When you’re running a small business, your budget can be tight. Taking on extra staff is a huge expense, especially when it comes to IT support and IT Consulting your local. A typical in-house IT manager in the U.S. brings in an impressive salary of $127,000. Even if you’re in an area with a low cost of living, or you manage to land someone straight out of school, you’re still looking at a minimum of $78,000. For many small businesses, like local brick and mortar retailers, that’s probably a no-go.
IT consulting offers a solution if you need to implement new software, manage servers, or assist with a tech-intensive project. You can hire an experienced consultant short-term, saving money compared to what you’d be paying for a full-time staff member. For many small businesses, this is the most cost-effective option.
How IT Support Can Help Your Business
As your small business grows, you can find yourself facing technological challenges that are far outside your realm of expertise. An IT support consultant’s job is to provide the guidance and services you need, while sparing you the expense of hiring full-time IT staff. They can help you optimize your use of IT resources to generate revenue, streamline operational processes, and reduce costs. When you go through an outsourced IT support provider, you’ll also have access to various consultants who specialize in what you actually need. IT is actually a fairly broad field, and not all IT professionals share the same specializations or skill sets. A system administrator has a very different job than a web developer, and their areas of expertise don’t necessarily overlap much.
Choosing the Right IT Consultant for Your Business
When you need outsourced IT support, it’s important to find a consultant or consultancy service that’s right for your business’s specific needs. Here are a few tips for finding the right person for the job:
Make sure your consultant specializes in what you need.
Is your IT consultant experienced with your particular industry? A consultant who works primarily with industrial manufacturing facilities might not be the best fit for a fast casual restaurant that’s trying to implement a tablet-based computerized ordering and menu system. Someone who specializes in server migrations might not be the right person to overhaul your website and improve your SEO. A quality IT consultant will tell you right away if they’re not the right person for the job at hand.
Work with a consultant who specializes in small to midsize businesses.
Providing IT support for smaller businesses is a very different animal than providing support for large enterprises. A consultant whose experience is primarily with large corporations might set you up with more technology infrastructure than you actually need, potentially straining your budget.
Ensure that your IT support consultant will train your employees to use any new systems and software.
If you’re bringing in an IT consultant to implement a new software system, like a CRM or product management software, it’s important that they provide your employees with thorough training in how to use it.
By hiring an experienced IT consultant through an IT support provider, you can optimize your use of technological resources, improving productivity and generating more revenue than ever before. IT support is an investment, and if you don’t have the budget or the need for full-time staff, an experienced consultant can provide exactly what your business needs.