support. However, not unless you, the proprietor, an IT graduate or computer hardware engineer, being a computer support professional is far different from being a web developer or systems analyst. Being subscribed to a tech support company will, in the short and long run of things, greatly benefit you business since you can't afford to have regular tech support staff. Having tech support will be one of the best tech savvy decisions you will be doing for your company.

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