What to Set Up Before Your New Hire's First Day
Your new employee starts Monday.
Is everything they need actually ready?
In most small businesses, there's no single person whose job it is to think about technology setup for a new hire. So it gets improvised. Someone scrambles to create an email account. A shared login gets passed along "for now." Security steps get skipped because there's not enough time.
That's not a failure. It's what happens when nobody owns the process.
The fix isn't complicated. It's a short set of decisions made before day one:
Does this person have their own email and their own login to every system?
Is two-step verification set up before they start, not "whenever they get around to it"?
Does the device they're using meet a basic standard?
Is any of this written down?
The difference between a first day that works and one that doesn't isn't budget. It's whether someone thought through the steps ahead of time.
Password management and access control for small businesses.
Every browser asks the same question: "Save this password?"
Most people click yes. And for personal use, that is fine.
But in a business, that quiet habit creates problems nobody sees until something breaks.
The real issue is not whether your team uses Chrome, a spreadsheet, sticky notes, or the one person in the office who "knows all the logins."
The issue is that your business probably cannot answer three questions:
Who has access to what?
How do you revoke access when someone leaves?
How do you recover access if someone is unavailable?
A purpose-built password manager solves all three. But not every option is built for business use.
This week on the blog, I walk through what to look for, which options hold up under scrutiny, and the one provider with a track record that should disqualify it from consideration.
What Actually Happens When a Laptop Gets Stolen
A laptop disappears from your business tomorrow. What happens in the next 24 hours?
Not the dramatic version. The real one.
The first 15 minutes: Can anyone confirm what was on it? Was it encrypted? Were passwords saved in the browser? Can someone open your email without logging in again?
The next hour: Who is changing passwords, and in what order? Were files backed up, or did critical documents live only on that device? Does your industry require you to notify clients?
The next day: Can you document what protections were in place when you file the insurance claim? Can you tell the employee who lost it that the data was secure?
Every one of those questions has a clear, calm answer when a few basics are already configured. Encryption. Cloud storage. A password manager. Remote device management.
The hard part is not the tools. It is making sure they are set up on every device, verified regularly, and documented well enough to hold up when it matters.
The five-minute security check every small business should do today
Most small businesses are not one catastrophic mistake away from a security incident.
They are one overlooked detail away.
A former employee whose account was never closed. A router that has not been updated since it was installed. A password manager that everyone agreed to use and nobody has opened since.
Three things worth checking today, no technical background required:
1. Are your accounts actually protected?
Not just "do you have a password manager" but are you using the audit feature? Most people have never run it. It is usually eye-opening.
2. Do you know who still has access?
Changing a password does not remove someone's login. Former employees, old contractors, file storage tools like Dropbox that nobody manages anymore. Access tends to outlive the relationships it was created for.
3. Are your devices still getting security updates?
Windows 10 support ended in October 2025. A lot of small business machines are currently running an unsupported operating system with no patches coming. Most owners have not been told that in plain terms.
None of these require a consultant. They just require an honest look.
The Solid Footing Self-Assessment
A question worth sitting with:
If the most important laptop in your business disappeared tonight, what would tomorrow look like?
A few more in the same spirit:
If someone left your company today, could you remove their access to every business account before end of day?
Does every person on your team have their own login, or are some accounts shared?
Is your business data stored somewhere other than individual devices?
Do you have a backup? Have you ever tested whether it actually works?
If your internet went out this morning, how long before your team could not do their jobs?
Most business owners have a gut sense that things could be tighter. Very few have ever looked at it all in one place.
If you answered no to more of those than you expected, that is actually useful information. You now know where to start looking.