My Business Journey
Basically, throughout my 25 plus year career I’ve always been involved in data and I also come from a corporate background working for very large organisations, dealing with large volumes of data. Recently, in my last corporate role I was Head of Data Governance which got me closer to GDPR and I also ran the programme to get the company compliant for 25th May 2018.This made me realise that large organisations have the resources both in terms of staff and finances to be able to implement a robust programme to become compliant and maintain their compliance. However smaller organisations don’t have that luxury and in fact they often don’t think that it even applies to them because they’re so small or they don’t think they deal with data at all.
So there’s a huge amount of awareness that needs to be raised and these small organisations are extremely vulnerable, as there are heavy fines which the ICO has the authority to inflict, or even a prison charge. Most small businesses aren’t even aware of this risk.
I set myself up on a mission to help these businesses. One of my key services is as a speaker at events or conferences where I raise the awareness around the issue of Small Businesses and GDPR. However I also offer a starter kit where I use my GDPR expertise as well as my project and risk management experience plus the best practices which I’ve come across during my career to give a small enterprises a full end to end service that not only gives them the tick in the box but also embeds GDPR within the organisation’s culture so that it becomes their second nature and ultimately strengthens their brand against their competitors and protects them.
A good way of identifying if an organisation is on board with GDPR is by reading their privacy or cookie notice and how it’s written. I am really passionate about helping small businesses understand the GDPR regulation which can be daunting with lots of jargon, and understand that it’s there to help you as it promotes innovation and continuous movement. The starter kit offers is an all in one solution.
I also offer a Data Officer retainer service, which can be utilised to maintain compliance and tap into my expertise for advice or for practical work such Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs). Due to misconceptions of the regulations I have developed a robust and affordable training programme with 8+1 modules (18hrs) which is spread across a period of 12 months, the sessions are delivered live online with lots of real samples, engagement and interaction. I believe that the smaller businesses are vulnerable and exposed and I really want to help them without the huge cost of employing someone specific.