These guidelines actually apply much more widely than just to small businesses, but they are worth emphasizing for the small-business owner or de facto technician, simply because there is typically no one else around to point them out.
The way that problems get resolved in most IT departments, even in large, well-funded companies, is not simply through the mass application of brainpower on the part of the local technician. Instead, most issues that can occur are resolved through reference to common sources of information provided by manufacturers or communities on the Internet. Even the best and the brightest in the IT world will tend, on encountering an issue not immediately familiar to them, to turn first to these knowledge bases to see if someone else has already had the problem and come up with a fast fix for it. Having some idea what and where these completely free resources are is a powerful tool in your toolbox, no matter what your level of expertise.
The Microsoft Knowledge Base is the first stop for any issue related to any Microsoft product. Although the search interface changes from time to time, frequently for the worse, it is still the fastest and easiest route to finding patches, work-arounds, and general information regarding various Microsoft software and hardware.
Labmice.net is also a good resource for Microsoft related technologies; although most of their actual content is just links back to Microsoft sites, they have the links rather better organized than Microsoft itself does and it can be easier to find what you are looking for there than at Microsoft's support site.
Apple Product Support has access to freely downloadable patches, knowledge base article searching, and on-line manuals for Apple products. There is also a particularly helpful online message board under the "Discussions" sub-tab where you can browse to see what other users may have found solutions to your problems, or where you can ask questions about problems that you have not yet found answers to.
Linux Org is a good first stop when in need of Linux support. The documentation section is particularly useful as a reference library, containing links to various project guides, frequently asked question answers, and step-by-step HOWTO guides for common needs. True Linux online support is quite scattered, however, and often a simply Google search is the easiest route to a quick answer.
First stop for hardware questions should usually be the site of the manufacturer. If you can't find a reference to the manufacturer's website in the product documentation... well, for starters, it probably wasn't nearly the deal it seemed, was it? Anyway, try a Google search for them and you'll probably turn them up. Most have a collection of support documents and a knowledge base for frequently asked questions. Google Groups groups.google.com (explained more below) is also often a good resource for otherwise inexplicable hardware issues.
This site has a good, quick troubleshooting checklist for most common boot problems.
The PC Guide has an interesting "choose your own adventure" system called the Troubleshooting Expert, which can be frustrating in its linear approach, but excellent for someone completely unfamiliar with PCs.
IT Toolbox has a collection of knowledge bases (look under the links at the bottom of the page) on a variety of topics, bringing together resources from a wide variety of both manufacturer and third-party sources. Although they generally will not have information regarding common or immediate problems, they can be a good resource for less common issues that are not readily addressed elsewhere.
Google is the search engine of choice when it comes to trawling the whole of the World Wide Web for solutions. A few pertinent keywords will almost assuredly result in a bevy of helpful results for common issues; less common issues may require more digging. Note the Groups section--this is an area which allows searching of the Usenet archive, a global discussion forum which is often among the first place that the real pointy-ear set of geeks post their problems and find their solutions.
Not knowing how to get something that you need to fix a problem is only slightly worse than having what you need but not knowing where to find it. The only way to prevent this problem is to put things when you get them into an ordered array where you can find them again later. Every time you get a new piece of equipment or software, make sure you keep the box and the manuals, and store them in a consistent place in some sort of recognizable order.
Learn to create and embrace checklists. The order in which things occur, and whether you have positively done one step before the next, are quite important when it comes to computers. No one should have to keep all of that knowledge in their head, and you'll find that you wind up performing certain tasks over and over when you are working with PCs... reinstalling, patching, upgrading, what-have-you. If, the first time you have to perform a detailed, order-significant activity, you put it into a checklist, you'll save yourself the time of figuring it all out again in six months when you have to go through the same process on another machine or for another user.
Computers are complex enough that no one--not even the experts--can remember everything about their setup without some sort of reference. When you network several computers together, share files and applications, this becomes even more complicated. The only reasonable solution to prevent total confusion when you need to know how something is configured is to write everything down.
There are two methods for this. One, for each computer or piece of equipment that you purchase, you should assign a unique tracking number and keep a written record of the various characteristics of that item and any changes that are made to it during the course of your ownership of it. File all these sheets together; update them whenever you add or subtract a bit of hardware or software or make a significant configuration change to that machine.
IMS has a standardized Excel inventory form freely available for download for this purpose:
IMS Inventory SheetDownload and either print it off or keep electronic copies of it for each of your computers or printers. The format is fairly self-explanatory but there are also directions available.
One of the easiest ways to make sure things will work together smoothly is simply by ensuring that they are the same things. You can generally be pretty sure that most manufacturers will make certain that if you buy two of the same item from them, they will both behave identically, and consequently will interface perfectly. In other words, if you want to make sure that you can use a word processor document from one computer on another, then your best bet is to make sure that both computers have the same word processor. If they are the same model of computer, even better.
In addition to reducing the number of problems that can surface when using disparate systems, standardizing also reduces the maintenance overhead. You only have to keep track of a small number of products for updates or upkeep. You only have to figure out one manufacturer's support site. You only need to learn one interface. Standardization is simplification. If it's not your goal to learn everything there is to know about twenty different systems, don't get that many--decide on one, and stick with it. Even if it turns out to not be ideal, there is intrinsic advantage in minimizing the variety of items you have around to accomplish the same task.
Make every effort to purchase computers in batches and from the same manufacturer. Do not upgrade software piece-meal, as it is released--pick a product version and stick with it, until you want to upgrade everything at once. Most software licensing works in reverse--you can buy a new product and the license with it, but apply the license to an older version of that product. By doing this, you can avoid being forced into upgrading just because a certain product is no longer offered.
Not to say that most small-business owners ever really lose track of this--but it can be extremely easy, when it comes to technology, to get distracted as to what is important and what is not when it comes to expenditures. Neither is this to say that you should be cheap; rather, it's a call to be mindful and spend appropriately.
A strange truth when it comes to many information technologies is that it can be much better to invest up-front than to wait. Consider that the ultimate goal of most IT is to make some process more efficient. The longer that a process is run efficiently, the more cumulative savings you accrue. This guideline is not so simple as saying "Minimize your technology expenses!" Instead, it is about making the appropriate expenditures at timely moments.
There is a frequent temptation, given the rate of change in information technology, to buy the biggest and best of anything available under the presumption that even that will be outmoded in two years time. This is rarely fruitful, however. The consideration you must have is not whether your purchase will fall behind the state of the art rapidly--for it almost certainly will--but rather, will it fall behind your needs rapidly? For most organizations, these are very different questions.
At the same time that it can be more beneficial to invest early in certain technologies that can add efficiency to your operations, it can also be beneficial to hang onto some of those technologies much longer than conventional wisdom might indicate. Although technology advances frequently, and your systems may become rapidly outmoded in relation to the state of the art. Again, this is not actually the question--the question you must ask yourself is, does the technology still meet your needs? For if you are not altering the business processes that those technological systems support, and if they are not breaking down, there is probably no compelling reason to replace them. Modern technical components can last years beyond their advertised lifespans, and the more you can squeeze out of those investments, the more you will be saving in the long run.
IT guidance for small businesses is not actually any different than for large businesses, it's just that small ones rarely get to hear it in terms that are practical for them to adopt. There are also some special concerns involved for anyone on a limited budget and with limited time to devote to managing an unfamiliar yet important part of modern business. Following the simple guidelines presented here should go some measure toward improving the ROI for the average small business IT component; however, anyone interested in maximizing their IT efficiency potential should continue their research into best practices and adopt more in-depth approaches to technology management.