In today's highly computerized world, it's impossible to stay ahead without using technology. If you're running a small business, it's safe to assume that you don't have a lot of money to hire a lot of IT managers. You have someone to call if you need any significant computer repairs or work done, but when it comes to the day-to-day management of your business' network, everyone is pretty much on their own. It can be difficult to keep up with your regular duties and also maintain your computer network, but you don't have to be an IT wiz to keep everything running smoothly. If you keep the following advice in mind, you'll be able to keep everything organized and running well.

Be aware of possible performance issues

Computers make life much easier, but they aren't perfect. Sometimes computers can have problems for seemingly no reason. A program may crash, the Internet may be slow for a few hours, but these small problems usually aren't cause for an alarm. Tell your employees to inform you of any computer problems they may be experiencing. A few isolated incidents won't be anything to worry about, but repeated problems could be a sign that something is wrong with the device, or your programs and networks.

Use "business-grade" equipment and programs

A lot of owners make the mistake of using computers and software made for regular consumers to run their small business. Others simply pick out whichever computers, mobile phones, or laptops are the cheapest and use them for their work. However, consumer networking products essentially lack the enhancement and features that you need to properly run a business. They rarely have the correct programs for administration and management, and the ones that do aren't prepared to handle the needs of a small enterprise. Programs and software like NetApp and the Tivoli storage manager are designed for businesses, and can help you much more than any other consumer oriented product would.

Plan ahead for downtime

Maybe the newest update for an essential program ended up causing problems for your computers. Or maybe a power outage caused your computers to restart, and it's taking a long time to get everything up and running again. Either way, problems that affect your computers and network are bound to happen, and you need to be prepared to handle any down time they may cause. A simple malfunction or network problem could take you anywhere from a few minutes to a day to fix, and you want to make sure that you can have everything working again as soon as possible. Know who you can call for emergency IT work, and always make sure that you have your data backed up.