The General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) doesn’t differentiate between small, mid-sized and large businesses. It applies to all businesses that process the personal data of clients in Europe, so all businesses are in the same boat when it comes to taking the journey to becoming compliant with the regulation. But what if your small or mid-sized business doesn’t have much of a budget for becoming compliant, what do you do then?
With a small budget, it won’t be possible to take on the services of a lawyer. It also may not be possible to employ a data protection officer, which may not be necessary anyway as you’re only obliged to do that if your business employs more than 250 people or processes a substantial quantity of personal data.
Compliance budget
No matter what a business has to spend on a budget, it still needs to achieve compliance. Since 2018 it’s been clear to most businesses that a compliance budget has become a necessary expense, but what are the options with a small budget?
DIY compliance
It’s possible to assign current staff members to take on compliance tasks and achieve compliance as a team. To do this your preparation would be to find out vital things like:
- where and how personal data flows through your company,
- what your data security risks are,
- how you would manage a data breach in accordance with the GDPR,
- how you would manage a request for personal information in accordance with the GDPR,
- how you would educate your staff on data privacy and the details of the regulation and,
- how to prepare governance material such as a privacy notice.
You could argue that the effort of finding out how to do all these necessary tasks would take too much time away from your staff members’ primary roles, and that it may in fact be worth the money to pay for help. With a fairly small compliance budget you can get a lot of help by taking on the services of GDPR compliance software. This is generally purpose-built and designed to bring you to compliance comprehensively and without a lot of hassle.
GDPR compliance software
With GDPR365 software, for example, it would take about three months to do the data mapping for your business, work through the provided checklists, put data privacy systems in place, and get your staff up to speed with the regulation through the training and awareness workflows. And you’d do it for a fraction of a lawyer’s fee. Compliance software enables you to become compliant on your own, and remain compliant going forward. Once you’re ready, a lawyer could sign your compliance off for a far smaller fee than being on-board from day one.
Whether you try to do it on your own or you go for compliance software, you need to get going with it soon so you can show the regulators that you’re already making an effort to becoming compliant.
You can try GDPR compliance software by taking a free 14-day trial to get you started with your compliance journey, and then make a decision from there.