It takes a lot of work to launch a business, and there are many balls to keep in the air. When you first start out, IT support may be the last thing on your mind. However, you’re likely to reach a point where tech issues and IT-related questions start taking up time you could be using to work on your business. When you start hiring more employees, those minor IT tasks also begin to multiply. So how do you decide when to get assistance from an IT firm keeping that in mind?
There is no one solution that works for everyone in this situation, but there are a few critical considerations to keep in mind while you’re decided when to pick up the batphone.
Business size
It’s quite OK to require IT help from day one, but as a general guideline, we advise any company to consider outsourcing IT support once it has five or more employees.
This isn’t a random number. At this scale, keeping up with crucial upgrades might start to be a challenge, leaving the company vulnerable to security risks and employees’ errors like clicking on a malicious email link. Naturally, if you’re a tech genius yourself, this could be a little different, but at this point, with at least five workstations to support, you might start to feel a little time-strapped.
Maintaining focus
Finding the source of problems in IT support is frequently a game of troubleshooting and problem-solving, which may take a lot of time. Since most people don’t enter company with the intention of providing ongoing IT support, as we briefly said above, it might be time to locate someone who does make IT support their career!
Finances
We can’t have a discussion about IT support without mentioning the monetary impact. It feels like a luxury that would be pushing your budget, which is typically the reason why people don’t start off with IT assistance! Having said that, there are a few things that we do advise paying for right away, such as antivirus software and some fundamental team training. Yes, this is not the same as having monitoring and support available around-the-clock, but it will still lessen your workload and the possibility of a security breach.
What does a small firm require in terms of IT support?
We don’t simply do this because we love technology and computers; we also want to help small companies succeed. In light of this, we have compiled this list of tips that, if you’re not yet prepared to hire an IT business, we believe will be the most beneficial.
Layered security is 100% necessary.
Each of these things—security, onions, ogres—should have layers. Most individuals use an antivirus and a firewall and believe that this is sufficient protection, but this is just half of the picture.
- Training is crucial for employees. Don’t undervalue the importance of teaching workers the confidence to recognise a dubious email and avoid falling victim to a phishing attempt since your IT security is only as strong as the employees in your firm.
- Antivirus (with firewalls) is an absolute necessity. It may not completely shield you from all dangers, but it’s a wonderful start.
- Backing up your data is MAJORLY important. In case something happens to any physical backups, make sure you have a duplicate that is not on-site. This might be the difference between a firm continuing to operate after an emergency and failing. We don’t do drama, and neither should you. BACK UP YOUR DATA.
Anything is preferable to nothing.
Microsoft 365, for example, includes built-in security capabilities to aid with certain degrees of protection if you’re not sure where to start. Although it falls short of standalone antivirus, it is unquestionably an improvement over doing nothing. You may back up your data and documents using the offered cloud storage.
If you need further assistance and support, hiring an IT support firm like ours for proactive monitoring will allow you to carry on with your daily activities without giving your IT a second thought, which is how it should be in a perfect world.
Want to regain control of your workday from providing IT support? Contact us to schedule a call with Jon and learn how we can assist.
