IT Support for Small Business Owners: What Matters (and What Doesn’t)
A practical guide to figuring out where your IT dollars should actually go
Running a small business usually means wearing many hats. But not every IT concern deserves your attention equally, and spending time and money in the wrong places can actually leave your business more vulnerable, not less.
Continue reading to learn what actually matters when it comes to IT support for small business owners, and what you can safely deprioritize.
What Matters: The Essentials You Can’t Skip
Cybersecurity basics
You don’t need an enterprise-level security operation to protect your small business. But you do need the fundamentals in place: up-to-date software, a solid firewall, multi-factor authentication on your accounts, and appropriate professional support.
And here’s the one most business owners underestimate: employee training. The majority of cyberattacks don’t start with a technical exploit. They start with someone clicking a bad link. Regular, simple training on how to spot phishing attempts is one of the most effective things you can do. In fact, research from Stanford University found that approximately 88% of all data breaches are caused by human error. [1]
Backup and disaster recovery
If a ransomware attack or hardware failure hit your business tomorrow, could you recover? If the answer is “I’m not sure,” that’s a problem worth fixing immediately.
A solid backup and disaster recovery plan ensures your critical data is stored securely and can be restored quickly in the event of an outage. This step isn’t optional; it’s a safety net that prevents a business-ending episode.
Related resource:
All about data center disaster recovery
Proactive monitoring
There’s a big difference between IT support that waits for you to call and IT support that’s watching your systems around the clock. Proactive monitoring catches slow performance, unusual activity, and failing components before they become emergencies.
For small businesses, especially, this kind of early detection can mean the difference between a quick fix and a costly outage. And the cost of downtime adds up fast, even for smaller companies. A single hour of unplanned downtime can cost $100,000 or more. [2]
Learn more:
The importance of cybersecurity for small businesses
What Doesn’t Matter (As Much As You Think)
You don’t need enterprise-level tools
Big corporations use big, expensive IT systems, but most of that is overkill for a small business. Cloud-based solutions have made powerful technology accessible and affordable, but that doesn’t mean you need all of it. Focus on what your business actually uses every day, and skip the rest.
You probably don’t need an in-house IT department
For most small businesses, hiring even one full-time IT person is a significant expense that’s hard to justify. A managed IT service provider (MSP) can handle your day-to-day IT needs, monitoring, support, and security at a fraction of that cost.
In fact, a Gartner study found that businesses working with an MSP reduced their IT operational costs by 30%. [3] If you already have someone in-house handling IT, a co-managed model lets an external provider handle routine tasks so your team can focus on bigger projects.
The newest hardware isn’t always the answer
It’s tempting to think a shiny new computer will solve your IT problems. Sometimes it will, but more often the real issue is outdated software, weak security, or inadequate support. Before spending on new equipment, it’s worth asking whether the hardware is actually the bottleneck.
Related resource:
How to achieve the best cybersecurity for small businesses
The Bottom Line
Good IT support for small business owners isn’t about having the most. It’s about having the right things in place. Prioritize cybersecurity basics, backup and recovery, and proactive monitoring. Skip the enterprise extras, the in-house IT department (for most businesses), and the pressure to constantly upgrade hardware.
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1: KnowBe4 | Stanford Research
2: ITIC | ITIC 2024 Hourly Cost of Downtime Part 2
3: Gartner Identifies the Top Technology Trends That CFOs Should Address Today