The Cost of Downtime at a Small Business (And How to Mitigate It)

Downtime. It’s a single word, but carries so much potential damage for your company.

Now that the world is online, customers expect you to be open and available to them around the clock.

About 82% of businesses today experienced unexpected downtime within the past three years. These downtimes lasted about four hours, on average.

But how much does this downtime cost companies?

Below we will discuss the true cost of downtime and how you can prevent it from hurting your business.

What Is the Average Cost of Downtime?

Every business experiences different damages and losses due to downtime.

In a survey, 91% of businesses polled said that an hour of downtime cost the company $300,000 in lost revenue and other expenses.

When your hardware and systems are offline, your customers won’t be able to make purchases, get in touch with you, or browse your services. You’ll also run more of a risk of putting internal information at risk due to cybersecurity threats.

The best thing you can do is maintain your infrastructure so that downtime isn’t a big issue in your business.

How Is Downtime Caused in Business?

There are several reasons that downtime happens in business. They usually involve a mixture of network downtime, IT outages, and power outages.

In the event of a power outage, you’ll need to either wait it out or use a backup generator system to get you back up to speed. If you’re dealing with Information Technology (IT) outages, it could compromise both your internal backend system and your main website.

Network downtime often happens when upgrades are being made. If you’re performing routine maintenance, always notify everyone concerned, as far in advance as possible.

This way, people can make plans and won’t be caught off guard by the disruption.

How Can You Prevent Disruptions in Business?

The best thing you can do is keep your systems at their best. Hire a dedicated team of IT professionals that can catch potential problems before they take your systems online.

They will regularly run scans and quarantine malware threats that try to attack your system or gain access. IT professionals will also make regular upgrades to your operating system and firmware so that intruders are steps behind.

Choose the best available broadband service so that your business stays connected and without lapses. Ask the internet company about their uptime guarantee, and whether you’ll be compensated if your systems go down longer.

Develop an internal policy for dealing with downtime so that your company can stay productive as they wait for systems to come back online.

The Cost of Downtime in Business

Understanding the cost of downtime will allow you to do business at a higher and more thorough level. These tips are helpful no matter what industry you’re in.

Now that you have a roadmap for preventing these unplanned disruptions, start working with a team of professionals that can assist you.

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