IT Business Management Tips

Starting and managing an IT business is no easy feat. It takes time, money, patience and hard work. With the IT maintenance industry being a relative newcomer compared to say, plumbing, it can seem daunting to manage this ever-evolving business. On top of that, it takes real expertise of the industry and its best practices. 

IT is a $4.8 trillion industry. Managing a small IT business in a sector of this scale can feel like being a tiny fish entering a big sea. However, because RazorSync understands that operating and managing your IT business can be a challenge, we’re here to help with some useful tips to help your company succeed.

Make customer focused choices

In the fast-paced technology world, human interaction and customer convenience often get forgotten. Convenience is key—in fact, “97 percent of respondents have backed out of a purchase because it was inconvenient for them.” Based on this statistic, it’s safe to say that customers like convenience and to feel that their needs are taken care of. 

Making sure your customers are happy and satisfied can make a big difference. It can be the difference between your business succeeding or failing. Implementing technology is a great way to streamline the customer experience and increase customer satisfaction. The technology RazorSync offers is a great one to use. 

Customer focused choices could look like deciding to text customers updates about what time their service technician might arrive at their house, or to update them when their payment has been processed. 

Invest in employee education

When you have smart and educated employees, you don’t have to worry about watching over their work. If you have a solid training system in place it will be much easier to manage your IT business and its day to day operations and goals instead of constantly monitoring your employees. Fortunately, RazorSync can help you achieve that. Furthermore, your customers will be more likely to trust and rely on people who seem like experts in their field, which in turn will help with customer retention. 

Don’t be afraid to implement marketing 

Oftentimes, small businesses overlook the importance of implementing marketing strategies into their plan.However, a little bit of informed marketing can go a long way in helping you find new customer leads and retaining existing ones. 

While executing a marketing plan can seem daunting, it is essential. However, it does not necessitate a large buy in. Depending on the size of your business, you only need to spend between 7% – 10% of your revenue on marketing. Nonetheless, this limited cost for marketing, can generate considerable revenue increases. As a general rule, your return on investment (ROI) for your marketing efforts will be about a 5:1 ratio. This means, for every $1 you spend on marketing you should get about $5 in revenue. 

Marketing can be done in a variety of ways but it is best to start out by defining various customer personas and answering their questions or solving their problems through your marketing efforts. In your marketing campaigns you can also inform/organize your sales by using a CRM (customer relationship management) platform like HubSpot or Salesforce

Make sure your information and data is secure

Like most companies in this day and age, IT businesses will be working with a lot of customer data, proprietary information, payment information, and business intelligence. One of the most effective ways to protect your data is to use strong passwords that can’t be easily hacked. While it may seem like an easy solution to use the same password(s) for everything, don’t do it. Seriously, don’t. RazorSync recommends using a password software application like 1Password which can create and store cryptic passwords so you don’t have to worry about it. 

With the hacking of businesses more common than ever, companies need to be careful. In fact, 60% of small businesses, which experienced a data breach, closed within 6 months. Since cyber hacks can be so detrimental to your business, make sure you are implementing proper security measures like malware protection and firewalls.

Also, consider incorporating data security in your employee education and make sure your employees know best security practices. Finally, be sure to encrypt your emails, messages, files or any other data/information not for public use, since  encryption is one of the best ways to protect your company’s information. 

While all these tips will help you run a successful IT business, one of the best ways you can lead your company to success is by implementing a software which will help you decrease stress and time you might have been spending on menial tasks. 

RazorSync’s software will help you dispatch technicians, manage service requests, increase productivity, maintain customer satisfaction and help customers make secure and easy payments, therefore helping you to grow and succeed. Get in touch today, or sign up for our free 14-day trial here.