Warning for the Technophobic SMB: Engage or Be Left Behind

This post is for the 40+, techno-phobic small business owner or nonprofit director. If that’s you, read on.

Lets begin with a quick story. It’s the early 80’s, and computers had not yet taken over our car dashboards. So odds are pretty good that one of your ‘circle of five’ most important Rolodex contacts -- along with your doctor, lawyer and trusted tailor -- was your mechanic. And if you happened to live in Los Angeles and drove a German engineered car, that mechanic might have been my dad. Great at his craft, he used his hands and talent to build a successful auto repair business that provided a nice middle class existence for our family and helped pay for my marketing degree. I’m eternally grateful.

The problem came toward the end of his business life when technology invaded the workings of our autos. He, then a 50-something technophobe, refused to acknowledge the signs of change around him, and more importantly, refused to adapt. Slowly at first, then more rapidly with each ensuing year, he watched his client base and revenue drop. Lucky for him, he was nearing retirement.

Now let’s fast forward to 2010 and you. If you’re still reading, I assume you fit the profile of 40+, techno-phobic small business or nonprofit director. Maybe you’re resistant to digital marketing. Heaven forbid you still don’t have a website. Perhaps your tech blockage is all things social media, after all, isn’t it just teenagers and celebrities out there on Facebook and tweeting their every move?

To you I say, in a caring yet firm way, wake up! Get engaged. Or be left behind. Need I state the obvious that this lesson is all around us in big businesses and smaller fish.

Its not a matter of if your business will suffer. It’s only a matter of when.

So where do you begin? Well, almost anywhere is better than inertia. Personally, I recommend LinkedIn as a simple launchpad for the uninitiated business person. It will yield at least three immediate results:

1. After you enroll (it's free) and you create your basic profile (will take you less than an hour), you will have put the first stake in the heart of leaving your technophobic ways behind. That's a major mojo booster.
2. After you next invite several business colleagues to connect to you, you'll see it's simply the old school notion of networking your Rolodex, only online, on steroids.
3. Finally, search for a few of your top customers or clients. Odds are they're already there. You'll learn info about them you didn't know, which in turn will very likely get your idea engine cranking about how you can use these new insights to provide better service, ways you can help them connect to others you know, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Still hesitant? Grab your teenager, your 20-something niece, your tech savvy neighbor -- someone to log in with you and walk you through. You'll open up a whole new, exciting world to help grow your business.