Know where to save money and where 'skimping' is a false economy.
Ensure firewalls and antivirus software are updated and current on all PC's at all times.
Make sure you have a backup plan and that you check your backups regularly.
Keep your directory structure organised to ease backup efficiency.
Buy a large CD case and keep all your IT CD's in one place.
Keep concise but comprehensive documentation of all your IT systems in your CD case.
Use a reliable Internet Service Provider aimed at business users.
IT management is pretty much a 'no brainer' if you have a decent budget. You can hire the best agencies, buy in, or hire in key IT personnel with exactly the right skill sets that you require. They will, in turn, be able to purchase the most cutting edge software and hardware solutions in the market place. Your IT personnel can also be on hand to deal with any issue at any time. A truly great option if you can allocate sufficient funds, but not an option that is feasible to all of us in the real world. However, if you are not careful, you could end up running strategy number two which is at the other end of the spectrum.
If budgets are tight, it is likely that you will try and handle things yourself. Not your ideal solution, but hey, needs must. You will purchase a couple of PC's, a laptop, a printer, get a basic WiFi ADSL router and a home user Internet Service Provider. With a little hair pulling and a lot of sighing you are up and running. Bit of a pain but it did not break the bank either.
All appears OK until things start going wrong and you do not know why. Before long your email is dropping out, one of your pc's will not print, the laptop will not connect to the WiFi, you have a virus and the phone will just not stop ringing. What is worse, you have not found the time to setup that backup routine you were planning to implement. If you are unlucky and that new pc has a hard drive crash, you are going to loose all your important data and all your stored emails. After that, doing business is going to get harder, more stressful and those 'moody blues' will not be far off.