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There still might be confetti stuck in the corners of the house or office where you celebrated New Year’s Eve, but at the end of March, 2019 will be 25% of the way completed. It’s amazing how quickly time passes and related to that, how quickly the technology industry continues to innovate.

The internet is something even the most technologically-averse people interact with daily. This miraculous tool has changed the way we live our lives, how we interact with friends and family and how we conduct business. If the internet were a car, then the data created and shared online would be the gasoline that powers that vehicle.

What does the word “startup” mean? In the context of business, one probably thinks about a new company attempting to find its appeal to customers in a specific industry. In certain verticals, the phrase “startup” might conjure up images of ping-pong tables and Friday afternoon happy hours with company-sponsored libations.

Employees don’t typically think of themselves as being on the “front lines” of digital security for a business. A quick audit of the staff for any small or medium-sized business would likely yield a wide range of “expertise” when it came to security knowledge.

Timing is everything.

How many times have you heard this phrase? If you take a moment to think about it, you can likely remember several times throughout your life (professional or personal) when timing made all the difference in the outcome.

Another saying that applies to what we’ll be talking about today goes something like “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. Small and medium-sized business owners need to consider growth differently than other more well-established companies.

Last year we published a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style blog post highlighting how improvements in business technology (or lack thereof) can provide different outcomes for common problems around the office. In the post, we followed the adventures of a new IT manager attempting to solve several communication bottlenecks in the office by pitching different technology improvements.

The productivity boost and increased workplace happiness of employees able to work from home have been well-documented. Approximately 4 million Americans are now working from home full-time and the benefits are being realized on the side of employers and employees.

The start of a new calendar year presents the opportunity to make improvements in many areas of their lives. The New Year’s Resolution gives individuals the chance to look ahead at what they want for themselves, for their families, and their businesses and come up with a plan to get there.

It’s nearly the end of 2018, and it seems like the year has gone by like a flash. If you’re like us, you might still be working on some of your New Year’s Resolutions from 2018 – that beach body can wait until spring of 2019 anyway.

But in between holiday parties and New Year’s celebrations, there is a good opportunity to reflect on the last 365 days and consider what has happened and what was learned.

Biting your fingernails.

Leaving the refrigerator door open.

Leaving car windows down during a storm.

These are all examples of bad habits. Almost everyone will admit to having some collection of bad habits, it’s part of the human condition.

Trying to curb these habits is also a healthy part of human nature, but bad habits don’t stop at personal hygiene or vehicle maintenance – there are plenty of technology-centric bad habits that can have disastrous consequences.