Many business owners think that there are only two technology support options available to support their business - a full-time employee or a contract with an hourly break-fix company.

Neither of those options works well when trying to grow your company. The majority of businesses don't need a full-time employee to manage their technology. In fact, having one can be a big mistake.

Why? First, the cost of a full-time employee to manage IT is very exorbitant for the value the business typically receives. Most work that needs to be done on a small business network is fairly routine and the majority can be automated, with the proper investment in tools. The cost of a full time IT employee will usually be better spent on something else in your business.

Second, you are getting a person who, if they are any good at managing and supporting a network, is going to be bored senseless within a few months. Managing a small network is not extremely challenging and your employee will become stale and complacent. The typical in-house IT person reaches a level where they stop learning and growing, and your business is left with a tired resource that is no longer actively engaged in making your business better.

Another business factor to consider when hiring a single resource to manage your network is breadth of knowledge. The best Network Managers are the ones that have experience with hundreds of business networks and can keep an eye on the strategic business needs of a company when making technology decisions versus just fixing immediate problems. A single employee will not likely have this breadth of experience.

Most business owners think their only other option to a full-time internal IT member is to have an hourly break-fix company to support their technology, but this is often a mistake too.

Most businesses use their hourly company to fix problems that have already occurred and caused disruption to their business. So what's so bad about bringing someone in to fix a problem? Ask yourself this question: What is their incentive to make your computers and network work efficiently in the future? They only make money when you're suffering.