Juggling Belongs at the Circus, Not In Your Business

[su_row][su_column size=”1/2″]What does a juggler do? He juggles balls, rings, knives or even chainsaws to entertain you. Juggling objects make people cheer and laugh, and the juggler gets paid for a satisfying entertainment experience.

You see, entertainment is his business and expert juggling skills are core to his success. Given that, he needs to stay focused on doing what it takes to provide the best juggling entertainment he can. He does this in part by leaving circus operations to other people.
[/su_column]
[su_column size=”1/2″][/su_column][/su_row]

You will not find him at the box office selling tickets, in the pens feeding the elephants or up in the stands selling cotton candy. He is in the ring, doing what he does best, juggling.

If that makes sense to you, then why do you think so many small business owners feel they need to juggle all of the business functions by themselves or with their limited staff?

Just managing core functions like selling products and providing customer service can be a juggling act. Nevertheless, many small businesses are also trying to juggle things like marketing, bookkeeping and computer systems on their own. When they do this one of two things often happen:

1. Either they drop the core business balls; the ones they need to keep in the air for success, or;
2. They drop the non-core balls that over time can have a detrimental impact on their core business.

For example, many small businesses think they can juggle their IT operations. They don’t think they need to pay for someone to take care of their computer and network infrastructure, and systems. After all they rationalize, they can try to troubleshoot fixes in the evenings, call their niece who has a knack for computers or run over to the big box retail service desk and wait in line hoping that they can fix their computer before store closing time.

There are two problems with this approach. First, although a business might be able to manage the simple IT break and fix issues, there can be a significant cost in downtime, redirection of internal resources, loss of data and unplanned computer support expenses.

The second, and larger problem is related to all of the IT issues most small businesses do not even consider. Increasingly even small companies are experiencing costly IT problems from cyberattacks, lost and unencrypted mobile devices, customer data breaches, lengthy disaster recovery times, unproductive network downtime, unsecured cloud storage, and outdated hardware and software that limits productivity.

As you can see there are a lot of IT balls to juggle and at some point, in every company, IT issues will arise, and they will result in costly downtime, see Cost of Downtime Guide sheet: The Cost of Ignoring IT Management in Your Business.

Consider working with an IT Managed Service Provider like Superior Endeavors, Inc. (SEI) to provide ongoing IT monitoring, management, service and support for a reasonable monthly fee. SEI can help by providing 24/7 monitoring, automated disaster recovery services, data back-ups, patch management, antivirus, security and system effectiveness audits, IT consulting, and remote or onsite service and support.

Let the experts juggle your IT systems and networks so you can keep your eye on the balls that are core to your business success.

Learn why Bannerstone Wealth Management has used an IT Managed Service Provider since their small business start-up in 2008. Case Study: Is an IT Managed Service Provider Right for Your Start Up?.