Small Business Tech: The Paradox of Choice

The average person is continually blasted with articles and advertisements that scream the need to update and upgrade whatever tech they currently have to “stay with the times”. “If you don’t make the move now, you will be left behind” they say. “There a huge savings in tech investments and all your competitors are doing it so you should do” they say. "A new age is coming and holding on to old ways of doing things will drive you out of business." "Change is the new normal," blah blah blah, yak yak yak.

The truth of the matter is, there’s thousands of vendors out there who want to sell you on whatever technology solution they happen to be peddling. Some pitch the idea of streamlining your business for efficiency, others offer security for your data, and still others offer solutions for increased sales and marketing.

The question becomes: Do any of these solutions actually help?

The short answer is yes.

The hard part is that with so many options we tend to become paralyzed. According to psychologist Barry Schwartz, freedom of choice doesn’t help us even if it is considered one of the “benefits” of western society. This is the paradox of choice. With so many new technology options available for small businesses, it becomes easier to tune them all out. When making a decision seems so difficult why make one at all?

This is what you should be wary of because as mentioned above there are a lot of technology options out there that can have a huge positive impact on your business. From there it’s key to identify what the needs of your organization are and how they could be solved by some form of technology. Assessing needs will be explored more in a follow up article, but for now focus on becoming aware of the paradox of choice. It’s pervasive and can make you tune out not only the tech needs of your business, but also the solutions to those needs.