computer security day

Computer Security Day

November 29, 2017

IT Support for Startups

Startup Mania!

What Is A Startup Anyway?

Startups are a foundation of business advancement on our planet. By creating a completely unique way of doing business while focusing on change in all types of businesses, startups could be considered a necessity that will push our society forward. They are not only representing a new way of looking at things, but a new way of thinking as well.

All startups begin their life as an idea that spreads between likeminded people. If the impact of that small group starts to spread throughout the society and thus reach an even bigger group of people, then that startup could be a business worth noting.

What is Startup

Some Will Succeed, Most Will Fail

It doesn’t really matter if you are trying to create a new, easier way of pushing buttons in an elevator, or creating a propulsion system that will get everyone on Mars, the impact is all that counts. The future you are creating demands a lot of sacrifices and an immense focus on the end game, which does not always translate to victory and success. Most of the time, some awesome products pass by unnoticed, either due to wrong timing or the world’s unwillingness to accept a new way of thought, but most of the time it fails due to lack of focus.

Building any business, even a simple store, is a challenging task, let alone a startup! You are starting off with a product that no one knows if they need or not. They will not know what to do with it or how to use it. What the impact on their daily life might be and how will it better it. That is where your focus starts to shift. You start to think of multiple ways of reaching your audience, creating new ideas, modifying products and start interacting with them through, well any media. The easiest way would be to start of with social media, where crowd sourcing could become handy. It is free, it is plentiful, it is exactly what you need to cut the time for your company to finally strive!

Startup Challenges

Pitfalls & Challenges

New data, means innovative ideas, new focus, new product, means betterment for the world, right? Wrong! As the information you are getting, momentum you are gaining, becomes too much to handle for you and your small likeminded group, you begin to expand. Start searching for fresh talent, someone that will share your view towards your product, mission and job itself, creating new departments like HR that does not have anything to do with your product at all. A completely new focus that is drowning out your product. But everything is good, right? I’ll find new people, new talent, after which I’ll continue where I left off, right? Well, maybe…if you are fast enough. In the meantime, public might get feed up with your product, or start to shift their own focus to a new one. So, after you found a large crew you always dreamed of, you are already starting to lose momentum and even taking a few steps back.

With a well-established crew and new daunting task of restoring your momentum everything might feel just fine. Until you run into another brick wall! Something as simple as a network problem in your office or workstation crash shouldn’t deter you from your main goal. New expenses will eventually slow down your progress, after all having expenses like IT personnel on site to keep your IT tight and in working order does damage your yearly budget. With that and office rent, transportation, utilities, ISP services, etc. the budget that you wanted to use for your product, now starts to wear thin.

That is not good. Plus, that computer crash we were talking about, ended up costing $500.00, so what can you do? Buy all new equipment and not worry about the IT stuff ever again? Sure, that will be thousands, but you will be safe…until something else goes wrong.

Proper maintenance should keep all your IT equipment running just fine for the next 2-5 years. Then we go back to the IT guy on site, on your payroll. He has nothing to do with your mission, but heck, he is still keeping everything running just fine and dandy. He is costing quite a few extra thousand dollars per month, but you don’t have any options left. It is either that or waiting for the inevitable crash due to poor maintenance.

Wrong again! Have you ever considered getting a Managed Service Provider? These guys will decrease the cost of your IT by some margin. With fixed monthly fees per month, you could get unlimited service (remote and onsite support). That does sound like having that IT guy as a part of your crew except you would be paying multiple times less per month and not worry about benefits for the extra employee.

IT Support for Startup Companies

IT Support For Startups

Managed Service Providers usually consist of multiple teams each with a task of solving specific problems. Server problems? They have a team for that. Advanced server problems? Yap! How about desktop support? Advanced desktop support? Well, you get the picture. Most of the guys there gain experience much faster than any lone wolf IT Administrator in their lifetimes. Things like server migrations might be something that Administrators in a single firm experience couple of times in their entire careers. While the MSP Techies, do that all the times with some teams doing only that, each day every day. And as the saying goes: Practice makes perfect, who would you rather trust? An IT Administrator that has been working for couple of companies with 20 years of experience? Or an IT Administrator working for an MSP for 5? But that’s not the best part. If the MSP Techy guy has never experienced an issue you are experiencing, someone certainly has in his team.

At the end of day, what is the main goal of your startup should remain the main focus as well. As soon as you start shifting focus, you are bound to lose momentum and eventually lose the goal. First step that you could take to get your momentum back on track, is not worry about why your Wi-Fi or Outlook isn’t running well. So, get yourself an MSP and regain the grip on your goals!

Secure Networks ITC knows how early stages of organization can be hard. Keep your focus on product development and staff. Technical focus and IT structure leave to us. Get premium tech support for startups at flat-rate and predictable cost. Schedule a free assessment.

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