New Year’s traditions are fascinating. There are quaint traditions, like a kiss at midnight, grand traditions, like the blow-out party at Times Square, festive traditions, like fireworks, and good, ol’ southern traditions, like eating black-eyed peas.
And then there are some that are unfamiliar to us . . . and even a bit odd by our standards.
New Year’s around the world.
In many Spanish-speaking countries, it’s tradition to eat 12 grapes on New Year’s Eve for good luck—one for each month of the new year. Okay. That’s not too strange. But here’s the twist. You have to start eating at the first stroke of midnight and consume one grape for each toll.
It sounds easy, but it is not.
In the Philippines, it’s considered good luck to wear polka dots on New Year’s Day. Every year, Filipino folks break out all kinds of dotted attire to ensure future prosperity.
And speaking of good luck clothes, in some Latin countries it’s believed that the color of your underwear will influence the kind of year you’ll have. Yellow for prosperity, red for passion and romance, white for peace, blue for good health, green for well-being, and pink for luck in love.
Plan that New Year’s outfit carefully, folks. There’s apparently a lot riding on your undies.
What we all want.
The really interesting thing about all of this is the common theme. Everyone wants prosperity, luck and good fortune. Which makes sense. Who wouldn’t want those things?!
And New Year’s is a time when we look to the future, hoping for the best.
If you’re a small business owner, your hopes for the new year almost certainly include prosperity for your business. There’s all kinds of advice we could offer to help make 2018 a little brighter for your company, but today we’re going to focus on one critical area: cloud services.
Cloud service tips to help you rock 2018.
Ready to kick it into high gear for the new year? Well, alright. Let’s get to it.
1. Dive In
See that 8 at the end of the year above? Yeah, it’s not a 0. This isn’t 2010.
If you’re not already using the cloud, it’s take to time this particular bull by the horns. It’s estimated that by 2020, 60–70% of all software, services and technology spending will go toward cloud-based services. In other words, the majority of business tech will be in the cloud.
We’re far enough into the migration to cloud services to know they’re stable, secure and practical. This is a great time to make the move if you haven’t already.
2. Get into Integration
Because cloud services run the gamut, it’s easy to think you need to overhaul your entire infrastructure. While that kind of enthusiasm is admirable, that kind of shift would be a nightmare. Instead, pick a place to start, tackle that project, and then (when you know that cloud service is working well for you) move on to the next.
But where to start?
3. Go for the Low Hanging Fruit
One of the easiest cloud services for small businesses to incorporate first is cloud storage. That gives you the benefit of offsite backups without the hassle of severe growing pains. In fact, cloud-based storage is one of the leading new technologies right now.
4. Take the Time to Train
But before you make a significant change and simply announce it, take the time to train your employees. As Small Business Digest points out, “Adequate training is one of the best ways to maximize adoption.”
It doesn’t matter how amazing a new cloud service is if your people don’t know how to use it. Plus, employee morale has a real impact on productivity.
5. Review Your Cloud Services . . . then Review Again . . . and Again . . .
Even if you have a firm grasp on how cloud services can help your company today, that doesn’t mean you’ll know the best options for you and your staff this time next year. No one does. Cloud services are changing too fast.
Which means you need to review the cloud services you use on a regular basis. At least once annually. As cloud-based solutions evolve, you’ll want to evolve with them.
6. Pick the Right Partner
Admittedly, this last tip has the potential to be self-serving. (Hey, we’re not above plugging our amazing services!) But if you’re serious about cloud adoption, you really should consider working with an IT partner.
Our experts are certainly capable of giving you a hand, but we’re not the only competent provider out there. Make sure you work with someone who knows cloud services, keeps up with changing trends, and is committed to providing the highest levels of responsive customer service.
You know, like us. (*wink*)