While some of us are excited by new tech, others find it extremely intimidating. New technology can be expensive to implement and time-consuming to learn. This can, in turn, lead us to shy away from new tech.
Of course, adopting new technology can also have many benefits for your business – including helping you to maintain the same productivity and quality of service as your competitors. Fail to keep up with your competitors, and you could lose customers. This is why it’s so important to not let technophobia hold you back.
Just how do you overcome technophobia? There are a few different solutions. This article explores some of the best ways to beat technophobia as a business owner.
Take a course
Technophobia is often the result of allowing technological blindspots to develop as a result of not embracing tech early on. Many people who shunned social media or cloud technology early on now feel unable to get involved even if they wanted to, because the tech has come along so far, and they still struggle to understand the basics.
Taking a course could help you to catch up. There are courses on all kinds of digital subjects that are aimed at complete novices with the intention of getting them up to speed. This includes in-person courses and online courses.
Attend workshops
Don’t have the time to take a course? You may be able to build your tech knowledge simply by looking out for tech workshops on various subjects. These are often single day in-person events where you’re able to learn the basics. They’re also an opportunity to ask questions that may be puzzling you.
Outsource tech support
A simple way to beat your technophobia could be to get help from tech experts. There are IT services like CMIT Solutions that can both offer advice and actively help you to set up and maintain your company tech infrastructure.
A good tech support company will be able to help guide you through topics like cloud technology and cybersecurity, helping to explain things in laymans terms and answer questions until you have a solid understanding. They may also be able to help you choose the right software and hardware. You can search for these companies on search engines like Google and compare reviews to find the best company.
Hire tech-savvy employees
The best employers aren’t afraid to hire employees who may be more knowledgeable than them on a certain subject. In fact, it can be beneficial to hire employees who are able to act as advisors and take over tasks that are not within your field of expertise. Consider the tech tasks that scare you and look into hiring employees who can take over these tasks. This ensures that your business is still benefiting from these technologies without you having to get heavily involved with them.
When hiring these employees, consider bringing in experts to help advise you on who to hire. They could even sit in on interviews to help ask the right questions.
Take baby steps
The idea of having to dive deep into a tech subject that you know nothing about is likely to be very scary. If you don’t have the time or energy to do this, consider instead learning a subject by taking small baby steps.
For example, if you know nothing about social media, don’t try to learn about every social media platform at once. Focus on one social media platform and slowly understand how it works, challenging yourself to learn a small amount of information each day. This is much less intimidating (and often more productive) than having to cram lots of information in a small period of time.
