Depending on needs, IT support for a small business can be expected to cost between $300 per month and $2500 per month. This range is broad because it’s accounting for a large number of factors.
To narrow things down somewhat, let’s get a little bit more granular:
While these numbers don’t directly reflect our prices, they should give you an idea of how much IT support might cost for your business. At the end of the day, though, asking how much IT support costs is like asking “How much does a car cost?” The answer depends on the car.
Accordingly, to get a more accurate estimation, it’s necessary to get a custom quote.
At Willits Technologies, we offer free quotes for Houston small business IT support. Get in touch with us online or at 281-333-2505 and we can walk through your small business’s IT needs to provide a clearer estimate of where your business will fall.
If you’re not ready to move ahead with a quote – or if you’re simply looking for more information – keep reading to learn more about the factors that impact IT support cost.
There are many factors at play on both sides of IT service (concerning client and vendor). These include:
For our initial estimation, we assumed support via a managed service delivery model. This model (where services are delivered at a fixed monthly rate, no matter what) allows for proactive system care, incentivizes planning, and negates the risk of unexpected IT expenses. In total, it tends to be the most cost-efficient model of support, and it’s increasingly the most common – but it’s far from the only one.
Let’s take a look at cost considerations for two additional support modes:
Internal IT support for small businesses.
In small business contexts, choosing internal IT support tends to be significantly more expensive than outsourcing IT support.
Let’s run the numbers really quickly to show why. First, internal IT support personnel are typically salaried, and Indeed’s data shows that the average IT support employee makes $53,000 per year. Factor in the cost of benefits (insurance, vacation, sick time, payroll tax) at a conservative mark of $10,000 per year and you’re at $63,000.
So, that’s already $5,250 a month – which is significantly higher than the likely cost of managed services.
And that’s not factoring in any additional training or technology that the one-person-IT-department will need to do their job. The moral of the story is that internal IT support is an expensive solution for small businesses.
Break-fix IT support for small businesses.
Break-fix IT support is the industry’s traditional model. The name is self-explanatory; businesses pay for support when things break, typically at an hourly rate.
This can seem appealing to small businesses who’d prefer to avoid recurring payments. If you opt for this model, you’ll work under the hope that support will be rarely be needed – and that, if it ever is, it’ll be delivered quickly and comprehensively to avoid recurring issues.
Unfortunately, this is almost never how things work in real life.
Break-fix models can work well for small businesses for a time. But they make cost projections next to impossible – you can never predict when and what will break under this model (since there’s no proactive support). And when things break, the costs can be incredibly damaging. Let’s say your IT company has a (generously low) rate of $60 per hour. You may go three months without a major issue only to have your two servers crash unexpectedly in month four. After three days with two techs onsite, you’re looking at a bill for $2,880 – before any new technology costs are factored in.
This is not cost-efficient, it’s not at all predictable, and it actually incentivizes providers to do shoddy work, since they’re only paid when things break.
Aside from the model of IT support, there are a variety of other factors that will impact cost. Most of these are related to the context of the small business itself. This includes considerations like:
These questions are a good starting place – but they’re still only a start. So, again, the cost of small business IT support can vary greatly. If you want a more meaningful idea of what IT support might cost your small business, your best bet is to consult a professional.
Hopefully, this information has been helpful as you consider the cost of IT support for your small business. If you’re ready to take the first step toward a custom quote – and better small business IT – let’s talk.
At Willits Technologies, we provide IT support for small businesses in Houston, Texas. We’ve seen firsthand how inadequate, supposedly low-cost IT solutions impact small-to-medium-sized businesses, sidetracking crucial work, pulling key employees into time-consuming IT tasks, and incurring high costs that put companies at a disadvantage.
It shouldn’t be that way. We believe that small businesses deserve better.
Our managed IT services increase reliability, grant access to high-level IT expertise, and minimize cybersecurity risks at a predictable and affordable monthly cost. Our response times are lightning fast, our techs are proven experts, and our process makes your IT easy. If you’re ready to get an effective and cost-efficient solution, get in touch today.
