{"id":1352,"date":"2026-09-09T01:28:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T06:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/austin-tx-1052\/?p=1352"},"modified":"2026-09-03T01:42:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T06:42:58","slug":"the-real-cost-of-we-will-figure-it-out-as-we-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/austin-tx-1052\/blog\/the-real-cost-of-we-will-figure-it-out-as-we-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Cost of “We Will Figure IT Out As We Grow”"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a reasonable thing to say<\/b><\/h2>\n

“We will figure IT out as we grow” is not a careless sentence. Most of the time it is the correct call. When you are small and every dollar has three jobs, formalizing technology is genuinely not the highest use of your money. Plenty of good businesses got to where they are by saying exactly that and meaning it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The catch is that the sentence has a shelf life, and it expires quietly. Nothing breaks on the day it stops being true. You just start paying for it somewhere else.<\/span><\/p>\n

This post is about finding that somewhere else, and about putting an actual number on it, because the number is usually the thing that settles the argument one way or the other. We’ve written before about what<\/span> internal IT really costs<\/span><\/a> a growing business, and this post walks through how to find that number yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why the cost is invisible rather than absent<\/b><\/h2>\n

Ask most growing businesses what they spend on technology and you will get a confident answer: software subscriptions, hardware when something dies, and whatever the last repair bill was. That number is easy to find because it arrives as invoices.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rest of it does not arrive as invoices. It arrives as hours, as delay, and as duplication, which means it never gets counted, which means the informal arrangement always looks cheaper than it is. That is not an accounting failure. It is just that nobody sends you a bill for the report that went out late.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The six places the money actually goes<\/b><\/h2>\n

Here is what to look for. You can work through these in an afternoon with your operations lead and a calendar, and you do not need a vendor in the room to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The hours your accidental IT person spends<\/b><\/h3>\n

Start here, because it is almost always the largest number and the easiest one to get wrong. Ask the person who handles technology to estimate what share of an average week goes to it. Most people underestimate, because the work arrives in five-minute pieces that do not feel like anything. Then multiply that share by what that person actually costs you per year, salary plus payroll costs plus benefits, not just base.<\/span><\/p>\n

If your operations manager is spending a fifth of their week on technology, you are paying a fifth of an operations salary for the least valuable use of that person’s judgment. <\/span>This is often where a<\/span> managed IT services<\/span><\/a> arrangement pays for itself fastest.<\/span><\/p>\n

The work that did not happen<\/b><\/h3>\n

This one takes honesty rather than arithmetic. Write down the two or three initiatives your operations lead owns that have slipped more than a quarter. Then ask what would have moved them. If the answer is time, and the time went to technology, that project delay belongs in this calculation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Duplicated and forgotten software<\/b><\/h3>\n

Pull twelve months of card statements and highlight every recurring technology charge. Almost every business doing this for the first time finds at least one subscription nobody uses, one tool that overlaps another tool, and one seat count that never came down after someone left. <\/span>A quick review of your<\/span> productivity tools<\/span><\/a> usually turns up the overlap fast.<\/span><\/p>\n

Break-fix spending, and its shape<\/b><\/h3>\n

Add up what you spent reactively last year. Then look at how it was distributed. Reactive technology spending tends to be lumpy, and lumpy is the part that hurts, because a quiet spring followed by a four-figure September is much harder to plan around than the same total spread evenly. <\/span>Stable<\/span> network management<\/span><\/a> is usually what smooths that pattern out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Onboarding and offboarding drag<\/b><\/h3>\n

Time how long it actually takes to get a new hire fully working: accounts, access, hardware, software, phone. Multiply by how many people you expect to hire this year. Then ask the harder question, which is how long it takes to fully remove access when somebody leaves, and whether anyone confirms it was done.<\/span><\/p>\n

The exposure you are carrying without having priced it<\/b><\/h3>\n

We are not going to hand you a scary statistic here. The honest version is simpler. There are things you are currently assuming are handled: backups running, backups actually restorable, access removed when people leave, critical systems patched. Each of those is either verified or assumed. Write down which is which. You cannot budget for a risk you have not yet named, and naming it is most of the work. <\/span>Reliable<\/span> data backup<\/span><\/a> and a real<\/span> cybersecurity<\/span><\/a> review are the fastest ways to turn an assumption into a fact.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Add it up before you compare it to anything<\/b><\/h2>\n

Total those six. Do it before you look at any provider’s pricing, including ours, because the order matters. If you price managed IT first, every number you find afterward gets judged against it. If you build your own number first, you are comparing two real figures instead of measuring one real figure against one imagined one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most businesses that go through this exercise are surprised twice. Once by how large the total is, and again by how much of it was time rather than money.<\/span><\/p>\n

What changes when the number becomes a planned one<\/b><\/h2>\n

The point of this is not that the informal arrangement is expensive. Sometimes it genuinely is not. The point is that right now the number is unplanned, invisible, and volatile, and those three things are what make it hard to run a business around.<\/span><\/p>\n

