A scarily high proportion of new businesses fail each year, 1 in 5 or 20% of them to be precise. However, though scary, 4 out of 5 new businesses do succeed. But why is there such a disparity in those who succeed and those who do not? Well just like anything we have yet to embark upon; investigating, planning and implementing are essential and it is usually here where these businesses fail, they don’t investigate their market sector or the competition or suppliers, in so doing affecting their business plan not projecting realistic goals, not knowing how much it will cost them and how much in sales they could achieve, then there’s a lack of overall financing having not accounted for or inaccurately calculating the cost of items in the initial business plan, but a huge area that is usually left to the last minute and has shown to lead to failure is the lack of or at the very least poor IT infrastructure and support.
Of course good research, a great business plan and having the finances available is a good starting point, but these things alone are not a recipe for success, your internet and marketing presence is just as important, as is you access to the internet, the devices, hardware and software that you and your employees and sometimes your customers use, and as we have previously mentioned in an article about how SMEs are too blasé about their internet security and device, network, software.. security, it’s no wonder why so many new and older businesses fail. So with that in mind every aspect of your business plan needs to be as full proof as it possibly can be, accounting for every eventuality. And in fact such areas as IT support should be considered from the outset, without the right systems in place not only do you run the risk of making mistakes, losing money when systems are down due to lack of sales, but you are leaving the door wide to all sorts of risk and compliance complications from scammers to cybercriminals, and recovering from such things as loss of earnings and worse still a customer/client data breach which is one of the biggest reasons most companies fail or collapse is usually irreversible. Sadly the minute you set up your business criminals will already know about it, there are many ways criminals find newly registered businesses using government and web-hosting website lists.
So why is IT infrastructure and support fundamental in the success of a business? First and foremost virtually every business from market stall holders to giant conglomerates are online in one way, shape, form or another be it just an email account, social presence, website or entire business using cloud and data centres, therefore everyone including your customers needs to feel safe when using these platforms and services, but before you really do anything with your IT it should be planned, audited, risk assessed, an ongoing security strategy put in place… basically everything needed to win customers trust and confidence in you and your business.
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How You Should Go About Your Business IT Setup?
Just as you would create a business plan outlining your experience, products and services, your marketplace, market research, competitor analysis, market strategy, operations and logistics, costs and pricing, financial forecasts and back-up plans, your IT infrastructure plan needs to be created with the same duty of care.
We for example would create a tailored checklist based upon the business model and its needs, this may include the following:
- Design network structure.
- Create a business/office floor plan.
- Create a safe wiring environment.
- Setup hardware such as routers, computers and printers.
- Install and set up servers and server rooms.
- Install and set up recommended software and security software.
- Ensure ease of use, access and software compatibility.
- Ensure device compatibility and security.
- Implement troubleshooting and testing environments.
- Make regular backups.
- Implement daily, weekly and or monthly technical support strategies.
- Monitor and maintain.
Of course these are just a snapshot of the bigger picture, there are many different layers within each point above that you may or may not require but it is imperative that you follow such steps to avoid any complications later on. Of course it costs money to plan and implement such a strategy but at what cost when in the short and long term it will be saving you time (which is money) and money, it’s a no brainer.
Something I actually find rather amusing about this topic is that an alarming number of individuals think we just say all of this stuff to try and make money out of them, and yes of course this is a business and what business isn’t in the market for making money? The difference is that we are in fact providing a service that not only saves you money but prevents you from potentially going bust, we would in fact be financially better off leaving you to your own devices and waiting for you to call us only when an issue occurs, trying to find and fix an issue on a unsecured, unmonitored system usually takes far more time and effort to put things right, and once fixed it will need protecting, so basically you will likely end up paying a form of ongoing IT support thereafter, so why leave it..?
If however you are considering starting a new business or think you should reassess your current IT infrastructure then why not give us a call to discuss how we can help and save you money in the long-run.
