Insights · page 5
Straight answers about small-business IT in Dallas (page 5)
What things cost, what to ask, how to switch providers, how to wire an office and how to keep a dental or law practice out of trouble. Written by the person who does the work.
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File servers, shared storage and backups for design firms
Design firms outgrow ordinary file sharing fast. Here is how I choose between an office server, a NAS and the cloud, keep versions safe, and back it all up for studios in Dallas.
IT for interior design studios in Dallas
A design studio's IT is a mix of Macs and PCs, creative software, huge image libraries and client presentations that must not fail. Here is how I look after all of it for studios in Dallas.
Microsoft 365 security for a small business
A Microsoft 365 tenant is not secure just because it is Microsoft. Here are the settings I turn on for every small business I manage, in the order they matter, and what each one protects you from.
At what size should a small business hire an IT company?
Nobody hits an employee number and suddenly needs IT support. Five specific triggers do the job instead, and one of them, the accidental IT person, is already costing you more than a provider would.
Can IT problems be fixed without someone coming to your office?
Most support requests in a small office are software, email, account or network-configuration problems, and all of those are fixed over a remote session. Here is the honest split between what remote support handles and what genuinely needs someone standing in your server closet.
Can one person handle IT for our whole office?
The fair question to ask any small IT provider. Here is the honest version: you deal with me directly, but you do not depend on me alone. What I handle myself, what my team covers behind me, what happens during vacations, illness and overlapping emergencies, and when a larger provider is the better choice.
Do you need an IT guy on call or a managed IT plan?
Hourly help is cheaper right up until the day it is not. Here is a break-even worksheet using my published rates, the signals that hourly has stopped working for your office, and an honest answer for offices that are genuinely too small for a plan.
How quickly can a new IT company take over your systems?
Day-to-day support can move in days; a properly documented, monitored and secured environment takes about a month. Here is the realistic timeline, and the things that make it faster or slower.
How to check an IT provider's references and reviews
Most IT reviews are noise and most reference calls are wasted on the wrong questions. Here is how to read a review properly, the five questions that get honest answers from a reference, and what a refusal actually means.
How to check that an IT company is legitimate
A verification checklist anyone can run in fifteen minutes before handing an IT provider the keys to the business, plus what a legitimate provider will happily show you.
How to find a reliable IT person in Dallas
Where to look, how to shortlist three candidates in an afternoon, and the five checks that tell you whether an IT provider will still be answering the phone next year.
IT company or freelance IT guy: which is right for your office?
There are three models, not two: the moonlighting freelancer, the small owner-led company and the multi-technician MSP. Here is what each really costs you and where each one falls down.
Have a question these did not answer?
Ask me directly. If it is a good question I will probably write the article.