Bad Practices
The attitude extends to security and software. They pay zero attention to protecting their computer assets and files. No backup. Zilch. Worse, they will use a free online backup program and ignore warning balloons that theyve exceeded the free limits and the backups have stopped. Because they dont know what theyre doing, they may think they have working backups in place, but they dont check the backups or test them. They dont know how, and they wont pay a professional to check and design backups that work. So they end up paying big dollars for advanced data recovery when their systems fail.
They wont pay for licensed software, either. They search the Internet for bootleg product keys or expect to get it from their employers for free. I had a former client, a wealthy ophthalmologist, assume I could get Microsoft software licenses for free because Im a Microsoft Partner, so he called me up demanding a copy of Microsoft Office. Of course, I told him I dont steal software. He hung up and I havent heard from him since.
Pay Now or Later
Ironically, I make a lot of money off these people, because their indifference and lack of attention to their systems results in a high rate of failure and billable work to fix the problems. Clients who let me proactively maintain their systems to avoid failure experience smooth operations and minimal support charges.
I guess it goes back to that old saying; Pay me now, or pay me later!
Read more of Davids articles:
Small Business Move To Cloud? 8 Factors Say NO.
The Changing Face of Personal Computing
5 Key Small Business IT Managed Benefits
Windows Server 2012 for Small Business
Backing Small Business Up in the Cloud