Small Businesses Suffer Without proper Investments into IT

Failure to invest into IT in the early days is one of the common reasons for the start-ups to fail. We’ve seen that when a small company grows it is bound to make some mistakes along the way, but many times, the most critical growing pains are IT-related. It is true that, smaller organizations lack IT resources. Successful business owners must possess the ability to mitigate company-specific risks while simultaneously bringing a product or service to market at a price point that meets consumer demand levels.

Business owners who fail to address the needs of the business through a well-laid-out plan before operations begin are setting up their companies for serious challenges. A survey reveals, 20% of small businesses fail in the first year, 50% go belly up after five years, and only 33% make it to 10 years or longer. The most important part of the business is data. Make sure you back it up. Bad things happen, and you could become a victim of a server crash, fire, flood or cyberattack. Thus, you need to make sure that your data is secure, which means regular and frequent backups. A cloud-based or hybrid approach is the solution of choice for many small businesses. Backups can be automated, easily scaled as needed, and keep your data offsite, safe and sound. Sound IT practices like these will better support you as you grow. The sooner you begin to implement them, the better.

PC’s are most important tools for the businesses. At some point, it doesn’t pay to keep them going. Once a PC has been in action for more than a few years, and needs major repairs that may end up costing you half of what a replacement will, it’s time to think of investing in new gear. A repair or upgrade may cost you less in the short run, but over time costs can really add up if you need to keep fixing it. Replacing the computer brings with it a number of benefits, more powerful equipment can improve productivity, and you’ll also be able to use newer software and peripherals that wouldn’t work with your old gear.

At the same time, when you do dispose of old hardware, proceed with caution. Those old PCs, laptops, smartphones and tablets are likely to hold sensitive company data. If your gear falls in the wrong hands, you could find yourself with legal or compliance problems. Wipe your old data out. Once you’ve taken care of your data, you’ll need to find a way to safely dispose of your old equipment, which is likely to contain materials harmful to the environment.