Gdpr - Small Business Expert

How does GDPR affect your business?
Because each business is different - the impact will be different from one business to the next.
There's a lot of hype and scaremongering going around - some are justified, some is intended to drive business owners into the arms of the consultants.
... But let's apply some common sense here.
It's maybe easy to explain with a few simple examples:
Let's start with the sole trader - may be a boiler servicing & repair man operating on his own with no employees.
He gets enquiries over the phone. Let's assume he doesn't have a website - to keep things simple. He may have a list of regular customers that he returns to year-after-year, but most of his business is ad-hoc...
His exposure to GDPR is as follows: His phone - he probably keeps the names and numbers for his customer in his phone. He may even have their addresses recorded on the phone. His diary - almost certainly has the names, numbers and addresses of customers. His invoices will have the same or similar details.
The thorny bit of GDPR is control of personally identiafiable details. So how our boiler repair man controls access to his phone, diary, invoice copies and who else may have access to them - are the important points.
All seems a bit overkill - doesn't it?
And, essentially it is.
But there have been lots and lots of high profile data breaches with big companies (banks, games companies, etc) where consumer data has been stolen by hackers, or lost (laptops left on trains, etc).
It could just as easily happen to our boiler repair friend. His diary or invoice book could be stolen from his van. He might lose his phone...
GDPR is concerned about what steps he is going to take to prevent data loss - and what steps he will take in the event of a data loss or theft.
So yes - at a high level, it seems like complete overkill that a sole trader could be treated the same as a large company - but that's the reality.
I'll give another example for a larger company tomorrow.
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The reason why...

- -Public Service Announcement! - - - - - - Please Read This - - - -
This page was created with two purposes in mind.
... 1. To provide helpful, simple to understand advice for small business on how to comply with GDPR.
The page is new and I will add lots of relevant, useful information over the next 2-3 days.
2. To help raise funding for two hospices.
(a) St John of God's Hospice - who cared for my mum before she passed away. (b) The Laura Lynn Children's Hospice - who provide wonderful, loving care for terminally ill children and their families during an extremely difficult time.
Both hospices are run on a voluntary contribution basis. No government funding is available. They survive on charitable donations from you and me.
Rather than make this page a completely free resource, I am publishing a short guide on the necessary steps required to implement GDPR in your business.
All proceeds from the sale of the guide will be divided between the two hospice charities.
Please bear this in mind.
Thank you
Adrian McGivern
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Does GDPR effect your business?
If you have customers, clients or patients and you record any of their details relating to their visits, orders or transactions - then yes, it affects you.
If you have employees - then it definitely affects you - as you will almost certainly hold more personally identifiable information on employees than for any of your customers.
... There are very few scenarios where your business will be unaffected by GDPR.
If you invoice your customers for orders or issue any form of documentation - you are affected. If you use 3rd party couriers or logistics handlers - you are affected If you take payment by credit card - you are affected
Even if you are a stay at home mum, selling handmade greeting cards through an eBay store - you are affected.
One of the few scenarios that I can think of where you would not be impacted by GDPR - would be a street market trader, with no employees, who operates their business only on a cash basis.
The exceptions are extremely rare!
https://youtu.be/cUGgT-3fSOM
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Why do we need GDPR anyway?
For us business owners, we already have a large burden of documentation, paperwork and record keeping to adhere to.
I doubt if many business owners are jumping with joy at the thought of more compliance and regulatory 'nose-poking' that has to be adhered to.
... So why is this GDPR even necessary?
The simple answer is that it's an update to the old Data Protection law that was introduced in 1988.
Back when that was written, the internet was only in its infancy. In fact, not many businesses even had a connection to the internet.
Think back if you can - many business owners didn't think there was even a need for them to be connected to the web. Today it's a basic necessity.
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