Setting things up
New computers, email, file storage. Getting everything off the old machine without losing the one folder that actually mattered.
A-01 · General arrangement
Someone to call when the computers stop cooperating.
I help small businesses around Mission and the Fraser Valley with the technology they run on and nobody has time to look after. Straight answers, a price before I start, and nothing you have to argue your way out of later.
Businesses in this range, with nobody on staff whose job is the computers
01
The thing you actually get
Sheet A-01 · Drawn by M. Sawaf
Every job ends with a drawing like this.
Not because it is pretty. Because the day you need it, I might be on a roof in Agassiz, and whoever is standing in your server cupboard should still be able to work out what is plugged into what.
Scroll the drawing sideways → · Drawn for a nine-person office in Mission. Yours will differ.
02
Scope of work
See sheet A-02 for the full schedule
Most of it is unglamorous.
That is usually why it has been sitting there for two years. None of it is anyone's fault. It is just that it is nobody's job.
Backups worth having
A backup you have never restored from is a rumour. I set one up, restore a file from it in front of you, and show you how to check it yourself.
Locks on the doors
Password management, two-factor, closing the accounts of people who left in 2021. Not exciting. Stops most of what actually happens to businesses your size.
When something breaks
The laptop that takes four minutes to boot. The printer nobody in the back office can reach. The shared drive that quietly stopped existing on a Tuesday.
Before you sign anything
An honest read on what a vendor is selling you. What it costs over three years rather than this month, and whether the cheaper option does the same job.
Domains, email and hosting
Your own domain, email that does not land in spam, a site that stays up. The plumbing everything else sits on top of.
03
Who you would be dealing with
Sheet A-04
I am Mark, and I live up the hill from you.
I have spent my working life around computers, networks, and the small unremarkable systems a business depends on without ever quite noticing, right up until the morning one of them stops.
I would rather tell you something is not worth doing than sell you a bigger version of it.
If a forty dollar subscription solves your problem, I will say so, and you can decide whether you still want me involved. I would rather be the person you call in three years than the person who billed you well once.