Question 1

How much does an IT consultant cost for a small business?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the work. Advisory jobs like a strategy review, vendor selection or a security audit get scoped and quoted after a first conversation. Bigger builds, a website, an application, a hosting migration, get a fixed quote after discovery. Either way the quote is written down before anything starts, and the invoice matches it. We don't bill by the hour for advisory work. Hourly billing punishes exactly the conversations you need to be having.

Question 2

We already have someone doing our IT. Do we still need a consultant?

Accepted Answer

Often not full time, no. Most of the organisations we work with already have an IT team, an MSP or a developer they trust. We come in for the bigger calls: which platform to pick, what to do about security, whether a project has been scoped sensibly. The day to day stays exactly where it is. We just help you work out what belongs on the list in the first place.

Question 3

How do I switch IT providers without disrupting the business?

Accepted Answer

Carefully, and not in a hurry. The first step is a discovery week: we list everything the current provider runs, document the credentials and access, and flag anything that would break if they walked out tomorrow. Then we plan the switch in stages, starting with the parts your customers never see. Most organisations move across fully in four to eight weeks without ever going offline.

Question 4

Is the cloud actually cheaper for a small business?

Accepted Answer

Often, no. Cloud bills add up fast, especially when the system was first put together by someone optimising for speed rather than cost. We've seen organisations paying two or three times what the equivalent VPS or dedicated server would cost. Cloud earns its place when you need to scale up and down, when you're integrating with other cloud services, or when you've genuinely outgrown what you had. For a steady workload, it usually doesn't.

Question 5

What does basic cyber security look like for a small business?

Accepted Answer

A few things done properly go further than most audits: multi-factor authentication on every account that supports it, backups someone has actually tested rather than just switched on, staff who can spot a phishing email, and a written plan for the day something goes wrong. None of it costs much. It's just usually missing.

Clear thinking about the systems you depend on.

What we do

IT strategy and advisory

Website design

Custom software

Hosting and infrastructure

Three projects, three numbers

Frequently asked questions

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