Let’s be honest, to most, IT can be quite a daunting subject. Knowing what all the technical terminology means can feel like you need several degrees. The average human running a business doesn’t have time to check in on all devices, especially when you have multiple employees. Keeping devices up to date and virus-free can feel like a full time job. So that begs the question …

How do you know it’s time to contact an IT provider?

Firstly this will be individual to you as a person and a company, depending on your knowledge level, time availability and want to do the IT yourself. Chances are though, you didn’t go into business to become an IT consultant. The decision to contact an IT provider will likely be based on a few key things.

Growth and Size

Turns out, size does matter. We recommend that any business (from startup to established) should start considering an IT company once their manpower hits five or more people.

The reason for this is after five people it can generally be quite hard to keep up with monitoring and updates, security and human error issues. Again this will depend on your knowledge level and skill set, but for most it’s around there that it’s a good idea to invest and get back to doing what you do best!

Time

The next factor that a lot of people say pushes them to consider handing over their IT responsibilities is time. Even little problems can be really time consuming. As touched on above, most people wont go into their business longing to be IT support, so as soon as your time is being spent more on IT than your actual job, it could be time to start looking.

Money

The last element that might make you decide one way or another is your budget. Although we strongly recommend that you have a budget for IT from the beginning, even if that is just antivirus software and some basic training for you and any employees, it might not be able to stretch to a full on IT company providing 24/7 monitoring and assistance.

What do I need if I can’t justify an IT company just yet?

Luckily for small businesses and companies that aren’t yet ready to make the leap, we love helping people regardless of if they are a client or not. So here’s some free advice that will hopefully help kickstart your IT.

Where to start

Firstly, you always want to make sure your security is multi-layered. This is something you will hear us bang on about often, but that’s because it is important. We recommend looking for some training that you and any employees can partake in. One line of defence is in fact you, because you can learn to eliminate dodgy looking links before you click and it becomes an issue. Training topics could include online security, how to spot risks and what you should do if something does happen. Make sure to keep a regular training schedule too, the world of technology is constantly changing, so it’s best to keep on top of it.

Secondly, we’d recommend getting the big two security must-haves.

Although we can’t tell you which service to go for as it depends on your needs and budget, both of these elements are key to adding the layers of protection to your security. Try investing in something like Microsoft 365 as they have built in security to help with some protection. Although this won’t be as good as a separate antivirus, it’s a good place to start. They also offer cloud storage which is a great way to digitally back up your documents and data.

The downside to doing your IT support yourself is that you won’t get the knowledge or expertise of the professionals if something goes wrong. You also won’t get the stress-free monitoring, where problems are fixed generally before you know there’s an issue.

If you are feeling like your IT is consuming your life, book a call with Jon today, and let us see how we can help you.