Complete guide
IT support for small businesses (UK)
Fully supported from £15 per employee, per month.
What small business IT support actually covers
IT support is often described as "fixing computers", but for a modern small business that's a small slice of it. The helpdesk is the visible part: someone can't sign in, a file has vanished, a laptop won't connect to the printer, and they need a real person to sort it out quickly. The bigger part happens quietly in the background. Accounts get created and closed, licences get assigned and reclaimed, security policies get applied, devices get patched and systems get watched so that faults are caught before anyone notices them.
Get both halves right and IT stops being a source of interruption. Get only the first half and you end up in a permanent cycle of firefighting, where the same problems keep coming back because nothing underneath them ever changes. That's the difference between reactive break-fix support and a properly managed service, and it's why we bundle the preventative work into the same fixed monthly fee as the helpdesk rather than charging for it separately.
For businesses running on Microsoft 365, which is most UK small businesses, nearly all of this work happens in one place. Identity, email, files, devices and security all sit inside the same tenant, so support, licensing and cyber security aren't really separate disciplines any more. They're the same job looked at from different angles, which is exactly how we deliver them.
Signs your business has outgrown DIY IT
Most small businesses don't decide to get IT support. They reach a point where not having it starts to cost more than having it. These are the usual signals.
- Someone in your team has quietly become 'the IT person' and it isn't their job
- Problems get fixed only once they've already stopped someone working
- New starters wait days for a laptop, an account or the right access
- Nobody is certain which Microsoft 365 licences you're paying for
- Security is whatever the defaults happen to be
- IT costs are unpredictable and arrive as one-off invoices
What IT support should cost a UK small business
The honest answer is that the market is wide, and a lot of that spread comes from how providers package their time rather than from the quality of the service. Hourly break-fix looks cheap until a bad month arrives. Tiered packages look tidy until the thing you need turns out to sit one tier above the one you bought. Per user pricing is the model that behaves most predictably for a growing team, because your bill moves in step with your headcount and nothing else.
We charge £15 per employee, per month. A five person business pays £75 a month, ten people pay £150, twenty five people pay £375, and that covers unlimited support queries alongside starter and leaver management, Microsoft licence management, essential security deployment, proactive monitoring and an annual business review. It works out around 60% cheaper than the average IT support provider, and considerably cheaper than an in-house hire once salary, National Insurance, pension, training and holiday cover are counted.
When you compare quotes, the number to interrogate isn't the headline rate. It's what falls outside it. Ask whether onboarding a new starter is included, whether security configuration is a project fee, whether out of hours costs extra and whether there's a cap on tickets. A low rate with four exclusions is usually more expensive than a slightly higher rate with none.
How we get you supported
1. Audit
We review your Microsoft 365 tenant, devices, accounts and security posture, then show you exactly what's exposed, what's duplicated and what you're overpaying for.
2. Stabilise
We deploy essential security presets, conditional access and monitoring, tidy up licences and permissions, and get every device enrolled and protected.
3. Support
Your team gets unlimited access to our UK based helpdesk, while we handle starters, leavers, patching and monitoring in the background on a fixed monthly fee.
4. Improve
Each year we run a full business IT review, covering performance, risk and cost, so your technology keeps pace with where the business is actually going.
Every service included in our IT support
Each of these is part of the same per user fee. Follow any of them for the detail on how we deliver it.
Account set-up
New user accounts, ready on day one.
Learn moreAnnual business IT reviews
A yearly health check for your IT.
Learn moreConditional access
Right person, right device, right place.
Learn moreCyber security
Layered protection for modern threats.
Learn moreDevice set-up
Laptops and phones, work-ready.
Learn moreEssential security presets & policies
Sensible defaults, switched on properly.
Learn moreIT support
Friendly, expert helpdesk when you need it.
Learn moreMicrosoft 365 Licensing
Purchase, assign and manage M365 licences.
Learn moreProactive monitoring
Catch issues before your team notices.
Learn moreSharepoint provisioning
Structured SharePoint sites, done right.
Learn moreStarter & leaver management
Smooth onboarding and secure offboarding.
Learn moreSmall business IT support FAQs
Related reading
Ready to hand your IT over to someone else?
Tell us how many people you have and what's currently causing you grief. We'll show you what support would look like, and what it would cost, within 24 hours.
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