88% of small business owners felt that they were vulnerable to cyberattacks, according to a survey from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Although we may not think about cybersecurity nearly as much as we should, cyber threats are everywhere. We see them in our emails, we try to ignore them in our spam texts, and you can be sure that these viruses are trying to infiltrate businesses worldwide.
But the question is, what can we do about it? Let’s talk about the biggest solution for small and medium-sized business owners looking to combat cyber threats: Managed IT services.
Managed IT Services: What is it?
Managed IT services is a third-party team that will oversee and maintain the technical side of your business, including:
- Keeping your network secured
- Fixing any computer issues
- Ensuring software is up-to-date
- Backing up important data
- …and more.
SMBs will find effective cost-saving solutions by researching new providers and hardware and software applications. We live in an increasingly digitally-aware world. And even the smallest businesses need to have some sort of presence online if they want to generate more customers. Whether you have a full-fledged custom website or a Facebook page for advertising, your business is vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Small business owners often ignore the importance of cybersecurity, thinking that their business is too small to be targeted by cyberattacks, but that’s also the reason why cyber criminals love small businesses. They know that this is the mindset of many small business owners, which means that there are barely any cyber security measures to break through.
For smaller businesses, these cyberattacks and viruses can be devastating if you don’t have a secured network protecting you. Phishing, malware, and other viruses put small and medium-sized businesses at risk of major interruptions to your business operations, leaving you stranded with missed revenue. Because of this, cybersecurity is now a basic need for small businesses.
That’s where managed IT services come in. They will handle the technical side of your business, including the security infrastructure, freeing you up to focus on managing the other critical aspects of your business.
How Managed It Services Help Small Businesses
Most business owners would agree that when there’s an issue with their building’s electricity or plumbing, they hire an expert rather than risk further complications. You can think of cybersecurity in the same way.
Many small business owners don’t have the resources to have a permanent IT staff to help them with things like:
- Data backups
- Password security
- Anti-malware protection
- Computer maintenance
- Network protection
This is why managed IT services is able to step in and fill that role for small and medium-sized businesses. Here are some of the biggest benefits of why you should consider making managed IT services the foundation of your business processes.
A Team’s Worth of Knowledge
There’s a good chance that, as a business owner, you never expected that you would have to know much about electronics to run your business beyond the basic computer skills. In fact, that’s probably the last thing we think about when starting a business. We’re thinking about the big picture of how to scale the company. And if something did go wrong, we might not even know where to begin to fix it.
Managed IT services have a team’s worth of expertise, and decades of knowledge combined, which means that whenever a problem arises, they’ll be able to fix it quickly. This ensures that your business can continue running smoothly, as any amount of days that your systems are down leads to money left on the table.
Say Goodbye to Data Loss
Most of the time, when we think about data, we think about huge tech companies. But all small business owners collect important data every day–from customers’ emails and phone numbers to the daily operations that keep your business running smoothly. If your business were to lose this data, it would feel like starting back over from scratch. Managed IT services can backup all of your important data so that you never have to worry about losing this critical information.
Cost-Effective and Predictable Expenses
Typically, businesses either try to deal with cyberthreats themselves or hope they never happen. In which case, if they do, they’re left scrambling to deal with the ramifications. Often, this leaves business owners in a vulnerable position, forced to pay for expensive solutions out of desperation to get their business back on its feet.
Managed IT services are a more cost-effective solution because a third-party team will keep your business proactive about cyber threats rather than reactive. Like with a vehicle, the benefits of keeping your engine maintained are much better than letting it run down and spending thousands of dollars more than you would have with service fees.
That same concept can be applied to your business. Managed It services will give you a predictable monthly cost that keeps the technical side of your business maintained, costing you far less than the damage that a cyberattack could cause.
It Scales With You
As your business grows, so too will your managed IT services. MSPs are designed to function for different-sized businesses, so they’ll adjust their processes as your business scales up. They’ll know exactly how to meet your needs at every level, giving you personalized attention and custom solutions that are designed to meet your specific needs.
We Help Florida-Based SMBs
Cyber threats aren’t something we ever like to think about, but it’s a crucial problem to consider as a business owner. Attacks can bring a business to a halt, which interrupts all the progress and hard work that brought you this far. Managed IT services are a cost-effective solution to a problem that impacted 42% of small businesses last year. That’s nearly half of all small business owners. You can build up your defenses by thinking proactively about cybersecurity rather than waiting for something to happen.
Do you need increased cybersecurity in Miami or Palm Beach? Discover how HGi Technologies can protect you.