IT Technology

5 Tips to Avoid Small Business IT Rage

Written by James Mawson

Don’t even try to deny it.

When your computer or your network stops working, you get angry.

That’s especially true when you’re juggling bills, deadlines and customers who rely on you. There’s enough on your plate as it is.

To then be hit by IT problems as well? That’ll ruin anyone’s composure.

Now for the good news: it doesn’t need to be like this.

Here are 5 tips for an IT environment that won’t ruin your blood pressure.

1. Delegate Clear Responsibility for IT

Here’s one trick that big wigs and high rollers tend to get right and smaller operators tend not to.

If you don’t select a professional IT technician to oversee and maintain your systems, it won’t happen. This means you’re skipping all the boring but important tasks that keeps disaster scenarios at bay.

The most common mistake that small business owners make is to not use professional IT support at all. Instead, IT is handled by a staff member with no formal IT experience or education.

The other way is to engage a professional technician on an ad hoc, “we’ll call you when we need you” basis.

In either case, something has to break before you’re prompted to deal with it. Your IT problems are then not a thing you actively manage. They just happen to you.

You want someone who solves your problems before they happen.

2. Security

Whenever we get one of those “Oh $%&#! We’re $%#&’ed!” phone calls, most of the time it involves security. Hijacked email accounts, ransomware, hacked databases… there’s so many ways this can go wrong.

Good security is about well configured software. Which ties back to the previous point. You want someone to configure your firewall, run and monitor scans, and patch your software and firmware for newly discovered vulnerabilities before the bad guys show up.

But good security is also about people. It’s about training your staff on things such as choosing good passwords and understanding phishing attacks.

Here’s a good checklist to spend 2 minutes reviewing your network security.

3. Make Sure All Your Hardware Has a Retirement Date

It takes a lot less organisation and planning to “wing it” and just see how long things last. You might even feel like you’re being thrifty by getting as many days of use as you can for the dollar you spend.

But what you’re actually doing is ensuring that every single device you buy eventually breaks, causing downtime. Think about it: this is the worst failure rate you can have.

Once you count what you’re spending on wages, rent, bills and fees during all the lost productivity, “winging it” is actually the most expensive way to replace your equipment.

But that’s not the worst bit.

As you replace devices one at a time, you’ll end up connecting everything in non-standard configurations, bizarre one-of-a-kind arrangements and quick and dirty 5 minute fixes that were meant to last until Tuesday but stick around for years. These add up over time.

This means performance bottlenecks and obstacles grow. It also means your systems become more confusing and difficult to work on. So you’re stranded if your technician has a heart attack and a new guy needs to come in.

4. Double-Check Your Backup Procedures

Whether it’s hacking, a fire, or an ice cream eating contest in the server room gone horribly wrong – if you want to know the difference between recovering fast from lost data and lying awake all night in wide-eyed panic, indigestion gnawing as you silently scream, it’s this:

Can your backups bounce you back in a flash?

The longer it takes to recover, the more it costs you in technician hours and lost productivity. Every hour also means stress and damage to the morale and reputation of your business.

First things first: You need automated backups. I don’t care how conscientious you are, if you have to do something.. even if it’s just pressing a button.. it won’t always happen. It feels just too easy to skip.

This next one’s huge: Be sure these backups actually work. Your backup tool might say it’s backing up properly, leaving you to discover the backups are corrupted when you need to restore. (Windows Server Backup Tools are notorious for this.)

Corrupted backups are almost never a total show stopper – a good technician can usually find a way to piece it all together eventually – but they sure do slow things down.

Check that your staff actually use the file server for all their work. If you don’t check up on this, they’re liable to end up saving work on local machines and USB drives. The best backup procedures in the world are not much help if crucial files are elsewhere.

Here in Australia, we don’t enjoy the world’s best internet speeds. That’s something to think about if you rely solely on cloud backups. This will be a bigger factor for some businesses than others: in a home-office environment, it’s probably not too big a deal.

For everyone else, restoring a whole office’s data from cloud storage could be like filling a swimming pool through a drinking straw. So keeping on-site backups can help you save a lot of lost productivity.

But don’t rely only on an on-site backup. What if lightning strikes the server room?

5. Make Good Use of Quieter Parts of the Year

Whenever you get the techies in to unplug things and plug them back in again, it gets in the way of everyone else’s work. That’s true whether you’re replacing all the old gear, building something entirely new, or if it’s just time to do a bit of maintenance.

That’s why it makes sense to plan these tasks for those times of the year when there is less work to interrupt. Slow periods and holiday shutdowns are the perfect time to knock these tasks over. This sets you up for success when it gets busy again.

“The opinions expressed by BizWitty Contributors are their own, not those of BizCover and should not be relied upon in place of appropriate professional advice. Please read our full disclaimer."

About the author

James Mawson

James Mawson is a technology, business and marketing nerd and a co-owner of DXM Tech Support, an IT support team based in Melbourne.