When money is tight and you start feeling down about your financial situation, it?s important to keep the big picture in mind. This can be done by reviewing your net worth. Plus, if you go so far as to track your net worth, then you?ll constantly have this big picture before you. This will help you to worry less and allow you to better focus on your goals. How to Find Out Your Net WorthThankfully, your net worth takes more into consideration than just your paycheck. A good definition of net worth is the value of all assets, minus the total of all liabilities. Put another way, net worth is what you own minus what you owe. Generally speaking, this is why your net worth increases over time, due to the fact that you?ll owe less and less on the debts you pay. When determining your net worth, start by making a thorough list of what you own and what you owe. What You Own Home (its current value) Other real estate Automobiles and other vehicles like RVs and ATVs (leased vehicles don?t count) Jewelry and collectibles Household items, like furniture, appliances, etc. Retirement accounts, bonds, stocks, mutual funds Cash value of life insurance The balance of checking and savings accounts Cash What You Owe Home mortgage principal Other mortgage principal Auto loans Student loans Credit card debt Other loans Once you have all of these items in order, you?ll next plug this information into an online net worth calculator. How to Track Your Net WorthNow that you know your net worth, you can use a spreadsheet tool to keep track of its growth–in a similar way to how you keep track of your monthly budget. Here are four ways that tracking your net worth can benefit your financial situation. Financial Progress: We all want to evolve and progress in anything in life, it?s human nature. It’s even better when you grow your money and can look back to the month or year previous and see how far you’ve come. Confidence Builder: For example, if you saved an extra $1,000 in your emergency fund or watch your 401K increase due to a bigger contribution, it will make you feel proud of what you?ve been able to accomplish. Avoid focusing on just assets: If you have 200K in assets but 100K in debt, you?re just lying to yourself. It’s important to factor both into the calculation. Loans: Your net worth can be a factor if you plan on applying for a loan in the near future. In the same way that it?s beneficial to keep track of your personal net worth, there are benefits to keeping track of your company?s assets. The average SMB likely needs more than a calculator and a spreadsheet to do this, which is why there are so many enterprise-level accounting solutions on the market. To learn more about what?s available for your accounting department and how technology can further your company?s goals, give us a call at (585) 254-8710. P.S. Some businesses struggle to reliably budget out their IT, especially with surprise bills when technology goes down and unexpected updates need to take place. If you are frustrated with the unforeseen nature of your current IT, reach out to Info Advantage to discuss a managed, proactive approach.
Mobility is proving to be a major pain point for businesses, especially when it comes to implementing new technology solutions. It?s become crucial to consider how mobility can influence the growth of your business and improve operations, particularly with the cloud gaining ground and mobile devices becoming omnipresent in the workplace. How will your business learn from this influx of mobility? Here are four ways that mobility trends have infiltrated the enterprise environment, and why your business can (and should) apply them to its own technology strategy. Doing so keeps you one step ahead of the curb on this important industry topic: Security is important: Regardless of what types of devices your business uses, it?s primarily how they access data that you need to be concerned with. Data security is crucial, especially for mobile devices that may be connecting to unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots while out of the office. A virtual private network, or VPN, is a valid choice to mitigate the risk associated with potentially dangerous connections, while a mobile device management solution can allow you to restrict access to sensitive corporate information on a per-user and per-application basis. Increased focus on the cloud: The cloud lets your business store data and applications in an online environment, where they can be accessed from any location with an Internet connection. This makes collaboration and communication much easier, as no matter where your employees are, they can connect to your base of operations and access the resources they need to do their jobs. The convergence of desktop and mobile: Windows 10, Microsoft?s latest operating system, was an attempt by the software giant to create an OS and applications that work on a myriad of different devices, be it a desktop workstation, or a smartphone. This suggests that solutions that work on a universal level can improve the productivity and flexibility of a workplace. After all, you can get more done with a full version of an app built for a smartphone than you would with a watered-down version. Regulation and oversight are critical: Your business needs control of its data if you want to thrive. Mobile devices might have the benefit of flexibility, but you need to ensure that users can be held accountable for their actions – including how and why they use sensitive corporate data. In most cases, it?s important to restrict access to data in order to protect it from those who have no business viewing it. There?s certainly a lot to consider when implementing mobile technology solutions, but you don?t have to do it alone. Info Advantage can help your team make an educated decision about how to use mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops, to their advantage. To learn more, reach out to us at (585) 254-8710.
