AKRON, Ohio — An Akron woman is making it her business to help small businesses prepare for the future.

Denise Williams got her first computer when she was 11. 

“And back then it was a DOS system that I had to type everything in,” she said. “I would take it apart, I’d put it back together.”

Some years later, Williams turned her passion for technology into a career. 

“They kinda thought I was, you know, crazy,” Williams said. “‘Cause I was a principal and then I transitioned to work for a technology company as a data scientist.”

She built her own brand as Tech Diva Consulting and focuses on helping “future-proof” small businesses. This includes adding cryptocurrency to cash and credit as payment options. 

“There might not be brick and mortar,” she said. “Their storefront might be a web page, so you need to understand the concepts of how that works and how that impacts you.”

Williams said a willingness to leverage emerging tech tools like blockchain could also be implemented to add enhanced security measures to documents and transactions.

“It makes it harder to hack something if all the information is not in one place,” she said. “It’s typically powered by computing machines, but all over.”

She said it takes time to understand the language of technology and recommends those interested do some research.

“But the idea that you need that to stay relevant and to continue to get business, you have to kinda play in this virtual space,” she said.