The Small Business Technology Guide
by Danielle Lemons
Thirty-three short chapters on websites, getting found, phones, IT and running operations, written for owners who are not technical. Each chapter stands on its own, so you can start with whatever is causing the biggest headache right now.
Read the free sample on ScribdBook page on daniellelemons.com
Kindle ebook: coming soon
Technology that works, explained in plain words
Small business owners rarely need more technology. They need the technology they already pay for to work, and they need someone to explain it without jargon. That is the idea behind The Small Business Technology Guide.
Danielle Lemons wrote the book after more than 20 years leading operations and delivery teams in technology. Across hundreds of projects, she kept seeing the same pattern: a website that does not bring in calls, a phone system that drops them, an IT arrangement nobody is clearly responsible for, and work that lives in one person’s head. The guide collects what she has written for owners facing exactly those problems.
The book is organized into five parts: your website, getting found, phones and internet, IT and security, and running operations. Chapters are short and practical. You do not have to read them in order, and you do not need a technical background to use them.
The five parts of the guide
The full book has 33 chapters. The free sample includes the introduction and five of them, one from each part. The summaries below describe those chapters and what you can act on from each.
Chapter 1: Why I build your website before you ask me a single question about price
Many web designers open with a budget question. Danielle starts by asking what your business actually does: who walks through your door, why they call you instead of the competition, and what has been sitting on your to-do list because your current site cannot handle it. Then she builds a real, finished site you can click through on your own phone.
Takeaway: judge a website by seeing the real thing, not a mood board. Look for a plan that includes hosting, security, backups, lead alerts and an editing panel you control, so changing a phone number never needs a developer.
Chapter 8: Three things I check first when a local business website is not bringing in calls
When a site is not producing calls, Danielle does not start with the design. She asks three questions. Can a customer call you in one tap on a phone? Does the top of the page say what you do and where, in plain words? Can you update the site yourself?
Takeaway: put a tap-to-call button at the top of every page, replace slogans with a sentence like “Residential electrician in Hendersonville, Tennessee,” and make sure hours and prices can be changed in minutes. All three are free to check.
Chapter 15: A dropped call is a missed job
In a service business, a dropped call is a missed job, an undelivered voicemail is a lost customer, and a booking tool your team cannot figure out is an afternoon of work that never gets scheduled. This chapter shows how to put a real cost on unreliable technology.
Takeaway: count what an hour of downtime costs by asking how many calls come in on a normal morning and what one of those jobs is worth. Then check where your calls and messages actually go, choose tools your team will use correctly, and maintain systems before they fail.
Chapter 20: What “managed IT services” actually means for a small business
The phrase sounds expensive and vague. Danielle explains it in four parts: someone is responsible, you get help choosing and not only fixing, support is something your team can actually use, and there are fewer surprises because systems are checked and updated before they fail.
Takeaway: before you sign, ask who answers when you call, how fast they answer, and what is included in the monthly price versus what costs extra. Get the answers in writing.
Chapter 30: Why every small business needs a written process, even a short one
A process that lives only in someone’s head is a risk. The chapter draws on Danielle’s time in the Army National Guard, where explosive ordnance disposal work runs on written procedures followed the same way every time, and on the project management standards she built for development teams.
Takeaway: start with the three tasks your business repeats every week, keep each process to one page, write it for the newest person on the team, and update it whenever a job goes sideways. The goal is a business that runs when the owner is on vacation.
28 more chapters
The full book continues across the same five parts, with short chapters that each stand on their own. The Kindle ebook is coming soon. Until then, the free sample on Scribd is the best way to see the writing style and decide whether the book fits your business.
Written for owners, not IT departments
This guide is for people who run a business and also end up responsible for its technology, whether they want to be or not. It fits especially well if you are:
- An owner of a service business, such as a contractor, clinic, church or shop, whose phones and systems have to work every day.
- Someone whose website has not been touched in years and is not bringing in calls.
- Paying for phones, internet or IT support and unsure what you are actually getting.
- Running a team where the important steps live in one person’s head.
- Looking for clear questions to ask a vendor before signing anything.
You do not need to know any technical terms to read it. When a term matters, the chapter explains it in a sentence.
Start where it hurts
Because each chapter stands on its own, the best way to use the book is to pick the problem that hurts right now. If calls are slow, begin in Part 2. If the phones are unreliable, begin in Part 3. If nobody is clearly responsible for your computers, begin in Part 4. Read one chapter, make one change, and come back for the next.
The chapters are also meant to give you better questions. A vendor who cannot say who answers the phone, how fast, and what is included has told you something important before you have signed.
Read the first chapters free
The sample includes the introduction and Chapters 1, 8, 15, 20 and 30. It is hosted on Scribd. The full book has 33 chapters, and the Kindle ebook is coming soon.
Read the free sample on ScribdMore about the guideDanielle Lemons
Danielle Lemons is Vice President of Operations at DirecTech Connect in Nashville, Tennessee, a provider of business phone systems, managed IT services, websites and digital marketing. She has held that role since November 2024 and has more than 20 years in technology operations.
She spent nine years at Avnet as Customer Operations Manager, responsible for forecasting $1 billion in annual revenue. She has led technical project delivery at Tragic Media in San Diego and at Blattner Tech Digital Agency in Nashville, has managed as many as 40 active client projects at once, and has delivered hundreds of projects. She also served in the Army National Guard in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD).
She is based in Middle Tennessee. Learn more on her About page, see the press page, or browse her photo gallery.
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