As a small business owner, it's important to stay informed about the developments in the telecommunications industry and how they may impact your business in the future.
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Global Chip Shortage 2023 - Is It Affecting Your Business in Abbotsford?
Since early 2020, you may have heard whispers about the notorious “chip shortage”, and wondered how or if it’s effecting your Fraser Valley business
Whether you know much about it or not, it has been impacting local business here in the Fraser Valley, in ways that continue to evolve.
For those who aren’t technicians or haven’t Googled it yet, the “chips” in discussion are “the brains of electronic devices” and “can be found in a range of products from cars to home appliances to smartphones” (CNBC). They are small pieces of semiconductor material that contain electronic circuits, and are essential to the functioning of many of these devices, as they allow for the processing and storage of information. As you can imagine, with the never-ending rise of devices taking over our lives and homes, these are in very high demand.
The semiconductor industry, which has mostly been controlled by China, hasn’t been able to keep up with this demand. Between the War in Ukraine, rising tensions between the USA and China, and ongoing distribution complications lingering from the Coronavirus, production and distribution of these chips has been slipping and has not been able to recover. This has resulted in less product being available, as well as inflated prices. Specifically for local businesses here in the Valley, the chip shortage has affected the availability of products that are critical for our businesses to operate; You may have encountered long wait times for new PCs and Routers, phones, POS Systems, or other devices. This has made it challenging for our businesses to operate efficiently, causing us to lose customers and revenue.
The big news this season is that the chip shortage is coming near a resolution!
Experts are saying that things are looking up for chip production for all devices except automotive, which are projected to remain in a shortage for a while longer (Outlook). The USA has committed large investments to bring our main sources of chip production to the West (Forbes), so that Europe and the Americas do not have to rely on China for the production of important devices required for business, leisure, government, or military activities. We are certainly hoping that for the sake of our community, the predictions turn out to be accurate, so that all our businesses in the Fraser Valley can regain full access to the products they need, when they need them.
In the meantime, if you are located in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, or another neighbouring city, please feel welcome to fill out this form for a complimentary business tech consultation.
We’ll make sure your tech is running optimally, so you can focus on what really matters to you: your business.
How Fraser Valley Businesses Can Prepare For Outages
If you are a local in the Fraser Valley, you've almost certainly heard of or suffered from the recent major Roger’s network outage across Canada.
CTV reports that almost every type of communication services were cut off, ranging from cell phone service to internet. Although it’s probably good for a people to fast things like reality tv and twitter, it is not so good for businesses and emergency services, such as 911, or government services, such as the ArriveCan app. Another more fatal consequence of the outage was lost access to many banks, so many Canadians could not use their debit or credit cards, or withdraw cash. All of this occurred because Rogers attempted to update a critical system (which went badly, to say the least).
Today, though, we want to address the effect of the outage on Fraser Valley businesses, and how they can protect themselves the next time it occurs.
All businesses need to make money, which is difficult when the primary source of cash flow is gone. Many Fraser Valley businesses today make the mistake of relying on debit and credit. We know this is a super easy system to count on; having one tablet and a minimalist system has its perks. The issue is, in any power outage or network outage, you’re in a pickle. We highly recommend never relying on just one system. At least have two set up at all times, so that when one fails, you are off the hook! For ourselves, we have a backup phone system because clients and suppliers need to be able to reach us if the wifi or network provider (such as Rogers) disappears!
In any retail industry, we stress the importance of teaching staff to run on cash, and having a good plan for internet and power failure.
Have emergency cash prepared for your staff and for gas. Make sure your email address and phone number are commonly known, on google, social media profiles and your store door. When you do end up having to run on cash, don’t forget to let your customers know BEFORE they come inside and fill up their buggies. Have someone standing by the door, or have aa good sign. One store in particular during the Rogers outage was prepared to run on cash, but didn’t tell their customers that purchases could be cash only until they got to the register. There was no sign on the door, or announcements on the intercom or online. Dozens of customers had to leave their buggies at the till, full of melting frozen food. It was a disaster!
Everything fails at least once per year, so make sure that you have at least two systems to run your company on, and an emergency plan in place, so that you are always in business!
Contact us to request a quote if you want to discuss backup system options for your company in Abbotsford, Langley, Chilliwack or Mission!
How to Change the Name of your Facebook Business Page! | Abbotsford IT Support & Services
A lot of local businesses here in Abbotsford, and the Fraser Valley, have gone through some renovations in the last few years.
We’ve gone through a branding change as well, and the reality is that all the steps involved can take a lot of work.
When our grand launch day finally arrived, we were more than ready to share our hard work with the world. All our ducks were in a row, paperwork finished, and the new artwork prepped and ready to go. One of the last things we had to do was announce our new name on social media!
Changing things on most of our social media accounts went very smoothly. Instagram was a breeze, as were Twitter and Google. However, (surprisingly) Facebook was more of a challenge than we had anticipated.
Facebook Procedures
On the surface, it looks easy. You just go to the About section of your business page and click “edit” next to your page name. However, this is where we encountered a surprise.
Facebook’s algorithms will not approve your name change if it looks too different to the previous one. We ran into this problem because our new name looks nothing like our old name… and Facebook refused to approve the change! (Even more surprisingly, though, they had no issue with us changing the username, which gives you your vanity URL!)
In the Page Support Inbox, next to the message telling us of our new name failure, there is an option to appeal their decision. However, our experience (and further research!) showed us that this will do absolutely nothing to help your plight.
So, we found a work around… and it was a success! Being the helpful folks we are, we thought we would share our process…
2-Tier Process
For the easiest success, it is best to do the change in 2 phases.
PHASE 1: First, you change it to a temporary name that incorporates both your new name AND old name. (So, for example, if you are changing your business from something like “Joe Bloggs Plumbing” to “Easy Run Waterworks”, you would make the new FB page name something like “Easy Run Waterworks – Joe Bloggs Plumbing”.) You need to leave it like that for at least 7 days (as per Facebook rules).
PHASE 2: Once your 7 days is up, go back to the name edit option, and repeat the process, but this time change it the name you ultimately want. (i.e. dropping the old name part). Done!
I totally understand the logic behind it. Facebook works on a lot of automation but still wants to protect the everyday user from scams and confusion. You also want your customers/audience to understand that you are the same company with just a new name, and this 2 step process does reinforce that. It is just a tiny bit annoying when you just want to get things done and move on!