The traditional business landscape has changed over the last decade. We’ve seen a significant growth of the gig/freelance economy that’s been in parallel to the adoption of cloud technology.
Over 57 million Americans work as freelancers, contributing approximately $1 trillion to the US economy in 2019.
Freelancers work both part-time to supplement their “day job” income and full-time as their main source of income. This makes the device they use for work just as vital as any enterprise computer system.
But often freelancers still see their computers as “home computers” and not as “business computers,” which is what they actually are. This mindset can lead to downtime or security issues, which can put a big dent in their income.
Freelancers that work from home often don’t have the backup systems in place to pivot to if their main computer goes down. For example, in an office environment, there will typically be another workstation that an employee can use while their main computer is being repaired.
But when your business technology infrastructure includes only one main computer, if it’s down, you’re not able to earn income until it’s repaired.
The reliance on a single device, actually makes it even more important to ensure its protected with a residential managed services plan.
Protect Your Livelihood by Protecting Your Device
Managed IT services are typically associated with an office setting, but the protections those services provide are just as important for computers that are being used from home. This is especially true of those devices being used for freelancing, because a person’s income depends upon them.
What is included with residential MSP?
Residential MSP includes the same types of services as business MSP, which are a combination of protections to ensure your device continues running efficiently.
At Cris’s Tech Repairs, our residential MSP includes things like:
- Proactive monitoring & maintenance
- Antivirus/anti-malware protection
- Patch/update management
- System optimization
- Responsive tech support
Here are the ways that using a residential managed services plan can improve your freelancing business.
Allow You to Earn More
If you’re working on a sluggish system, you may have gotten used to waiting 5-7 minutes for a bootup and several minutes here and there between activities. But those additional minutes can really add up and can limit the amount of work you can get completed in a day.
When you have a managed services plan, your system is optimized, which means things are done that help speed up your computer.
If you’re able to save just 45 minutes a day because your computer is faster, that’s nearly 4 hours more of billable work each week that you’re able to accomplish.
Protect You from a Ransomware Attack
Ransomware is a particularly malicious type of malware that encrypts the data on your device, making it unusable. The attacker then demands a ransom, typically in the thousands of dollars, to give you a key to decrypt the data.
Many people go ahead and pay the attacker because they can’t afford the downtime trying to figure out how to restore the data themselves.
1 in 5 Americans have had to deal with a ransomware attack.
Having an MSP can protect you through managed anti-malware and monitoring. And additionally, if you added a backup and recovery component onto your plan, your system can be quickly cleaned, and the data restored without needing to pay the ransom.
Reduce Costly Downtime
Every minute your computer is down due to a mechanical or software issue, you’re losing money as a freelancer. Whether you’re a content writer or a graphic designer, no computer, means no ability to work on client projects.
Computers can go down for a number of reasons:
- Hard drive crash
- Software conflicts
- Driver or hardware issues
One of the services in a managed services plan is proactive monitoring. This means your system is monitored for any impending issues that could cause downtime in the future. The issue is then addressed well before it impacts your device or you work.
Use Your Computer Longer
Being able to put off a new computer purchase for another 1-3 years can make a big difference in the cashflow of a freelancer.
There comes a time in every device’s lifecycle when it’s just not able to keep up with evolving technology needs. Computers that are better maintained will have a longer usable lifespan.
With proactive maintenance, your computer is kept in optimal condition, lengthening its lifespan, and upgrading components when needed. This means you can use your computer longer, giving you a better return on your technology investment.
Get Help Instead of Struggling
If you’re struggling with a computer issue for an hour and a half, that’s time that you’re not making money. Many people that work from home feel like they’re on their own when it comes to IT issues.
Freelancers will also try to put off certain computer activities like working through a system update until after their normal working hours, but then it’s cutting into their personal and family time, and that’s no good either.
When you sign up for a residential managed services plan, it comes with expert tech support. This includes helping you with any problems (we can easily login remotely!) and managing your updates for you so they don’t interrupt your work or your personal time.
Do More with Your Freelancing Business with a Managed Services Plan
You may be surprised at just how much more working time you have once you sign up for MSP protection because you’re no longer dealing with computer issues on your own!
Contact us today to sign up and learn more at 561-985-4961 or through our website.