Why IT Downtime Is the Most Expensive Business Problem Nobody Budgets For

What's the single biggest threat to your business that nobody budgets for?

Want a guess?

It's not a competitor opening up down the street. Or dropping prices on your best-selling items. It's IT downtime.

Downtime hurts – fast.

It slashes revenue, productivity, and customer trust. And just about nobody plans for it.

So let's make sure downtime doesn't destroy your business.

Here's what you'll learn:

1. The True Cost Of Downtime

2. Why Businesses Don't Budget For It

3. Unexpected Costs That Can Bankrupt You

4. How To Keep Your Business Safe From Downtime

The True Cost Of Downtime

Want to know why downtime is so bad?

Let's look at some numbers…

Per ITIC's 2024 report, over 90% of enterprises say downtime costs them over $300,000 per hour. That's right. Over 300 large companies said their hourly downtime costs exceeded that.

And it's not just large businesses… Small and mid-sized companies with fewer than 200 employees reported similar results.

A Splunk report even found that downtime costs the world's top 2,000 businesses upwards of $400 BILLION annually. To put it in perspective, that's nearly 9% of profits businesses are walking away from every year.

Yep. You read that right.

These are not scare tactics. These are actual numbers from published, peer-reviewed studies. Real businesses that thought downtime would never happen to them either.

The harsh reality is every single business needs reliable IT support for business. Having access to proactive managed IT services is one of the best investments you can make to avoid downtime affecting your bottom line.

If you wait until the next outage hits, it's already too late.

Why Businesses Don't Budget For Downtime

Here's the real problem with downtime…

It can't be seen.

It doesn't show up on any budget or financial statements until it's already cost your business thousands. If not more.

Business owners plan and budget for the costs they can see. Rent, payroll, marketing campaigns, advertising subscriptions, software licenses.

An unplanned system outage isn't on the budget. It's not a typical "what if" scenario that most businesses plan for. It just… happens.

Until it doesn't.

EMA Research recently discovered that the price of downtime continued to climb for businesses with less than 10k employees. Smaller businesses are getting hit the hardest with downtime costs, and they're the least prepared to handle it financially.

Budgeting for downtime is a critical step that all successful businesses take. Whether they do it formally on their budget or set money aside "just in case."

The businesses who weather downtime easily are the ones who are prepared for it.

The Hidden Costs That Can Bankrupt You

One of the worst things about downtime is the money you don't see.

Yeah, your sales and productivity come to a halt when systems go down. But what about…

Employee productivity? Your customers won't wait patiently while you fix things. They'll take their business somewhere else that can provide instant service.

Cost of recovery? Getting things back online isn't free. Especially if you have to call in a specialist or pay for emergency services.

Brand reputation? News of downtime (especially security-based downtime) spreads like wildfire.

Consider this…

A study by Acronis found that 76% of organisations suffered some sort of downtime in a single year. That's almost 4 out of every 5 businesses experiencing some sort of downtime.

But it gets worse.

According to ITIC, 84% of businesses cite security as the leading cause of downtime.

Cyber attacks. Outdated hardware. Lack of maintenance. These are things that can and should be taken care of before they become costly problems.

How To Keep Your Business Safe From Downtime

Alright, let's say you know downtime is bad and you want to protect your business from it. How do you ensure your business has effective IT support to handle downtime?

Prevention.

Effective IT support for business goes hand-in-hand with proactive practices. Let's dive into what that looks like.

Practice Preventative Monitoring

If it's not being monitored, it won't be protected. Full stop.

24/7 hour monitoring is the only way to make sure you catch issues before they become larger problems. Servers don't sleep just because it's a long weekend. Cyberattacks don't care what day of the week it is.

Investing in preventative monitoring means smaller issues are caught early. And small problems don't turn into downtime.

Keep All Systems Updated

Frankly, this should be a no brainer.

Running outdated software and using old hardware is a surefire way to cause downtime. Regular system maintenance and updates are one of the easiest ways to prevent many common downtime causes.

And here's the thing…

"There's no time to update!"

News flash: If you've been putting off updates "because you're too busy", so is everyone else. Take the time now or pay for it later.

Create A Disaster Recovery Plan

Every business should have one.

This cannot be stressed enough. Backup files regularly, make sure your recovery plan is up-to-date, and train employees on what to do if systems go down.

The businesses who recover the fastest from downtime are the ones who plan for it ahead of time. No exceptions.

Partner With IT Experts

Sure, handling IT internally sounds like a good way to save money.

But as we just covered, downtime is expensive. More expensive than you think.

When you partner with an IT support service provider, you'll have access to larger teams with a broad range of IT expertise. Managed services can also provide you with tools and monitoring that your in-house team doesn't have.

Trying to run IT on a shoestring budget is only going to set you up for problems down the road.

Partner with IT professionals who can offer decades of experience and actually enjoy what they do.

The Bottom Line

IT downtime is the most expensive "budget killer" that nobody plans for. Until it happens to you, most business owners don't understand the devastation it leaves behind.

Here are a few of those stats again:

-> 76% of businesses experienced downtime in a year

-> Larger firms lose upwards of $300,000+ per hour

-> Smaller businesses saw an average downtime cost increase of 60%

Don't sit around waiting for the next costly outage to happen to you.

Stop IT downtime before it stops you. Have a plan, practice preventative monitoring and maintenance, and partner with IT professionals.

You'll never regret being proactive with your IT support for business.