Many businesses eventually get to a point where they can’t do everything themselves. Often this comes quite quickly for particular tasks. Very few business owners (who aren’t accountants) will want to spend time and effort on a tax return that might be done more quickly and thoroughly by a professional.

There is obviously a time and a place for doing things yourself, and if you’re bootstrapping a business early doors often this is the only option you have. However, you can reach the point where it makes sense to outsource particular tasks sooner than expected.

We very much place outsourced IT in that bucket of professional business services that should be outsourced if at all possible. Today we’ve compiled some signs to look out for if you’re thinking about outsourcing that IT.

There are IT problems and then there are IT problems. We’ve spoken before about the great power of switching things off and then back on again – and for minor problems a quick reboot is all you need to get things working the way they should.

However, there are other IT problems that end up being much more complex to fix. If you need to do a full data recovery,  or if there are significant software update required, these are jobs that will require more than a quick fix.

Naturally the larger your team gets and the more complex your business, the more opportunities there are for something to go wrong. If you’re facing fixes that aren’t quick, it’s time to outsource.

As we’ve said previously, it’s well worth thinking about IT like a professional service. As with many specialised services this is not something that businesses will readily have I’m house (it’s only particularly large businesses that will have accountants or lawyers in house).

If you don’t have these skills in house the  outsourcing your IT can be a great option. There are vast swathe, in fact most small businesses, that are too large for someone to take on IT responsibilities as part of their day job  but too small to hire someone specifically for that role.

Outsourcing can help you have the best of both worlds. All of the expertise on hand, but none of the direct staffing overhead.

Its possible if you’re still in the start up phase that not outsourcing your IT is taking you away from building your business. You got into business to do something you’re good at, and you should spend as much as your time doing that as possible – this is where you’ll get the most return possible.

If you are spending the time trying to fix IT problems yourself, and you either don’t have the skills or are spending too much time doing this, it’s a distraction from where your time is best spent. Bite the bullet, make the jump, and outsource those IT issues.