IT support for small businesses, from £55 a person a month
Small business IT support that picks up the phone
For the office of two to thirty people with a laptop each and nobody whose job is the computers. Something stops working, you ring, a person picks up and is on your screen in minutes. The backups and the boring bits happen quietly in the background. Across the Wirral, Liverpool and Cheshire, and remote first everywhere else.
From £13.75 a person, a week, billed monthly. £55 a person a month, every machine that person uses.
Twenty years in the job. Microsoft and Datto partner. Run to Cyber Essentials standards. Secured in 7 Days, or that month is on us.
The problem
A handful of people, a laptop each, and no spare
Small business IT support exists for this moment. When one of them plays up, you stop. You’re not down a bit of capacity, you’re just stopped. And if you’ve got a server, it’s worse: that one doesn’t take a person out, it takes the lot of you out at once, usually on the busiest morning of the month.
Then there’s the half nobody talks about: having to go and find somebody. Ringing round. Asking another business who they use. Waiting for a call back. Arranging for someone to come out, probably Thursday. Small business IT support, done properly, removes that whole afternoon: one number, one email, one portal, and we get on it from here.
What actually happens
Tuesday morning, somebody can’t get into their email
You tell us
Ring in the day and Eric answers. Or email, the portal or a message, any hour. If it’s ten at night when you notice, log it then; it’s with us for the morning rather than sat in your head.
We get on it
Onto the machine from here, while you get on with something else. Most small business IT support problems are fixed on the screen in minutes.
You’re working
No booking anything in. No waiting for anybody to turn up. No callout figure that depends on the day.
The boring bit
Fed up of your laptop doing updates the minute you need it? That’s what small business IT support is for
That’s what happens when there’s nobody steering it. The machine picks its own moment, and its moment is never yours. With managed IT support the updates and housekeeping happen quietly, out of the way; your files are copied somewhere safe every day, and your email is backed up too; and the system warns us if something’s going wrong with a laptop, sometimes before you’d have noticed.
Nobody rings up to say thanks for a quiet week. But that’s the bit you’re really paying for, and it’s what a mate who’s handy with computers genuinely can’t do for you.
The honest comparison
You’ve got four options for small business IT support, and three of them look cheaper
Nobody sets out to buy small business IT support. You end up looking because something’s gone wrong once too often. So here’s the fair version of what you’re actually choosing between.
| Leave it and hope | Ask whoever’s handiest | Ring round when it breaks | Have us | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| When something stops | You stop too, and start Googling | You wait until they’ve got a minute | You ring round and hope somebody’s free | You tell us, we get on it from here |
| If it’s the server | Everybody stops, not just one of you | Well outside what a favour covers | You wait, and everybody waits with you | Same phone call, and we’re already watching it |
| Who picks up | Nobody | Someone with their own job to do | Whoever’s got a slot this week | A person, in the working day |
| What it costs | Nothing, until it costs a lot | Goodwill, and that runs out | Whatever the callout is that day | From £13.75 a person, a week |
| Your backups | Whatever came with the laptop | Not really their job | Usually nobody’s job between visits | Files and email copied daily, tested |
| Updates | The machine picks its own moment | Nobody’s steering | Only when someone’s looking | Handled quietly, out of your way |
| Ten at night | It sits in your head till morning | You’re not ringing them at ten | You’re not ringing them either | Log it then, we pick it up in the morning |
| Getting out | Nothing to get out of | Awkward, and you still see them | Nothing to get out of | After year one, rolling 30-day notice, no exit fees |
Costs shown for a two-person office with no server. It’s priced per person, so a bigger team is a bigger number. What doesn’t change is the deal.
The first three are genuinely fine right up until the morning they aren’t. The question isn’t whether they work, it’s what it costs you the day one of them doesn’t.
Fixing it when it breaks, against keeping it working
Almost every small business starts on the first one, and calls it IT support. You ring somebody when something’s gone wrong, they sort it, you pay them, and everyone goes away until next time. It works, it costs nothing between times, and it’s genuinely the right answer for some people.
What it can’t do is the bit in between. Nobody’s watching, so the backup that quietly stopped in March gets found in September. The same fault comes back because the cause was never looked at, only the symptom.
There’s also a difference in how the two get paid. If somebody only earns when something’s broken, a quiet month is a bad month for them. That’s not anyone being dishonest, it’s how being paid by the callout works. Managed IT support is the other way round: your figure is the same whether it’s been a busy month or you’ve not needed us once, so a quiet month isn’t a loss, it’s the thing we’re aiming for. That’s why the updates and the backups actually get done.