The first thing you?ll need to understand about migrating to the cloud is that it?s a much more involved process than simply performing a single software upgrade. Truth be told, properly migrating your data to the cloud involves a lot of prep work, and, as is the case with other kinds of moves like packing up your personal belongings to settle into a new house, the better prepared you are for the move, the smoother the transition will go and the less of a chance that you?ll lose something of value. ITProPortal provides some insight into what migrating to the cloud properly takes: ?It involves a complex infrastructure migration process. Good preparation is the key to success. Those organizing the migration process should ensure that all data is ready for the move and that the company network has the necessary capabilities to interact with the cloud.? This is a major reason why you?ll want a professional assessment of your IT infrastructure before deciding to move to the cloud. Preparing your network for a move to the cloud involves a few considerations: Sorting and Labeling Your FilesIt?s important to take the time to determine what files are worth saving and moving, and what files aren?t so you?re not wasting time and resources moving and storing old files that your company no longer needs. This can be a time-consuming process, but the work will be worth it in the long run. Preparing Your Network InfrastructureMigrating to the cloud comes with demands on a network that may require major adjustments to be made to your IT infrastructure. When migrating to the cloud, there are two major additions to your network you?ll want to consider; setting up a direct Internet breakout in order to distribute traffic across external networks, and multiple firewall instances in order to secure the various Internet connections. Have a Migration TimetableEven the best planned move to the cloud can take weeks or even months to complete. Therefore, you?re going to want to present your staff with an accurate timetable so the transition won?t interrupt workflow. One particular thing to plan for is how user settings will be migrated, like profiles, address books, calendars, etc. To help with this, ITProPortal advises: ?Instead of moving all their data to the cloud, more and more companies are opting for a hybrid solution. This means that some users and storage locations stay with Exchange on-premises, while the rest move to the cloud.? With all of your data successfully migrated, you will next want to consider strengthening security, archiving, and data backup in order to fully prepare your organization for the unique challenges of cloud computing. Rest assured, Info Advantage is here to assist you with any challenges your organization faces as you operate within your new cloud environment, as well as to help you through every step of your cloud migration process. Reach out to us at (585) 254-8710 for any IT assistance that you require.
Regardless of how your business?s administration is set up, you should be aware that anyone in a position of authority must have a basic understanding of how IT, and its related responsibilities, functions for your business. Here are four ways that you can learn more about how IT works within your organization. Know Who to Contact for SupportAs a leader within your organization, you need to lead by example. You should be aware of who to contact within your company for any IT-related issues, and this contact information should be shared with other employees within your organization. By cooperating with IT, your business can improve operations so that you don?t encounter a roadblock when it comes time to upgrade to more recent technology, or perform maintenance on critical hardware and software. Working with VendorsDealing with vendors is part of doing business with technology. Your organization likely has several different vendors for your various hardware and software solutions. Knowing how to communicate with them is key to getting the most from your products. In other words, you should at least be privy to information concerning your organization?s relationship with its vendors. Basic Security Best PracticesThis is a part of business that all of your employees should be familiar with. Data security is one of the most crucial parts of running a business, and your team needs to understand this if you want to ensure maximum security. Examples of basic security best practices include the following: Employees should use long, complex passwords. Employees should use two-factor authentication. Employees should be able to identify potential online scams. Managing Laptops and Mobile DevicesIf your employees bring their own devices (BYOD) to the workplace for use on your company network, you have a responsibility to ensure that they?re following proper protocol. Do you have a BYOD policy? If not, you should consider setting one up. You need to have some sort of oversight in regards to what data is being used and accessed on what devices. The idea is to restrict the flow of data through permissions so that you can know how it?s being used, and to limit its exposure to threats. This might seem like a lot to take in, but you don?t have anything to worry about. Most of these issues can be resolved simply by having an IT technician on-hand to consult in times of need. If you don?t have an in-house IT department, this might seem like an impossible task. Thankfully, Info Advantage makes it easy for your business to keep your technology functioning properly and running without incident; all thanks to outsourced managed IT services. Info Advantage can handle the everyday management and maintenance of your IT systems, and act as a consultant, helping you make educated decisions about the future of your technology systems. For more information, give us a call at (585) 254-8710.