Being a small business has its merits, but also its issues. One of which is the fact that you don’t have a lot of money to throw around, and this is problematic when deciding on a budget, especially on how much you are willing to invest in your IT support, as anything IT related usually requires more money to be invested than most other areas. So, how can we minimize the expenses for IT support but also not shatter our budget? Let’s find out.

Evaluate Your IT Necessities

A lot of things that you want will be too expensive, so for starters, stick with what you need. You don’t need an expensive website that can support huge traffic if you’re just starting out. Those things can be upgraded over time. Depending on your industry of choice, you will have different priorities so take into consideration what you can spend money on that will benefit you the most. Some owners will prefer to outsource all of their work, while others prefer to have fixed services. Be warned though, outsourcing is known for being the more expensive option.

Here are a few good questions that you can ask yourself that will help you get your priorities straight:

• How much internet traffic will there be on our website? (In favor of a higher speed website)

• How clogged are our workers? (In favor of outsourcing so they can focus on more pressing matters)

• Did you have any security threats? (In favor of upgrading your business security in order to prevent attacks and leaks of sensitive data)

• Are your employees the only ones accessing your networks, or do your clients also have access? (In order to maximize your billable hours)

If you are uncertain about some of these things or don’t know what you should prioritize, don’t be shy from taking a look at your main (successful) competition. Learn from them, see what they are doing right, and how you can apply it to yourself.

Research Multiple Service Providers

One of the most important budgeting factors, in the long run, is definitely who you choose as your service provider. Depending on the expected growth of your company, you should opt for a larger service company or a smaller one. Smaller service providers are catered to you so that you won’t end up paying a lot and get the bare necessities needed to keep you functioning. Meanwhile, larger companies are better catered to larger businesses with larger traffic needs. They include larger packages that will inevitably drain more of your income. So take into consideration what services you need and what services will just be a drain on your income.

Keep Up With the Newest Trends

If you do not keep up, you risk falling behind your competition – something that should be avoided at all costs. So, even if you do not have the necessary budget to upgrade everything, you should still invest enough funds just to stay relevant. Some businesses will consider remote monitoring services to get more work done, although this option is more represented in highly-complicated IT environments, and is used as a means of dealing with it and easing the work process inside the firm.

Digital Marketing

When you say “IT“, the first thing that doesn’t pop into your head is digital marketing. But digital marketing is a vital part of any business that wants to have itself be known to others. Digital marketing is crucial for the growth of your business so you will need to pay upkeep for a quality website that can support the adequate traffic that you’re receiving. This will also include paying for ads on the internet. With the rise of marketing importance, you cannot afford to neglect this aspect of your budget.

Budget Priorities & Expenses

You can get a feel of what priorities are being set throughout the industry by going through its respective analytics. As stated by Johanna Ambrosio: “IT shops will spend more on data and business analytics (39%), security and risk management (37%), cloud-based enterprise applications (32%), and customer experience technologies, including chatbots and mobile apps (30%)“. With this in mind, you can get a clear view of what firms are focusing on and what they view to be vital to the well-being of their businesses. Realistic IT expenses for small firms are going to be around $55,000 a year. This is by no means a small sum, so it’s vital that you get the best price and ratio quality from the services you are paying. Luckily, Katana IT provides optimal services for a reasonable price, so check out their offers because you might find something that is perfect for you!

Lastly, do not neglect to separate some money for backing up your data to an off-site place. Neglecting security and not backing up your data is a recipe for a disaster. Ideally, you won’t neglect either, but if you are facing major financial strains, prioritize getting a backup and a disaster recovery system if worse comes to worst. This way, the local device can be booted up and used as a virtual server.