From DIY to Done Right: When to Stop Being Your Own IT Department

When you launched your business, handling IT yourself made sense. A few laptops, a router, a trusted cloud app and done. But as your team grows and the stakes rise, DIY IT starts showing its cracks. Outages take longer to fix. Cybersecurity makes insurance questionnaires harder to answer. The person who "knows computers" doesn't have time for their real job. That's when it's time to go from DIY to done right.

At All-Access Infotech, we're a veteran owned, CISSPled IT partner serving small and midsized businesses across Vermont and New Hampshire. We support the Upper Valley with on time, on budget, managed IT support with a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Our focus is simple: stable systems, strong security, and a clear roadmap that grows with your business.

The Hidden Cost of DIY IT

DIY usually feels cheaper, until it isn't. Small issues compound into lost time, missed revenue, and risk your business can't afford.

• Lost hours add up. Small business leaders report losing around 96 minutes of productivity per day to inefficiencies and tech friction. That's nearly three weeks a year. That's time you could spend on customers, hiring, or cash flow.
• Downtime is expensive for SMBs. Industry data shows hourly downtime costs frequently exceed $25k-$75k per hour, and many organizations put the average over $300k per hour when you include disruption and recovery.
• Rural realities magnify the pain. Rural communities face broadband and digital skills gaps, which can slow recovery and limit in‑house options when something breaks.

When IT "works most of the time" the true cost hides in the background.

Five Signs It's Time to Outsource IT

1. You're the bottleneck. If owner or leadership is resetting passwords, approving every software purchase, or jumping on the phone with the ISP, your growth engine is idling.
2. Security is pieced together. A patchwork of antivirus, free tools, and ad‑hoc settings leaves gaps in security. Today insurers expect MFA, EDR, and tested backups as cybersecurity foundations.
3. Projects stall. Cloud migrations, phone upgrades, camera systems, and line of business integrations keep slipping because no one owns them end-to-end.
4. Frequent "mystery" issues. Random slowness, WiFi dead zones, printers that misbehave are symptoms of unmanaged networks, and aging hardware.
5. You can't answer the cyber insurance questionnaire. If controls, logs, and recovery tests aren't documented, renewals will be slow and claims uncertain.

What You Get When You Outsource to a Managed IT Partner

Outsourcing isn't about giving up control. It's about professionalizing IT, so you get predictable outcomes.

• Proactive maintenance. Centralized patching, firmware updates, lifecycle planning, and license management keep systems fast and reliable.
• Stronger security by default. MFA everywhere, EDR on endpoints, email threat protection, and encrypted, tested backups are all aligned to practical frameworks like NIST CSF.
• 24×7 monitoring and response. Issues are spotted and resolved before your team even notices.
• Project delivery that ships. From Microsoft 365 and Teams Phone to secure remote access and Wi‑Fi redesigns, projects move on a plan and finish on time.
• Plain English vCIO guidance. Quarterly reviews translate risk and cost into a business roadmap you can share with leadership and insurers.

DIY vs. Managed Services: A Practical Comparison

2025 Snapshot: The Business Case for Letting Go of DIY

• Time tax on owners: SMB leaders lose ~96 minutes/day to inefficiencies. That's time managed services can give back.
• Downtime dollars: Surveys show $25k-$75k+ per hour as a common downtime range which far outpaces the cost of a managed IT plan.
• Inbox risks: Email remains the top entry point for losses thanks to BEC and fraudulent payment changes, which reinforces the need for MFA, payment verification, and advanced email filtering.

How All-Access Infotech Make Outsourcing Simple

Listen → Assess/Plan → Execute. We start with a plain English assessment of your environment, then deliver a prioritized roadmap. From there, we handle the work and report progress, so you're never guessing.

Foundational controls: MFA, EDR, patching, email security, least privilege access, and encrypted backups with regular restore tests.

Standardization: We document networks, users, devices, and apps, then apply best practice baselines across sites, so every new hire and workstation is consistent.

Quarterly vCIO reviews: You get a business level briefing on reliability, security posture, and upcoming lifecycle upgrades with no jargon, just decisions.

Local, accountable support: Upper Valley based engineers who understand rural realities and multisite operations, backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Key Takeaways

• DIY works, until growth, security, and complexity make it costly. The hidden time tax and downtime risk eclipse the savings.
• Rural businesses gain the most from outsourced IT, closing the gap on skills, connectivity, and after‑hours coverage.
• Managed services deliver predictability: fewer fires, faster projects, clearer budgets, and stronger cyber posture.

Click Here or give us a call at (802) 331-1900 to Schedule A 15-Minute Discovery Call