A practical digital readiness checklist for SMEs

Use this before you buy anything

Print this list or keep it beside your Assessment. Score yourself honestly: strong, patchy, or missing. Gaps are not shame—they are the roadmap.

Presence & trust

1) Mobile-friendly website with a clear offer. 2) Accurate NAP and contact paths. 3) Proof that matches how you actually deliver. 4) POPIA-aware forms and privacy links.

Demand & follow-up

5) One primary conversion action (Assessment, WhatsApp, or quote). 6) Lead capture that does not die in a personal inbox. 7) Same-day acknowledgement habit. 8) Simple pipeline stages your team can keep current.

Operations & resilience

9) Hosting, backups, and updates owned by someone named. 10) Password and access hygiene. 11) Automation only on repeated, painful handoffs. 12) A quarterly review of what to stop, start, and keep.

If more than half of these are patchy, pause new purchases and book an Assessment first.