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If your business uses technology, but you are not trained in it, do you fear, or embrace technology?
If your business uses technology, but you are not trained in it, do you fear or embrace technology?
One of the joys of being an entrepreneur in the digital age is the breadth of opportunities technology offers, to reach customers and markets beyond anything we may have imagined even a decade ago. ‘Beyond Boundaries’ is the term that comes to mind when one thinks of today’s entrepreneurs.
At the same time, I wonder if sometimes the opportunities that technology seems to offer us, also throw up their own (interesting) challenges. For instance, if the potential market appears larger and larger, is it harder to focus and make one piece of it your own?
Be that as it may, one of the major trends I’m sure many of you may have noticed in the last few years is many women of all ages, but especially young women, setting up businesses enabled by technology. Not all of these scale up to be multi-million dollar enterprises (or even aim to), but from IT Services entrepreneurs and technology app builders to home bakers and dress-makers, women are enthusiastically adopting the use of technology to build, market and grow their businesses.
In my own case, as a non-tech person running a tech-enabled business, one of my learnings while running Women’s Web has been how creative the use of technology can be. As someone with training in literature as well as marketing, I had previously never thought of technology as a creative field. Yet, in the process of building this product, i.e this website and community that we offer users, I have realised that ideas flow in both directions.
Sometimes, we think of an experience that we would like users to have and then look to see how technology can enable it, but also, sometimes what technology makes possible inspires fresh ideas about making things better for users.
I am sure this is true for most of you who run businesses that use technology as an enabler. The challenge then, is to keep up one’s learning about tech, without necessarily becoming a technologist yourself!
I learnt this the hard way after the first year of running the site. In my first year, I kept tech at an arm’s length since I knew nothing about it, and assumed that the tech team I had hired would handle everything competently. This turned out to be a big mistake, and we ended up pretty much doing a complete overhaul at the end of the first year, thanks to a team that let us down. While I am still no expert, I realised that I need to at least understand how things work, whether or not I ever write a line of code myself.
Some of the ways non-tech entrepreneurs like us can keep learning about technologies that could impact our businesses include:
As someone who used to believe that technology was for engineers, my work as a digital entrepreneur has changed my understanding to one of more interest in and respect for what technology offers, even for very small businesses.
If you are an SMB owner, what are some of the key ways in which you use technology? Do you fear, or embrace technology? What do you do to keep yourself updated? Please do share in the comments.
This post is being supported by Dell, which is a key partner at the ongoing INKTalks event in Mumbai. The INKTalk Conference that is hosted annually explores how to affect change in the way the young and young at heart view their world, goals and ambitions, particularly in emerging economies. You can get a taste of the INKTalks events here.
Be sure to catch the Dell Session on How to Create a Brand on Social Media that will take place on the 1st of November between 3 and 4 pm. Do attend the event or catch the live Webcast. Tweet your favorite moments of the conference with #DellAtInkLive.
businesswoman using technology image via shutterstock
Founder & Chief Editor of Women's Web, Aparna believes in the power of ideas and conversations to create change. She has been writing since she was ten. In another life, she used to be read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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