Even if you don’t own a business you make cost v. price decisions every day, but it’s usually on the back end of the above equation. In business we all know that our cost to provide services or products v. the price we charge = our profit. But when you are the consumer, you think in terms of “here’s how the price will immediately affect me, but are there costs I’ll incur if I don’t pay that price?” For example, braces for your kid can be expensive, but what are future costs if you don’t spend the money for that now? Or, the price to fix your ailing car is $200 now. If you don’t do that, what will the cost be for a new car that runs? Everyday Life is series of business-like decisions. Everyday business is a constant, often more complex set of Life-like decisions. We should talk about the cost v. price v. costs of good IT management.

You already know as a business owner that someone somewhere will always push back on your prices. You know the math behind the price determination. Sometimes you can discount, sometimes you can’t. The math behind what you have promised the consumer he/she will get for your service/product just is what it is, right?

If Aptica promises you state-of-the-art cybersecurity for your proprietary data and constant vigilance over your electronic network for productivity, you will likely look first at how the price for that service will impact your immediate bottom line. Maybe when you first started your enterprise, IT management was not even on the radar as a line item in your expense budget. And as we all understand, as expenses rise, so must your own prices to your own consumers.

Business is based on math. Do the math.

But since it is all about the math, it’s worth it to take the time to run the numbers for the potential “costs” of not insuring your business computer network. What cost if several machines die unexpectedly and can’t be restarted? What cost of losing a half day of business trying to just get someone out to diagnose the problem? What cost to learn in your second fiscal quarter that your servers can’t handle any new business? What cost to have to inform your clients that personal data has been hacked is now being sold on the Dark Web? Then what cost to have to ramp up your sales efforts to replace those unhappy clients who just left you for data violations? Just to name a few possibilities . . .

Avoid the cost v. price v. costs conundrum. Find an IT management company you can talk to, demand answers from, and relax because of. You begin with a conversation, and at Aptica we are happy to talk about what we’ve seen and what we know, and what we are currently learning about the rapidly evolving innovations in Information Technology.

Jason Newburg, 260.243.5100, ext 2001, is the founder and owner of Aptica LLC. This IT management and support company has been serving small to medium-sized businesses for 15 years in the area that includes Angola, South Bend, and Fort Wayne, IN, Battle Creek, MI, and Toledo, OH.