IT Checklist for New Businesses - Part 2

Now that you have thought through these questions on what IT solutions may affect you, let's go through some of the general steps you can take and we will try to estimate cost.  Keep in mind, Opkalla can help with many of these solutions below, so please Let Opkalla Help. 

Note: this is definitely not inclusive of everything and not every suggestion in here is right for you.  For example, if you are opening a medical facility and will be subject to HIPAA regulations, you may need to take additional steps to ensure you are meeting the requirements

If you haven't answered the questions in the previous article, I would suggest you go back and do that first.  Here is the link.

Physical Space

There are WAY more things to consider when finding a physical space, but as we are focusing on the IT side of the house, most of the things will come into play once you have the space and are doing your build out or moving in.  

However, if you are in a rural area, read this article and consider how much of your business will be reliant on a fast connection.  If it does, consider researching what type of connections you can get in your area.

  • Figure out who pays utilities and if they are already ready to be connected. For example, if you are in new construction, it will generally take longer (90 days+) to get these set up.

  • Why are they writing about lead times again? When you are starting a business, there are so many moving parts and good rule of thumb is that if there is an installation, there is a chance it can get delayed. Give yourself more time than you expect so that you are prepared in case there is a delay.

In Case of Emergency?

Knock on wood, hopefully this will never be an issue for you, but because you have gone out on your own and you are relying on your business to be successful, consider the following items in case of an emergency.

Obviously, if Godzilla comes through your city and takes out a whole city block, some of these will likely not help, but I would guess that isn't happening anytime soon.

  • If you can't operate or collect payment without an internet connection or phone connection, get redundant connections. See the "Internet / Phone" section below

    • Redundant Broadband or Fiber Lines - More stable

    • 4G or Backup point to point solutions - More affordable

    • Phones - UCaaS solutions so that you can fail over to your cell phone in order to take calls

    • Consider having a way to take payments on your phone (Square, Shopify, etc.)

  • Backup your data somewhere else!

    • See "Data, Security and Compliance" section below

Website

  • Purchase Domain w/ hosting - $10 - $2,000 for the domain (depending on name popularity) and approximately $100-$150 / year for hosting the domain. Whichever site below you use will also have suggestions for who to host with.

  • DIY on Squarespace, Wix, etc. - $100 - $500/year depending on the features you are using

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

  • Website content aligning to certain search terms - See ROI Amplified Article

  • Paid - Google Adwords, Facebook Advertising - Pay per impression based on the search terms - See Guide from Profitworks

  • Consider reading a book or outsourcing SEO depending on the time you want to spend

 
Marketing / Advertising

Why are we talking about marketing and advertising in a predominantly IT related article?  It's because there are a lot of great technology tools out there that will make your life SO much easier. 

  • Printing

    • You may want to consider investing in a color printer depending on the amount of printing you will be doing. For commercial grade, you are looking anywhere from $500 - $5,000 depending on what bells and whistles you need

    • If you don't want to worry about that, you can pay per page and do a lease program of some sort

    • If you are only printing a few different documents, consider ordering those in bulk and not worry about the printing process

  • Social Media

    • There are so many different tools for the different social media platforms out there. We won't list them all, but regardless of the platform, search for "best [insert social media name] tool" and hundreds of results will show up for each

  • Email Marketing

    • In order to reach the masses, there are many great tools out there for you to mass email your target audience quickly. Find your tool here

  • Leads

    • To go along with the email marketing, in order to find people to email, there are many places to purchase qualified leads for B2B and B2C. See a good starter list here

Your IT Equipment

These are just some of the basic types of equipment you might need for your business.  If you are running a specialized business with a unique technology, this list may not include it. 

