Recognising National Entrepreneurs’ Day

Entrepreneurs wear many hats — from business planner and marketing visionary to IT director. To translate vision into growth and opportunity, they understand that businesses today must lead with a digital-first strategy.

Key to success: Successful startups and small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) alike grasp what larger enterprises do — that data is the most critical asset in today’s digital economy, an asset that must be managed and protected.

In today's data-driven world, even seemingly “useless” data that accumulates minute by minute from inventory controls, point-of-sale devices, email, online reviews, CRM systems, accounting software and other sources may have value in the very near future as AI platforms unlock the power of data.

All this information — pulled together and analysed with the help of affordable Business Intelligence and AI tools — is invaluable. It reveals what intuition misses. It can reveal gaps and opportunities for improving efficiencies and profitability.

Did the July promotion increase sales? Did the employee training improve efficiency? Don’t guess. Look at the data and adjust. That’s what data-driven companies consistently do.

On the twisty, uphill road to entrepreneurial success, data is a must-have GPS or compass. Moreover, it fuels generative AI, used by 58% of small businesses to improve customer engagement, inventory management and other tasks. That's according to a 2025 U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey.

But data is only valuable when stored on flash drives, on hard drives attached to the company network or in the cloud. 

Value makes for vulnerability. Cybercrooks often target SMBs. Comprehensive security — maintained in-house or through a consultant or managed service provider — is essential to keeping the digital doors locked. 

Another vulnerability is losing data in a natural disaster or systems failure. In many cases, SMBs never recover from a major loss. For companies that store customer databases, intellectual property and other digital assets on drives in one location, it’s imperative to keep backup copies elsewhere or in the cloud.

Levelling up with AI. A bike shop owner or restaurateur can tap GenAI to create attractive ads, brochures, social media posts and even videos. Saving them and all the variations for repurposing later adds to the demand for data storage.

Also, SMBs can extract even more value from their data with advanced AI. Available in the cloud on a pay-as-you-go basis, these platforms automate data collection, derive deeper insights and forecast trends. 

Take control of your business data. Learn more.