Technology Budgeting 101 for Small Businesses

A new year is just around the corner, and this is a great time to work on your budget for next year.

It’s important to understand that technology shouldn't be an afterthought in today’s highly digitized world. It is essential to budget for your technology needs to continue to help innovate, protect, and accelerate your business goals.

In this blog post, we’ll explore a few key things to keep in mind while budgeting for your IT needs.

Always assess your business needs

Technology advances rapidly, and regular technology refreshes become increasingly essential for any company hoping to stay successful. Rather than simply assuming you'll need the same IT budget as last year, take the time to assess your organization’s current needs and how upgrading or moving to different platforms might help your company meet those needs.

Like most technology-backed businesses, you should allocate your IT budget to improve these areas:

Routine IT services

It’s important to start with the day-to-day support of your technology and users. Nearly every business relies on technology to run its daily operations. If the day-to-day support of that technology is neglected, chances are more significant issues will pop up down the road, and they often happen with abysmal timing. Employees also need a resource to help them with their technology to be successful at their job. Technology should help people do their jobs, not get in the way of what they are trying to do. Making sure you budget for supporting the critical technology you already need and having the budget to maintain it is an essential first step with your IT budget.

Projects

Businesses are great at planning projects and other business initiatives during the year, but the technology infrastructure to support those projects is often an afterthought. Working with IT to ensure the infrastructure and technology are in place to support the business initiatives during the year is essential.

Refreshes and upgrades

Another critical aspect of your IT budget should include refreshing or upgrading your infrastructure. Technology moves quickly, so upgrades can often have significant performance impacts.

Additionally, as equipment ages, it becomes increasingly likely that a hardware failure could lead to expensive downtime. Recent supply chain issues have exacerbated the problem, making it often difficult to replace quickly in an emergency. It is essential to work with IT to develop a lifecycle strategy for all critical technology infrastructure to prevent these potential risks and keep things running well.

Security

Nearly everything is online these days; unfortunately, cybersecurity events are happening more frequently than ever. Attackers are becoming more sophisticated, and planning for cybersecurity is becoming more necessary. The unfortunate reality is that even if cybersecurity was never a concern in the past, that does not mean you are safe from everything in the future. You don’t need to throw every security tool available into your environment. Still, you should work with IT to identify the highest cybersecurity risks to your business and begin by budgeting to address those gaps.

Accidents or incidents

Unfortunately, you can never predict everything you need during the year. It is essential to set some budget aside for things you can’t anticipate, such as accidental damage, theft, or any other things that could happen.

An IT service provider might be what you need

An IT service provider like 2Fifteen can guide you through anything IT-related, including cybersecurity, backup, compliance, budgeting, and more.

Internal support: Internal IT department or IT team

The most common type of support is through an internal IT department or IT team. Usually, businesses with a committed IT team are enterprises, while small businesses may have only one IT staff member or none at all.

External support: Outsourced IT service provider

An external IT service provider, like 2Fifteen, can support your business in multiple ways, such as assessing your IT infrastructure to formulate a plan for budgeting decisions, providing advice on the best IT solutions, and assisting with implementation and setup.

Hybrid support: A combination of internal and external IT services

If you have an existing internal IT team but have areas they cannot cover, you can outsource those areas to an external specialist.

Outsourcing your IT needs or opting for hybrid support alongside your internal IT team can reduce stress since our specialists can help lighten the load and show you the right way to prepare a budget. To get started, contact us today for a no-obligation consultation.