When your business is growing, it’s hard to tell at what point you should consider outsourcing your IT service. One of the first things to consider is if your business is even ready for this. Take a step back and look at the big picture: are all areas of your business ready to engage in outsourcing? Do you have enough money in your budget to hire an outside company to take on this task? Bear in mind that if you don’t have to worry too much about your business’ IT needs because there is another company handling them, that will allow you to put more of your attention on other aspects of the business, like administrative tasks. But also keep this in mind – if your employees need any training on this new technology, you will have to allot time and money for this training, so be sure that is in the budget too.

Consider if the part of your business you are trying to outsource is your core business. If it is, you might not want to outsource it. But if you decide that this is the best bet for your business and the outsourced aspect isn’t part of your core business, here are a few things to think about while you’re in the process of hiring an IT service.

First, while it will help if you think about your budget, don’t focus too much on the cost when it comes to choosing your IT service provider. Bear in mind that you get what you pay for! See how much the entire package will cost: from upfront money to monthly service fees.

Second, look into what service-level agreements the IT service company offers and focus on the monthly reporting they should provide to you. Are the services they are providing worth it? Do the savings align with your original goal?

Third, look into what brands the IT service company offers and supports. Are they well-known brands with good reputations? Does your IT service company offer a choice among those brands? If the answer to either or both of these questions is "no," you may want to keep shopping around for a better IT service company.

Fourth, word of mouth is often the best way to find a good service or product. Ask colleagues and other business owners about their experiences outsourcing their IT service. Who did they end up hiring (or firing) and why?

If you keep these in mind while going through the process of finding and outsourcing an IT service, this information should be a good jumping-off point.