When running a small business, it is important to create a budget for IT solutions to ensure up-to-date technologies for your growing company.

1. SMALL BUSINESS IT
BUDGETS
10 QUESTIONS YOU NEED TO ASK

2. DID WE GROW MORE
THAN WE EXPECTED
LAST YEAR?

3. IF YOU DID EXPERIENCE UNEXPECTED GROWTH
TAKE A LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES.
IF YOU DID EXPERIENCE UNEXPECTED GROWTH
TAKE A LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES.
IF YOU DID EXPERIENCE UNEXPECTED GROWTH
TAKE A LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES.
SERVER
NETWORK EQUIPMENT
SOFTWARE
You may also have network equipment that was never meant to
handle the amount of users that it is currently handling.
If you had more growth than expected last year, you may need
to upgrade or replace the server to increase employee
productivity and maintain consistent access to shared
resources.
Have you outgrown your software, not only in number of
licenses, but do you need a more robust software solution?
1.

4. SWITCHES
SECURITY
Do you have excess network switches in the server closet or
behind desks? If yes, consider a project to run the cable needed
to reduce the number of switches or add switches that have
more ports to reduce the possibility of network issues
Review who needs access to what programs. As employees are
added, implement new solutions that give them access only to
what they need in order to be productive.

5. DO WE PLAN TO GROW
OUR BUSINESS THIS
YEAR?

6. NEW EMPLOYEES
IF YOU PLAN ON EXPANDING YOUR BUSINESS, A
FEW FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES CAN HELP.
OFFICE EXPANSION
Your construction budget most likely includes the building costs of making
room for new employees or perhaps adding a conference room. Don’t
forget to add the cost to support the new equipment and rooms after
they’ve been built.
A new employee could require any or all of the following: computer,
battery backup, monitors, phone, additional cabling, extra software
licensing, e-mail accounts and network switches.
Will you need to add software licensing to your server or add a server with
the addition of the new location? Include the cost of support of any new
equipment at the new location when it goes live.
2.
NEW LOCATION

7. DO WE HAVE OLD
EQUIPMENT?

8. EMPLOYEE COMPUTERS
SERVER
Lasts between three to five years depending on the growth of the company.
But note that this is easily one of the biggest bottlenecks to employee
productivity, so replacing the server sooner rather than later is a good plan.
This computer can last between three to five years depending on the type
of use. The computer will need to be replaced more often if an employee is
using software that demands a lot out of a computer
Check your router and consider getting one that will add features such as
content filtering, malware, and virus protection at the router. This will keep
your employees productive and decrease how often you need to pay to
have viruses removed.
3.
PROTECT THE NETWORK
IF SO, IT CAN COST YOU IN EMPLOYEE
PRODUCTIVITY OR INTRODUCE SECURITY
CONCERNS. TAKE A LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING.

9. WHAT ARE OUR
SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE
AND UPGRADE FEES?

10. 4.
Most third party, industry specific software has some sort of
software maintenance costs associated with it.
Some cloud services like domain names, web hosting, e-mail,
and even Microsoft Office 365 are billed on an annual basis.
Other software, like accounting packages i.e. QuickBooks,
don’t require an upgrade every year but it is a good standard
to upgrade them to the newest version at least every other
year.
This will keep your employees from having a large learning
curve on new features.
WHAT ARE OUR SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE AND
UPGRADE FEES?

11. HAVE WE REVIEWED OUR
INTERNET PROVIDERS’
NEW OFFERINGS?

12. 5.
Local telephone and cable companies are constantly
changing their offerings and package deals.
Make sure you’re not paying for an old package.
You may be able to get more speed or dedicated service for
the same cost or less than what you’re paying now.
HAVE WE REVIEWED OUR INTERNET PROVIDERS’
NEW OFFERINGS?

13. WILL NEW INDUSTRY
STANDARDS AND LAWS
REQUIRE NEW
TECHNOLOGIES?

14. 6.
New industry standards and laws go into effect every year.
For example, both the Department of Transportation and the
Occupational Safety & Health Administration have proposed
rules in recent years to require electronic reporting.
Although at the time, those proposals may not have been
made into laws but consider how likely these rules are to go
into effect and what impact that would have on your
technology needs.
Do you need to start implementing some of these changes
now or incrementally, so you are not hit with a huge cost all
at once when they do go into effect?
WILL NEW INDUSTRY STANDARDS AND LAWS
REQUIRE NEW TECHNOLOGIES?

15. IS OUR BACKUP
SOLUTION SUFFICIENT
FOR THE NEW YEAR?

16. 7.
A LOT OF CHANGES CAN HAPPEN IN A YEAR, SUCH AS
THE WAY WE COMMUNICATE WITH OUR CUSTOMERS
AND WHAT DATA WE KEEP.
BACKUP SOLUTION
BATTERY BACKUP
Many companies are now keeping more photos and videos
for quoting or documentation purposes. With all that new
data, is your backup solution capable of keeping up with
the increased amount of storage you are going to need?
Also, have you added more equipment to your server closet? Is
the battery backup sufficient to keep you running as long as you
need. We suggest 30 minutes.

17. HAVE WE ADDED TAXES
FOR EQUIPMENT AND
LABOR?

18. 8.
How could we forget about taxes?
Remember that all this equipment and the labor, in
most cases, is taxable. If you forget to add taxes to your
budget, you are most certainly going to be about 10% off
budget at the end of the year.
HAVE WE ADDED TAXES FOR EQUIPMENT AND
LABOR?

19. WHAT SHOULD WE
BUDGET FOR
EMERGENCIES?

20. 9.
If you are replacing your equipment on a regular basis,
monitoring it, and keeping it well maintained you should
have few emergencies.
But the unexpected can happen.
Although it would be impossible to guess what type of
emergency you could have, we suggest budgeting two
times the hardware cost of your server as a buffer you
hope you don’t have to use.
WHAT SHOULD WE BUDGET FOR EMERGENCIES?

21. DID WE INCLUDE ALL
LABOR COSTS?

22. 10.
The cost of getting all your technology work done is
going to vary greatly unless you have a contract with an
IT company that includes labor.
But these contracts don’t always include all labor, so you
will need to talk to your IT company about everything
you want to accomplish in the coming year.
Get quotes to estimate how much it will cost to
complete each project you had planned, the ones this
article has brought to mind, plus all the labor.
DID WE INCLUDE ALL LABOR COSTS?