Managing Your Small Business's Digital Assets

As a small business owner, you've likely invested significant time and resources into digital assets that are key to running your business.  From your website to social media accounts, digital marketing assets, and software or data, these digital assets are critical to your operations and success. However, far too many small businesses overlook the importance of properly managing these digital properties. 

Consider the Cautionary Tale of Bob the Plumber: 

Bob ran a successful plumbing business in Pittsburgh for years.  He had two journeymen who worked for him and his wife took care of the administrative tasks, including billing and bookkeeping.  Everything was going great until Bob’s marriage broke up.  Suddenly Bob found himself taking on all the admin tasks that his wife handled for years and she was unwilling to help him with the transition.  Very quickly Bob realized that he had no access to any of his digital assets.  He was unable to log into his business bank accounts and billing software.  He couldn’t do any marketing or bookkeeping because his wife set up all of those accounts, including the usernames and passwords.  It took him months to get access to all his accounts again.  That process took a lot of his time away from bidding and completing profitable projects, ultimately causing him to lose significant revenue. 

Failure to actively manage your digital assets can lead to a host of problems, from loss of valuable data and intellectual property to security breaches, reputational damage, and compliance issues. In today's highly digitized business landscape, protecting and optimizing your digital assets should be a top priority. 

5 Key Steps Small Business Owners Can Take to Effectively Manage Their Digital Assets: 

1. Conduct a comprehensive digital asset audit.

Identify and catalog every digital asset your business owns or uses, including websites, social media profiles, software licenses, cloud storage accounts, customer data, and more. Maintain a centralized record of this information.  If you don’t know which accounts you have or how to access them, you’ve made yourself very vulnerable to having access cut off with no notice. 

2. Establish clear ownership and access protocols.

Determine who within your organization is responsible for each digital asset, and put processes in place to grant, track, and revoke user access as needed. This helps prevent unauthorized access or misuse.  The last thing you want is the departure of a key employee who refuses to give you the information you need to access these accounts, or even worse, engages in sabotage. 

3. Implement robust backup and disaster recovery measures.

Regularly back up all critical digital assets, and have a documented plan for restoring data and systems in the event of an incident like a cyberattack, data breach, or hardware failure. 

4. Review and optimize your cybersecurity posture.

Ensure your digital assets are protected by strong access controls, encryption, firewalls, and other security best practices. Train your team on cybersecurity awareness and protocols. 

5. Develop a digital asset management policy.

Codify your organization's approach to digital asset management in a formal policy document. This should cover areas like acceptable use, access controls, data retention, and disposal procedures. 

Proactively managing your small business's digital assets is essential for protecting your data, intellectual property, online presence, and overall operational continuity. By following these steps, you can safeguard the digital foundation of your company and position it for long-term success.