This checklist is designed as a starting point for organizations in Dickson and surrounding Middle Tennessee communities. It applies whether you run a professional office, contracting company, automotive business, retail or service company, church, cemetery, ministry, nonprofit or other local organization.

1. Make Sure Your Website Has One Clear Job

A website should do more than look modern. A visitor should be able to understand what you do, where you serve and what to do next within a few seconds.

• Make the primary service and service area obvious near the top of the page.
• Use a visible phone number, contact form or scheduling action.
• Test the site on a phone, not just a desktop computer.
• Remove outdated services, broken links and old staff information.
• Make sure forms actually deliver notifications to the correct person.

If the website is hard to use on mobile or makes the visitor hunt for basic information, improving conversion may produce more value than simply adding more traffic.

2. Strengthen Local Search and Business Information

Your organization name, phone number, website and service information should be consistent across your major online profiles. For businesses that qualify for a Google Business Profile, the profile should accurately represent the real business and the areas actually served.

• Keep the business name consistent instead of adding extra keywords to it.
• Use the same primary phone and website where practical.
• Keep categories and service descriptions aligned with services you actually provide.
• Request honest reviews after completed work rather than scripting keyword-heavy reviews.
• Keep hours, photos and contact information current.

Local visibility is built through accurate information, useful content and real customer activity—not by creating fake offices or duplicate location profiles.

3. Protect Email, Microsoft 365 and Important Accounts

For many small organizations, email is one of the most important systems in the business. A compromised mailbox can expose customer information, invoices, password-reset links and internal conversations.

• Turn on multifactor authentication for email and other critical accounts.
• Remove accounts belonging to former employees or volunteers.
• Review who has administrator privileges.
• Install software and operating-system updates promptly.
• Train staff to recognize phishing, fake invoices and suspicious password-reset messages.

NIST continues to emphasize practical, risk-based cybersecurity for smaller organizations, including strong foundational controls, staff awareness and an approach appropriate to the organization’s size and resources. NIST Small Business Cybersecurity resources →

4. Know What Is Backed Up—and Whether It Can Be Restored

Having a backup product is not the same as having a recovery plan. Identify the systems and information that would stop operations if they disappeared tomorrow.

• List critical files, accounting data, customer records, websites and line-of-business systems.
• Confirm which systems are actually backed up.
• Know how long backups are retained.
• Protect backup administrator accounts.
• Periodically test whether important information can be restored.

Churches, nonprofits and cemeteries should include membership, donor, historical, cemetery, financial and operational records in this review where applicable.

5. Put Basic Rules Around Business AI

AI can improve research, drafting, documentation, customer communication and repetitive office work, but employees need clear boundaries.

• Decide which AI tools are approved for business use.
• Define what confidential or regulated information must not be entered into general-purpose AI tools.
• Require human review before AI-generated material is sent to customers or relied upon for important decisions.
• Train staff on useful prompts and real business workflows instead of leaving everyone to experiment independently.
• Measure whether an AI workflow actually saves time or improves quality.

The goal is controlled adoption: use AI where it adds measurable value without creating unnecessary privacy, security or operational risk.

6. Find One Repetitive Workflow to Improve

Do not begin automation by asking, “What can AI do?” Begin with a real process that consumes staff time or causes missed follow-up.

A small, measurable workflow improvement is usually a better first project than trying to automate an entire organization at once.

7. Create a Simple Technology Ownership List

Many technology problems begin because nobody knows who owns an account, domain, subscription or renewal.

• Domain registrar and DNS access
• Website hosting and administrator accounts
• Email and Microsoft 365 administrators
• Internet and network equipment
• Backup systems
• Security products
• Important software subscriptions
• Vendor contacts and renewal dates

Store this information securely and make sure more than one authorized person can recover critical accounts when appropriate. This is particularly important for volunteer-led churches, cemeteries, ministries and nonprofits where responsibility can change from year to year.

This article provides general technology guidance and is not legal, accounting, medical, regulatory or cybersecurity certification advice. Organizations handling regulated or sensitive data should obtain appropriate professional review for their specific environment.