How To Keep Track of Your Online Business

Jan 28, 2020 | Small Biz Support

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In small community groups, businesses or clubs, supported by volunteers or committees, it’s very easy for the techy stuff be handed to whoever is least likely to break it at that moment. Then people move on, and information goes with them.

Small businesses or not-for-profits might hire in different freelancers working from different venues. Or in a local service where all work is conducted in real life (say what now?), people get busy doing their jobs, and lose track of what they’ve done online.

In the past 8 weeks alone I’ve had to help out two small businesses that had their website look entirely broken for a few weeks because software hadn’t been updated – to fix them I needed access to their website and hosting, which they couldn’t find.

Another website disappeared entirely because their domain hosting hadn’t been paid. A school’s social media feed broke and couldn’t be fixed for a month because no-one knew who had access.

It breaks my heart because at that grass roots level, income and resources are low, and those who are helping REALLY need things to work smoothly.

It’s not always the visible stuff either, a high level consultant wanted some help with optimising traffic to their website, however we couldn’t access the existing analytics because no-one had access, we had to start from scratch, losing at least 6 years of data that could have given some real insight and saved them money.

Technology isn’t always to blame

Often people blame the technology for not being reliable – and that may be the case, but technology needs maintenance, just like a car. And if that maintenance isn’t done, then at some point that engine is going to stop!

So make sure you know what’s what

There are very few things in life that are ‘set it and forget it’, so the most important thing you can do is to make an annual check to ensure you know exactly what you have signed up for, and how to access it – should the worst happen.

A quick challenge to get your ducks in a row for 2020. I’d like you to ensure you have a list kept with details of ALL the digital accounts you hold. It’s time to get to grips with this thing, you’re in charge.

Here’s a starter for the log-in administrator details you should keep track of:

Your website hosting
Domain hosting
Website Admin (1-3 might be in the same place, but they also might not)
Email hosting (email might be hosted in the same place as your website, but best practice is that they are in different places – so if one goes down, the other doesn’t)
Website Analytics
Social media profiles
Any other listing websites you’re on (free and paid)
Anything else you can think of.

Make sure you’re keeping a note of the service provider, the purpose, who set it up, renewal date, cost if relevant and username*. You might even save some money as you realise you haven’t seen any income from that yellow pages listing you’ve got on direct debit.

Download a free audit spreadsheet

To make it easy, head to this page and download a spreadsheet I’ve created that you can use.

Access spreadsheet template

It is a working document, and should be saved somewhere secure – and handed over when management changes. Yes you can print it off for your file, but make a note of where it is and how to access it again! The reason I’d recommend you keep it digital is because it contains links to the right places.

And Use it!

Then put a reminder in your calendar, on a date you won’t ignore (not your birthday, no-one needs to be wrangling with computers on their birthday), but maybe when you do your annual accounts, or pay your annual insurance. Review the spreadsheet and make sure that all the log-in details still stand, and that reminder emails are set up to come to a central business email, not someone who helped you out 3 years ago and now lives in Mongolia.

*Some security notes:
Passwords: Don’t save passwords in this document. Sign up for a decent password management software like Lastpass or Dashlane (and make sure you keep that master password safe!). Passwords shouldn’t be shared unencrypted, but good software will allow you to share them encrypted.
Usernames: If any usernames anywhere are ‘admin’, change them.

Struggling with looking after your website?

Are you afraid of plugin updates?
Don’t know how to back up your site, or what you’d do with a back up if something went wrong?
Concerned about hackers or overwhelmed by spammers?