https://themanasgroup.com/insights Short, plain pieces on the things that quietly go wrong at small firms. en-US The Manas Group hello@themanasgroup.com (The Manas Group) https://themanasgroup.com/ https://themanasgroup.com/insights/nobody-reads-your-website https://themanasgroup.com/insights/nobody-reads-your-website Sat, 01 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Somebody looks you up at nine at night, on a phone, with two other firms open in two other tabs. What a small firm’s site actually has to do in that minute, and the four things that decide whether she calls in the morning. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/the-calls-you-never-hear-about https://themanasgroup.com/insights/the-calls-you-never-hear-about Tue, 28 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT She does not leave a message and she does not call back — she calls the next name on her list, and nothing about it shows up in your day. How to find out how many, and the honest range of fixes from somebody covering lunch up to an assistant that answers and books. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/what-the-safeguards-rule-asks-a-dealership-for https://themanasgroup.com/insights/what-the-safeguards-rule-asks-a-dealership-for Tue, 21 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT A page in a lender’s packet asks whether your store complies, and nobody in the building is certain. Most of what the rule asks for is already running. What is usually missing is the written program itself, a second step on the lender portals, and one page a year. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/your-written-security-plan https://themanasgroup.com/insights/your-written-security-plan Tue, 07 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT A line near the bottom of the renewal asks whether you are aware you must have a written data security plan. Who actually requires it, what belongs in one, and why the file somebody downloaded in 2022 is probably not it any more. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/leaving-without-a-bad-month https://themanasgroup.com/insights/leaving-without-a-bad-month Tue, 23 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT Nothing they hold is theirs — your passwords, your files, your accounts, your web address. What a clean handover looks like, why the old arrangement should stay standing until the new one is proven, and the one record to check before you say anything to anybody. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/two-quotes-that-look-nothing-alike https://themanasgroup.com/insights/two-quotes-that-look-nothing-alike Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT Both are for the same fourteen people in the same building, and they are nowhere near each other. What actually drives the cost of looking after a small firm’s technology, and the questions that make two quotes comparable. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/you-can-wait-on-most-of-it https://themanasgroup.com/insights/you-can-wait-on-most-of-it Tue, 12 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT There is usually one small job worth handing over now, and a longer list worth leaving alone for a year. Plus the question to ask before any client file leaves your building. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/you-won-the-contract-now-the-questionnaire https://themanasgroup.com/insights/you-won-the-contract-now-the-questionnaire Tue, 14 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT The work you spent four months winning came with a security questionnaire, due back Friday, and nobody in a fourteen-person firm has that in their job description. Here is who should answer it, and why an honest no is worth more than a hopeful yes. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/nobody-takes-calls-in-the-back-room https://themanasgroup.com/insights/nobody-takes-calls-in-the-back-room Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT One room where the calls break up, and after a year nobody mentions it any more. Telling a building problem from an equipment problem takes a walk around the floor, not a purchase. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/your-busiest-month https://themanasgroup.com/insights/your-busiest-month Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:00:00 GMT The work that belongs in the quiet season keeps getting pushed into the loud one. Then a machine that has been making a noise since November gets replaced in a hurry in March, and you live with that choice for years. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/the-week-somebody-leaves https://themanasgroup.com/insights/the-week-somebody-leaves Tue, 20 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT A resignation lands on a Tuesday and the whole office turns kind. Six months later the mailbox is still open, because closing it felt, at the time, like an accusation. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/the-backup-youve-never-tested https://themanasgroup.com/insights/the-backup-youve-never-tested Tue, 18 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT Almost every firm we review has copies of its files. Far fewer have ever put one back. The gap between those two things is where bad weeks come from. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/three-former-employees https://themanasgroup.com/insights/three-former-employees Tue, 07 Oct 2025 12:00:00 GMT When someone leaves a small firm, the desk gets cleared and the keys come back. The logins usually don’t. Here is what we find, and how long it has usually been sitting there. https://themanasgroup.com/insights/what-your-insurance-requires https://themanasgroup.com/insights/what-your-insurance-requires Tue, 02 Sep 2025 12:00:00 GMT The renewal questionnaire has quietly become a technical audit. Firms are answering yes to questions nobody in the building can verify — and finding out at the worst possible moment.