Small business owners have got a lot to think about. Should they hire more staff? Should they open a new location? Does their business offer services or products that aren’t generating enough income? But here’s something that far too many business owners don’t think about: What happens if the one person who has access to all your small business’ online accounts – everything from your business’ online bank accounts to its social media sites to its cloud-based payroll software – suddenly dies? Will you be able to access these important accounts?

A big issue

The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted this issue on its Web site. It might not seem like a problem that your business will suffer. But if your business does have online accounts to which only one person has access, you could be tempting fate. If that person dies, are you able to access your online bank account so that you can pay your vendors or cut a rent check to your landlord? How about your payroll software? Are you able to cut checks to your employees, all of whom want to get paid on their regular payday? And then there’s Twitter and Facebook. If your business relies on these tools to talk with customers, you’ll need to know the passwords that give you access.

The cloud isn’t fail-proof

The Wall Street Journal story defines the issue as a matter of trust. To put it simply, business owners put too much trust in the cloud. They erroneously feel that information they put in the cloud will remain secure forever. This isn’t true, though. The cloud doesn’t offer absolute protection from hackers. Plus it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to always access your critical business files, information and accounts. In the event you can’t access your online accounts because none of your surviving employees knows the passwords, having all your critical business matters stored online won’t be much help.

Fixes

The easiest fix would be to make sure that more than one employee knows the passwords that go along with your online business accounts. You could also prepare a list of these passwords and store it somewhere secure, such as safe. Secondly, make certain that your business’ online accounts aren’t registered to just a single employee. Some companies – such as Yahoo! – state that ownership of an account ends once the account holder dies. You don’t want to get in a tricky legal situation. Preferably, make sure that several employees – and, obviously, yourself – have legal access to your business’ key online accounts.

Here’s a challenging question: How come there so few women earning a living in technology fields? It is a question that NPR asked recently in its All Tech Considered blog. And it’s a question that people who run businesses ought to be asking, also. It’s no myth that women are not adequately represented in the tech business.

Bad numbers

NPR looked at a study from the National Center for Women and Information Technology saying that women represent a tiny 6 percent of the chief executives at the country’s top 100 tech companies. NPR also references a story in the New York Times saying that women have created only 8 percent of venture-backed tech startups.

A dim future?

The worse news? The NPR story states that these numbers are consistent in high school and elementary school. Girls just aren’t as involved in technology and science as are boys. As NPR says, you simply can’t argue that there’s a shortage of women in tech. What you can debate is why this is happening.

Always merit-based?

Some have argued that success in tech is merit-based: People with smarts, good ideas and strong work ethics have a tendency to rise to the top, they say, regardless of their gender. The NPR story, though, claims that it’s not always true. Studies have found cases of gender- and race-based bias in the technology fields, according to NRP. This story should inspire all business owners to take another look at their own companies. Are there women in their own IT departments?

There are many keys to running a successful small business. One of the more important? The owners of small businesses need to be organized. It’s too easy to miss an important task. Luckily for us, the iPhone — a tool of choice for a lot of small business owners — features several apps that can help business owners organize their time more effectively. The Web site Business News Daily highlights some of the best.

Fantastical 2

Yes, your iPhone already comes with a default calendar app. But it’s not that good. The $1.99 Fantastical 2 calendar app, though, is. Business News Daily raves about a number of its features. But the most interesting? You can tell Fantastical 2 what you must do in a given day — for example, you can say “I’m meeting Sarah for dinner on January 21 at five p.m.” — and the app will instantly schedule that appointment for you. That’s a true time-saver.

Schedule Planner

The schedules of business owners can quickly become chaotic. A good scheduling app is very important. The free Schedule Planner app is one of these. Business News Daily has plenty of nice things to say about Schedule Planner: It’s easy to learn, easy to use and provides several powerful features. A neat feature? Business owners can assign colors to different tasks: Red can mean meetings, blue can mean sales calls and orange can mean free time. The app then generates charts to show you how much time you’re dedicating to each activity. This is a good way for business owners to evaluate their priorities and make changes when needed.

Any.do

To-do lists are critical for business owners. But pen-and-paper lists are, of course, limited. The free Any.do app changes this. This electronic to-do list includes its own set of intriguing features designed to help business owners operate more efficiently. For example, you can add tasks to four categories: today, tomorrow, this week or someday. This helps owners keep track of immediate tasks and long-term goals both.

A new year has begun, but have you made any updates to your small business’ technology? If not, you may be costing your company money. After all, technology can help your employees function more efficiently. That, in turn, can make your business more profitable in 2014. SmallBusinessComputing.com recently took a look at some of the more interesting business-technology trends for 2014. It’s worth studying these to learn how you can boost your business’s productivity levels this year.

The cloud matters

One sure bet? According to SmallBusinessComputing, the time is right for small businesses to invest in cloud computing. Using the cloud, businesses can store their software, programs and data externally rather than on their computers’ hard drives. This can make businesses more efficient; they won’t have to panic every time their network crashes.

Big data

You may think that big data is only for big companies. You would be wrong, though. SmallBusinessComputing predicts that 2014 might be the year in which small business owners finally take advantage of big data analytics to better understand their customers and their needs. This is something your small business should consider, too. If you know more about your customers, you can provide them better service, something that will, in the long term, boost your business’ bottom line.

The end of desktops?

Small business owners have to save as much money as possible. One way? It’s time to get rid of the desktop computer. Most employees these days can do their job on smaller mobile devices or laptops. There’s no reason for small businesses to place a desktop computer on the desk of every employee. SmallBusinessComputing.com predicts that more businesses will adopt this strategy in 2014.

This past holiday season demonstrated once again how popular tablets, smartphones and laptops are with consumers. It’s of little wonder, then, that a recent story in USA Today forecasted that 2014 will see big profits for technology companies. The same story predicts that tech companies will remain some of the most profitable U.S. businesses. Again, this isn’t much of a surprise.

A strong performance

The USA Today story states that in 2014 technology companies that are part of the S&P 500 index should earn a net income 9.3 percent higher than it was in 2013. This information emanates from FactSet, a firm that calculates the earnings estimates of Wall Street. This year, then, stands to be an improvement from 2013: In that year, tech companies only saw their earnings rise by a skimpy 1.9 percent.

Strong profits

Profit margins will continue to rise in this sector, too, in 2014, according to USA Today. The newspaper reported that tech firms are expected to see an average profit margin of 15 percent to 16 percent in 2014. That, of course, is an exceptionally strong profit margin. To put it simply, tech firms in the United States should be quite profitable this year.

Why so much success?

This success shouldn’t be surprising. Today’s consumers are obsessed with their tech gadgets. And this is a long-time trend. Just look at how popular tablets and smartphones are becoming. Video-game systems remain hot sellers. And tech companies are evolving and updating their offerings on a near constant basis. Tech is definitely king today.