It’s one of the most tempting offers a business owner can get: IT support for a rock-bottom price. Whether it’s a "guy I know" who charges by the hour or a small shop offering a bare-bones retainer, the quote looks like a huge win. You’re saving money, checking a box, and moving on.
As an IT managed services provider Cleveland businesses rely on, I've sat across from countless owners who have been burned by this exact scenario. That "deal" they got six months ago has turned into a nightmare of surprise bills, constant interruptions, and a gnawing anxiety that they aren't fully protected.
The hard truth is that in the world of IT and cybersecurity, "cheap" is almost always a facade for "expensive." That low price isn't a discount; it's a gamble. And it's a gamble you're taking with your entire business.
Most "cheap" IT support operates on a model called "break-fix." It’s simple: when your technology breaks, you call them, and they fix it. They charge you for their time and any parts needed.
On the surface, this sounds fine. Why pay for something you're not using? But let's look at the underlying incentive.
Objectively, a break-fix provider only makes money when your systems are down. They have no financial incentive to prevent problems. In fact, the more problems you have, the more they get paid. A slow, problematic network is a steady stream of income for them.
In my opinion, this model is fundamentally broken for a modern business. It’s purely reactive. It’s like ignoring the $50 oil changes for your car and waiting to pay a mechanic only after your engine seizes on the highway. That mechanic profits from your catastrophic failure, not your routine success. You're stuck paying an emergency tow bill and a $5,000 repair invoice for a problem that was entirely preventable. You wouldn't run your business that way, so why handle your technology like that?
The alternative is the managed services, or "partnership," model. You pay a predictable, flat monthly fee. In this model, our incentives are perfectly aligned with yours. We make more profit when your systems run flawlessly, because we're not billing for extra hours to fix things. It’s our job to be proactive, to patch, to monitor, and to secure everything so that the "fire" never happens in the first place.
That low hourly rate from a break-fix provider is just the tip of the iceberg. The real expenses are hiding just below the surface.
First and foremost is downtime. When your email provider locks your account due to spam output, when your server crashes, or when your network goes down, your entire operation grinds to a halt. How much does one hour of your whole team being offline cost you in salaries, lost sales, and missed deadlines? The average cost of downtime for a small business can be thousands of dollars per hour. A single bad day can wipe out an entire year's worth of "savings" from that cheap IT provider.
Then there’s the slow, creeping death of lost productivity. This isn't full-blown downtime, but it's just as damaging. It’s the computer that takes ten minutes to boot up. The "quick" five-second network lag every time you open a file. The printer that's always offline. These little frustrations add up, draining morale and stealing minutes from every employee, every single day. This is one of the biggest hidden costs of ignoring IT.
Finally, there’s the nickel-and-dime effect. That $75 hourly rate never ends up being just $75. It’s padded with "trip fees," "emergency surcharges," and projects that mysteriously take three times longer than quoted. Because the provider has no incentive to be efficient, you end up with a stack of unpredictable invoices that make budgeting impossible.
This is the part that keeps me up at night. To offer a "cheap" price, a provider must cut corners. And the first corner they always cut is cybersecurity.
Your cheap "IT guy" is not managing your security patches. He's not monitoring your network 24/7 for threats. He isn't using advanced email security to stop phishing attacks. He's almost certainly installing a basic, free antivirus and calling it a day.
In 2025, this isn't just risky; it's negligent.
The cost of a data breach is now in the millions for an average business. This doesn't just count the ransom or the recovery costs; it includes regulatory fines (like for HIPAA or CMMC), legal fees, and the irreversible loss of client trust. If you're looking for red flags that it’s time for a change, a provider who dismisses advanced cybersecurity is the biggest one.
When your business gets hacked, the "IT guy" who charged you $75 an hour won't be there to help. He doesn't have the tools, the insurance, or the expertise. You'll be on your own, making a panicked call to a specialist firm (like us) to start the costly process of Ransomware recovery.
Recently, a local manufacturer came to us because their production line was crippled by a ransomware attack.
It took us two weeks of around-the-clock work to rebuild their systems and get them operational. The "deal" they thought they were getting on IT support cost them over six figures in lost production and recovery fees.
When you're evaluating what IT services should really cost, it's crucial to shift your thinking from "cost" to "investment." You're not just buying someone's time; you're investing in peace of mind, productivity, and protection.
A quality managed services plan includes:
That "cheap" IT provider isn't saving you money. They're just a liability you haven't had to pay for yet.
If you're tired of the break-fix roller coaster, fed up with surprise invoices, or worried that your current provider isn't taking security seriously, let's have an honest conversation. We'll show you exactly what protected, proactive, and professional IT support looks like.