This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Norton Small Business by Symantec for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

We predominantly talk about ways to be more eco-friendly and to practice more sustainability on this blog, and one additional item to keep in mind is to keep your investment in your technology running smoothly. This means that as part of growing your green business you place a continuous focus on technical investments, maintenance of hardware and software, review of existing information-handling policies, and cyber security. Norton Small Business by Symantec offers a variety of services for small businesses.

An investment in your technology means you make the most of your available tools - for most of us that is a well-functioning phone/fax system, computer, any software needed to run your business, your website, POS system, and other day-to-day necessities. I always encourage you to spend more during your initial setup - it may seem more expensive in the beginning but an investment up-front in the best technology you can afford will save you time, heartache, and trouble later on.

Maintenance means you continuously check in on the status of your materials. For example, do you leave your computer on for days at a time? Power it down and allow it to shut down completely. Do you run an ongoing virus check on your hard drive? Schedule this weekly. Is your mailbox working? Make sure you're receiving what you need to.

Information-handling policies like those around confidentiality, privacy, and access to personal details or customer data are all important to your business. Develop a written plan to access sensitive information like financial data, login or access information, and e-mail passwords, and then make sure you are consistently abiding by your own policies.

Cyber security is an emerging issue that you also can plan for. With more adoption of online payments, and more phishing/scamming efforts and organized identity theft, you need to be absolutely sure there is no malware or malicious viruses on your machines.

Planning for the end-of-the-year sometimes allows you to reduce the tax burden on your small business if you make your capital investments and keep up-to-date with your software- you can get 30% off Norton Small Business Products now.

Norton 360 and the Norton Internet Security 2012, which both just launched this past September, are additional products for your review.

Leave a comment and let us know which Norton product would most benefit you, and why.