Need help running your business? Look to the clouds

I’ve been running a small business for years. I wouldn’t go back to working for a corporation. But small business is a euphemism for Big Headaches.

For instance, my computer system is never far from my thoughts. I send more than 6 million e-mail newsletters a week. My Web site is very, very busy. My studios make national radio shows. When my system is down, I’m dead.

I know computers pretty thoroughly. Nonetheless, mine have been a struggle for years.

If I struggle with computers, how do other businesspeople get by? I’ve never figured that out. I suspect people limp along, working around, and cursing, their computers and networks.

There may be true help on the horizon. It doesn’t really extend to local computer systems yet. But it’s making other features of business easier. I’m talking about cloud computing.

Don’t shut down, please. Cloud computing is an amorphous term invented by the digital elite. But its meaning is simple: Business features you need run on somebody else’s computers. You just access them.

For instance, I run my customer relations management through an online company. My backups are handled by another firm.

What does this mean? Well, that stuff is pretty much automatic. I don’t worry about security problems, server failure or installing and updating software. Somebody else takes care of those issues. We just use the front end.