A predictable monthly cost does something specific for you. It converts a variable you cannot forecast into a line you can budget, defend, and take to a board or a director without caveats. For the operations leaders we work with, that defensibility is often worth as much as the support itself. They are not just buying help. They are buying a number they can put in a plan and stand behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two things we will say plainly, because we hear them asked in every first conversation. There is no long-term contract, and there are no surprise invoices. If the arrangement is not working for you, that should be your decision to make rather than a clause you have to negotiate your way out of. <\/span>Our<\/span> IT support<\/span><\/a> team can walk you through the<\/span> IT packages<\/span><\/a> that fit your size and sets out what is actually covered month to month.<\/span><\/p>\n

What this looks like around East Austin<\/b><\/h2>\n

Fast-growing professional services firms and nonprofits across<\/span> East Austin<\/span><\/a>, Round Rock, and Pflugerville run into this at a fairly predictable point, usually somewhere between fifteen and forty employees.<\/span> That is the range where the informal arrangement stops absorbing growth and starts being strained by it.<\/span><\/p>\n

If your business is somewhere in that range and the phrase at the top of this post sounds like something you have said recently, it may simply be time to check the math. <\/span>Some straightforward<\/span> IT guidance<\/span><\/a> is often all it takes to see the picture clearly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Want a second set of eyes on the number<\/b><\/h2>\n

CMIT Solutions of Austin East offers a free thirty-minute IT assessment. We will walk through what technology is actually costing your business today, including the parts that never make it onto an invoice, and give you a straight answer about whether a change is worth making. If the honest answer is that you are fine for now, we will tell you that.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n
\n
\n1. What does \u201cwe will figure IT out as we grow\u201d mean for a small business?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
It usually means handling technology informally until the business becomes large enough to justify dedicated IT support. This approach can work early on, but it often becomes harder to manage as the company grows.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n2. When should a growing business stop relying on informal IT support?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
It may be time when technology issues regularly interrupt operations, onboarding slows down, cybersecurity responsibilities increase, or employees spend too much time troubleshooting IT problems.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n3. What are the hidden costs of DIY IT management?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Hidden costs can include employee time, delayed projects, unused software subscriptions, emergency repair bills, slow onboarding, downtime, and unaddressed cybersecurity risks.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n4. Why does informal IT support often look cheaper than it really is?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Many IT costs do not appear on invoices. They show up as lost productivity, employee hours, delayed work, duplicated software, and reactive spending that businesses may not track.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n5. How can a business calculate its true IT costs?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Businesses should review employee time spent on IT, delayed projects, software subscriptions, break-fix expenses, onboarding costs, downtime, and cybersecurity risks.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n6. How much employee time is being lost to IT problems?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
The answer varies by business, but even a few hours each week can become a significant annual expense when a manager or senior employee handles IT instead of their primary responsibilities.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n7. Why should employee time be included in IT cost calculations?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Employee time has a real financial value. When employees spend hours solving technology problems, the business is paying for that time while other important work is delayed.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n8. What is accidental IT support?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Accidental IT support happens when an employee whose main job is not technology gradually becomes responsible for passwords, devices, software, printers, accounts, and other IT issues.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n9. Can unused software subscriptions increase IT costs?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Yes. Businesses often continue paying for unused licenses, former employee accounts, overlapping applications, or tools that are no longer needed.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n10. How often should businesses review software subscriptions?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Businesses should review their software licenses and subscriptions regularly, especially when employees join or leave, new tools are introduced, or annual renewals approach.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n11. What is break-fix IT support?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Break-fix IT support means addressing technology problems only after something fails. Businesses typically pay for each repair, service call, or emergency separately.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n12. Why can break-fix IT become expensive as a business grows?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
As technology becomes more complex, failures can affect more employees and systems. Emergency repairs, downtime, and unpredictable expenses can make reactive IT increasingly costly.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n13. How can managed IT services make technology costs more predictable?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Managed IT services typically combine ongoing monitoring, maintenance, support, cybersecurity, and other services into a predictable monthly cost.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n14. What are the hidden IT costs of onboarding new employees?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Onboarding can require hardware setup, software installation, account creation, access permissions, security configuration, email setup, and troubleshooting, all of which require employee time.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n15. Why is employee offboarding important for cybersecurity?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Former employees should have access to business systems, email, applications, and files removed promptly. Forgotten accounts can create unnecessary cybersecurity risks.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n16. How can businesses tell whether their backups are actually working?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Businesses should regularly monitor backups and test whether files and systems can successfully be restored rather than simply assuming backups are functioning.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n17. What cybersecurity risks can informal IT management create?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Potential risks include missed security updates, weak access controls, inactive employee accounts, untested backups, poor password practices, and vulnerabilities that remain undiscovered.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n18. When do managed IT services make financial sense?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
Managed IT may make sense when the combined cost of employee time, downtime, emergency repairs, cybersecurity risks, and other hidden IT expenses approaches or exceeds the cost of professional support.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n19. Why do growing East Austin businesses need more structured IT support?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
As businesses in East Austin, Round Rock, and Pflugerville add employees, applications, devices, and clients, technology becomes harder to manage informally and may require more structured support.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n
\n20. What happens during a business IT assessment?+<\/span><\/summary>\n
An IT assessment reviews your current systems, support processes, software, cybersecurity, backups, infrastructure, and technology spending to identify risks, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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