What it costs
Sounds expensive, right?
From £13.75 a person, a week, billed monthly, which works out at £55 a person a month. Per person, not per machine, so someone with a desktop and a laptop is still one person. Two of you is £110 a month, five is £275, ten is £550.
Every line on the IT support receipt is either a thing you’d have to go and buy, or a thing that right now nobody is doing. Work out roughly what one stopped morning costs you, everybody sat there waiting on it, and put that next to the monthly figure.
The monthly figure is on this page because getting a surprise is exactly the thing small business IT support is meant to stop.
Small business IT support
Servers and network kit per box, only if they need it.
Small business IT support: what you get, and what you don’t
Included
- Remote IT support by phone, email, the portal or a message
- Ring in the day and a person answers, not a queue
- Log a problem at any hour
- Files backed up daily, email backed up too
- Antimalware current, updates handled
- Alerts when a machine misbehaves
- Microsoft 365 accounts, licences and sign-in security looked after
- Every machine that person works on
Not included
- A round-the-clock helpdesk. Log at 3am, we answer in the working day
- Routine on-site visits. This is remote, which is why it costs what it does
- A 24/7 security operations centre. Available, but as an extra
- Servers, Azure and network gear. Optional and priced per box, so you’re not charged to “manage” a broadband router that needs nothing doing
- Hardware. If a laptop needs replacing, that’s yours to buy. We’ll say what to get and set it up
- Software licences beyond what we provide. Your Microsoft 365, accounts package and industry software stay on your own bill
Two of you or thirty of you, IT support is the same job
A two-person outfit booking in window measurements needs something different from a thirty-person accountancy practice, and it’d be daft to pretend otherwise. A couple of you: it has to be affordable, somebody has to actually be available, and it has to get sorted quickly. Twenty or thirty of you: it still just has to work, there’s more of it, and more people means more that can tangle.
You pay for what you’ve actually got and nothing else. And I can do either end, which is the bit worth knowing: twenty years of IT support on setups a good deal bigger than yours is why a small office gets an answer rather than a project. What I can’t tell from here is which one you are. Tell me on the phone and I’ll give you a straight number.
Small business IT support: the questions people ask first
How much does IT support for a small business cost?
£55 a person a month, billed monthly, which is £13.75 a week. Per person, not per machine, so someone with a desktop and a laptop is still one person. Two of you is £110, five is £275, ten is £550. Servers, Azure and network kit are priced per box on top, only if they need looking after, and you'd know the whole number before agreeing to anything.
We're only two people. Is that too small?
No. Two people is £110 a month and gets the same service as a thirty-person firm: somebody who answers, backups, antimalware, updates, Microsoft 365 looked after. The per-person price exists so a small office isn't paying for a package sized for somebody else.
Is this remote only? Do you ever come out?
Small business IT support from us is remote first, which is what fixes things fastest: you ring, a person picks up, and we're on your screen in minutes. Visits are by arrangement for the things that need a pair of hands, new machines, a Wi-Fi survey, a server. There's no ongoing on-site response promise, and the price reflects that.
What's not included in small business IT support from you?
A round-the-clock helpdesk: log it at 3am and a person picks it up in the morning. Routine on-site visits. Hardware: if a laptop needs replacing, that's yours to buy, and we'll say what to get and set it up. Software licences: your Microsoft 365, your accounts package and your industry software stay on your own bill, paid at the vendor's price, not marked up.
We've got a mate who's handy with computers. Why pay?
He's fine right up until the morning he isn't. What a favour can't do is the bit in between: the backup that quietly stopped in March and gets found in September, the updates landing when the machine fancies, the same fault coming back because only the symptom was fixed. That in-between work is what managed IT support pays for, and a quiet month is the aim rather than a loss.
How long does it take to get started?
Seven days from a fifteen-minute call, or that month is on us. Our tools go on, backups start running, antimalware and updates are set, the annoying thing gets fixed first. Nothing for your team to prepare, no day without email.
Have a chat with Eric
Fifteen minutes. Say how many of you there are and what you run on, and you’ll have the number.
Ring 0151 452 3060 and a person picks up
Small business IT support from £55 a person a month. Backups, antimalware, updates, Microsoft 365, and somebody on your screen in minutes when it goes wrong. Secured in 7 Days, or that month is on us.