When you’re running a small business, you want your monthly expenses as low as possible, of course. But mainly, you want them consistent.
You’re already walking the razor’s edge of profit and loss, and nothing induces cold night sweats in the small business owner quite like the thought of a sudden, unexpected expense that leaves a meticulously planned budget in ruins.
Every year, small business owners find themselves having to spend more and more on one critical but potentially ruinous budget item: technology. The average small business’ technology expenses swelled by 65% from 2008 to 2009 and another 24% the next year; according to a 2011 Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) survey, 71% of small business respondents said they planned to spend more on technology than they had the year before.
Small businesses’s growing dependence on technology broadens the risk of those calamitous technology problems that—let’s not mince words—are business killers. Nearly half of all small businesses that lose their data never reopen, and that number is sure to grow with the role of technology.
There’s a way to solve those problems and all but guarantee that, as a small business owner, you won’t have to worry about server crashes, network problems, and rampaging viruses: subscription IT services. By paying a consistent, reasonable monthly fee, small business owners can hand over IT duties to professionals paid to prevent problems, not fix them when they happen, and budget confidently every month.
Most small businesses take a reactive or “break-fix” approach to IT support. They run the technology until something goes wrong, then frantically call someone to come fix the problem while they lose time, income, and clients. The “someone” can be an employee, an independent contractor, a guy out of the phone book who happens to respond, or more rarely, an overwhelmed in-house IT guy.
That approach is about as efficient for businesses as it is for people who go years without checkups and visit the doctor only when they’re deathly ill. They end up paying more in the long run, and their health suffers in the meantime. The approach can be fatal for a person and a small business, which loses precious customers when it can’t deliver.
CMIT Solutions’ managed IT services approach makes small businesses more efficient and productive and saves them money over time, offering specialized IT services and support with clear contract terms and for an affordable and predictable cost. Our packages include CMIT Marathon, our flagship monitoring and remediation service; CMIT Guardian, which ensures data recovery and secure remote backup; and our new CMIT Impression visual collaboration package, which allows small business owners to communicate among themselves and with clients in ways they’ve never been able to before.
Monthly subscription services for IT operate on the same principle as paying a monthly health insurance premium. It’s a minimal expense in the long run, something you wouldn’t dream of letting lapse, and a wall of protection against an unimaginable financial catastrophe. Want to find out more about how CMIT Solutions’ subscription IT services represent a better way for small business owners? Check us out at www.cmitsolutions.com.