Small business owners and Entrepreneurs wear many hats. They have certain strengths and a drive to make money using the skills that they have. But there are many facets to running a business. Someone needs to do the accounting, the networking, inventory, manage employees, do sales calls and more. Then, someone needs to manage the technology.

The National Small Business Association says that 43% of small business owners will spend more than 2 hours on technology related problems each week - I believe this is probably under-reported. Computers and networked systems in general age out quickly and problems can arise out of no-where. These systems are deeply integrated and incredibly dynamic; there are constant changes that occur every day, and with these changes and the inherit complexity comes very real problems.  What can a small business owner do when they have a huge presentation deadline and their computer crashes, or when multiple employees can't work?

Typically that's when somebody is called to repair computers and fix network issues. Traditional tech support is "break-fix," that is, when something breaks, you pay to have it fixed. The problem with that is you can't plan an IT budget when you don't know what's going to break or how much its going to cost you to fix it. When IT services are managed in a formal manner, technicians take a different approach: utilize preventive maintenance techniques, IT best practices and remote monitoring tools to keep your technology running smoothly. This is what large business enterprises do and this is within reach of even the smallest business, thanks to the availability of local IT outsourcing. This means fewer issues in the long run coupled with a much more predictable and manageable flat monthly rate for many of the most essential IT services.

The end goal of Managed IT is to keep problems from occurring in the first place. For example, your server is the backbone of your company and it needs to be set up and secured properly, and regular maintenance needs to be performed so everything will run smoothly. Otherwise things can get very expensive very quickly when an issue arises. Reputable Managed Service Providers (MSP) like BrightWire Networks utilize enterprise-class remote monitoring systems to streamline maintenance and deploy patches and security updates, and we develop a very strong understanding of not just your IT infrastructure, but more importantly, how your business goals should align with your investment in technology. This way, your technology can work for you, and you don't need to worry about employee overhead (in the IT department) or unnecessary technology problems hindering your business growth.

While virtually all small business owners face the daily prospect of managing multiple aspects of their business, technology should not be one of them. Your technology should be managed by a professional, so give us a call today at 360-528-6017 and set up a consultation. Let us take the worry out of your IT.