8 Common IT Problems Small Businesses Face

Managing your IT obligations as an entrepreneur can often mean the difference between whether or not you hit your productivity goals. Unfortunately, there’s a handful of IT problems that many small businesses face.

Understanding the concerns you may encounter is key to overcoming them. Let’s explore some of the most common IT issues you might run into.

1. Insufficient Security

A lack of proper network security is a common problem for a small business to encounter. Unfortunately, the consequences in this scenario could easily be dire.

To clarify, the total value of the cybercrime industry is projected to skyrocket by 2025. More specifically, experts predict that the industry as a whole will surpass $10 trillion.

This means that it’s more important than ever to prioritize IT security measures. Much of the cybercrime industry’s value consists of compromised business data.

This is particularly true for companies that operate within certain industries, such as tech or healthcare.

Having insufficient security at your business could also result in your clients or customers taking legal action against you in some circumstances.

2. Improper Employee Training

No matter how comprehensive your IT security is, it won’t get you very far without the proper employee training.

For example, an employee who shares sensitive data with unauthorized parties could easily put your organization at risk. This is truer than ever before due to the number of remote workers that are currently present within most industries.

Improper employee training could also prevent your company from functioning optimally. If your team doesn’t know how to fully utilize the tools at their disposal, you may have a difficult time hitting your intended metrics.

So, it’s in your best interest to ensure that you offer comprehensive training programs for employees. It’s also recommended that you retrain workers as needed throughout the year.

How often you do so will depend on the industry you operate within. Some industries move at a faster pace and work with newer technology on a regular basis.

3. Outdated Software and Hardware

Ironically, many entrepreneurs avoid upgrading their software and hardware in an effort to save money. However, this can prove to be even more costly than budgeting for these improvements.

This is primarily due to the fact that outdated software comes with many security flaws. Hackers love to take advantage of these, and this is one of the primary reasons they target small businesses so frequently.

Similarly, working with outdated hardware can prevent you from reaching the performance levels that you desire.

While this isn’t to say that you need to upgrade your company’s devices every six months, you should always be using the most current version of the software you work with.

The good news is that many applications give users the option to automatically download and install new updates as they are available. This can help you ensure that all of your software is up-to-date without having to do so manually.

4. Improper Configuration

Setting up an IT network for your business is often a convoluted process. Unless you have a sufficient level of experience to do so, chances are that you will improperly configure it.

The main issue here is that just because you are able to accomplish the tasks you need does not mean that your network is functioning correctly. It may be much slower than it should be, and you may have security risks you don’t know about.

As your company scales, you will need to add more and more network utility. This can be difficult to do if your network foundation has not been properly set up.

Put simply, it’s imperative that you outsource to professionals for this obligation. You can check out this resource to learn more: https://geekbuddy.com.au/on-demand-it-support

5. No Contingency Plans

It is not uncommon for businesses to encounter contingencies. These come in many different forms, but they typically include catastrophic data loss.

For example, you may find out one day that hackers have stolen a large amount of data from your company overnight. Or, hardware failure has left you without access to key information.

When it comes to IT responsibility, the general rule of thumb is to prepare for anything that could possibly happen. It’s much less costly to put safeguards in place than it is to recover from this type of situation.

In some cases, it could be virtually impossible for your business to reach previous levels of performance. This is especially true for small companies, as they often do not have the resources to bounce back.

6. Overall Inefficiency

Having your company operate inefficiently can often be traced back to your network. Situations like this arise fairly often when dealing with unexpected IT issues.

To elaborate, let’s assume that your company experiences unexpected downtime. If you aren’t able to work with an IT professional, it will likely take you longer than it should for you to get things back to normal.

Additionally, any solution you find may not be permanent. It may only temporarily fix the problem, and the issue may recur again in the future worse than before.

Keep this in mind moving forward.

Managing Common IT Problems Might Seem Difficult

It’s not nearly as complicated as you may anticipate, though. The above guide will help ensure that you can accommodate any IT problems you encounter.

Want to learn more useful info that can help you out in the future? Be sure to check out the rest of our blog.