  • Computers - $500 - $3,000 depending on what you need to do with them

  • Tablets (i.e. Surface, iPads,etc.) - $300 - $1,000

  • Cell iPhones - $300 - $1,000

  • Point of Sale (POS) - Many apps integrate with tablets/cell phones - You can use these with cloud software

  • Audio / Visual Equipment

    • Speakers - All depends on what type of business

      • For a business that relies heavily on music (i.e. fitness), consider speaking to a local specialist who can help spec this out

      • Streaming Music Services (Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, etc.) - Approximate $10-20/month with no commercials

    • Visual (TVs, Monitors, etc.) - All very wide price ranges depending on quality

      • Smart TVs - $300 - $2000

      • Monitors - $50 - $3,000

      • Projectors - $400 - $5,000

Internet / Phone

These are a wide range depending on how much you are using and where you are located

  • Broadband Internet - starts at $70/month

  • Fiber Internet - Starts at $400/month

  • Backup 4G/5G internet (pay for data) - $30/month + - This option is dependent on where and what type of connection you have

  • Wifi - If you need this (public / private), this is usually a cheap and simple add-on to your carrier connection with a router and some access points

  • Stationary Phones - Rent for as low as $2/month or Buy for $40 - $120

    • This also depends on whether you will use traditional phone lines ($30-50/month) or Voice Over IP (VOIP) calling ($15-$40/month)

    • Depending on what capabilities you need, find a trusted partner to help. You can get basic answering all the way up to call recording, trees, routing, transfer, etc. with unified communications (UCaaS)

  • Phone Lines - I would consult with a professional as you can figure out the best solution without consulting fees and for the same price

    • Traditional Lines the carriers - $30-$60 / per month / per line

    • VOIP - $15-$40 / per month / per license (similar to lines) - When feasible, we recommend UCaaS products because they come with analytics and other features that help small business.

Software / Applications

A suggestion when looking at many of the solution below.  Depending on the type of business you are running and how you operate, these may not be the best fit.  However, we have found that the more (and easier) these systems can integrate with each other, the more useful and efficient your business can become.  

Additionally, we list many SaaS (software as a service) applications below because you don't have to worry about the management of these as a small business. However, if you would prefer to host these on your own infrastructure, you will need to consider those options and costs as well.

  • Accounting Applications

    • See the list here from PC Mag - $10-$30/month

  • Credit Card Processing

    • This can be included in another application (i.e. accounting or CRM software). However, you can also use Square, Shopify, etc.

  • Payroll and Time Collection

  • CRM (sales management)

    • Here is a top 10 list. However, depending on the industry, you may want to look into what other folks in your industry use. For example, restaurant CRMs would want a different CRM than a consulting or sales firm.

  • Customer Application

    • If your business is going to run on a customized or proprietary software that cannot be purchased, consider the lead time to build this and what you may need. There are many development firms out there than you can use to help you with this as well.

Data, Security and Compliance 

We will start this section off with a warning that due to the crazy number of regulations in each different industry, we are very generally discussing these to think about.  

If you work in a specific industry (i.e. healthcare) and you are concerned about complying with HIPAA regulations, we would recommend consulting with a specialist on any given topic.  However, the majority of the providers we recommend for each space are very well versed in the compliance regulations. 

  • Physical Security - Lets start here since it is probably the easiest.

    • Consider an alarm system for your business

    • Keys - Physical old school keys or fancy electronic key pads? You control the keys to your kingdom now boss

  • Computer, Device, Network and Data Security - This is a hot topic on every news station. Everyone is getting hacked and data is being stolen in the masses. It is hard to stop, but try to take as many precautions as you can

    • If you want to do it yourself, at least follow these eight guidelines or these ten guidelines from the SBA

    • Backup your data - There are so many options in this space and most of these options are also working with many of the large customers as well. We like this option for ease of management

    • Enforce strict password rules

We know your Dog's name and the year you graduated is easy to remember, but it is also easy to guess.  Make it something that looks like you fell onto a keyboard walking out of a bar

  • Control user access

In the beginning, it feels like everyone needs access to everything because you are all working on everything.  However, as you grow, restrict access to only those that really need to see certain data.  This is not going to solve all of your problems, but it will alleviate many of the basic ones

  • Consider Using Managed Service Providers (MSPs) (General)

For many of the things we have discussed above, there are also MSPs who can take care of the all, or a subset of your IT needs for a monthly fee and they do this for a living

We wish you the best of luck on your new business journey and we hope this is at least a start for you to work from.  If you ever have questions about anything, please reach out to us and we are here to help!   Let Opkalla Help

IT ChecklistsAaron BockOpkalla, IncIT Checklist, new business, New Business IT Checklist, Startup IT Checklist, What do I need to start my business, General IT Checklist, small business checklist, Opkalla