After being involved in the IT industry for over 30 years now, I have come realize that ownership of one’s digital assets really matters. Imagine a business who loses their client data because they decided to leave a software vendor and that vendor will no longer give them access to critical data.

It may be very legal for the IT company holding the data to do so, but is it ethical? Was the business owner aware that if they parted ways, they would no longer have access to such data?

Was the business owner aware that they did not own that data and it was the software company now that does? Did the business owner know that now that data has a price that maybe a competitor is willing to buy? Sounds like a nightmare scenario, right?

We recently had a company come to us to take over their website. Unfortunately, they did not have access to their domain name or their business Facebook page. Calls and request to their previous service provider went unanswered and only if rehired would they even provide access to the digital assets.

One of our previous clients hosted their site out of the country to do a family member a favor. 3 years later that website is still advertising the wrong prices of their menu. They probably have to explain the discrepancy very often to their patrons.

We were recently hired to do a website for a roofing contractor. The site is currently done ready to launch. And the client advertised the domain. But unfortunetly, our new client still does not know how to access it.

I mention these three cases because is too common for business owners to buy digital assets from no so ethical IT companies and then lose money because of the inability to gain access to those assets.

At Gearbox360 LLC, I can tell you that our clients own every single piece of their digital assets. Things like their Facebook page, domain name, website, accounting software etc.

If you’re a business owner, please ask yourself that question; who owns my business digital assets? And if you find out that maybe is not you, let’s correct it before is too late.