If you run a small business in New Hampshire, “how much should we spend on IT?” is one of the hardest questions to answer honestly — because the real answer is “it depends.” But “it depends” doesn't help you build a 2026 budget. So here's a practical way to think about it, along with the factors that actually move the number.
The most common rule of thumb is to budget IT as a percentage of revenue. Across small and mid-sized businesses, technology spending commonly lands somewhere in the low single digits of annual revenue for firms that aren't tech-heavy, and higher for those that are (think a firm running specialized software, or one in a regulated industry like healthcare or finance). Treat that as a starting sanity check, not a target — a 12-person accounting office in Nashua and a 12-person e-commerce shop in Portsmouth can have very different needs at the same headcount.
A more grounded approach is to build the number from the ground up. Start with the recurring costs you already have: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace licenses, line-of-business software subscriptions, internet and connectivity, domain and email hosting, and any cloud services. These are predictable and easy to total up.
Then add the layer most New Hampshire small businesses underestimate: security and support. Endpoint protection, email security, multi-factor authentication, backup, and someone to actually manage it all. This is where break-fix budgets tend to blow up — you're fine until you're not, and then a single incident or an aging server failure lands as a surprise five-figure invoice.
Hardware is the third bucket, and it's lumpy. Laptops and workstations are on a replacement cycle of roughly three to five years, so in any given year you might replace a third of your fleet. Servers, firewalls, and network gear are bigger, less frequent hits. The trap is treating these as one-time surprises instead of a predictable line you set aside for every year.
So what does a reasonable 2026 plan look like? Rather than a single magic number, plan for three things. One: a predictable monthly operating cost for licenses, security, support, and cloud services. Two: an annual hardware refresh allowance so you're never caught flat-footed. Three: a modernization reserve — a small amount set aside for the projects you know are coming, like getting off an aging on-prem server or tightening up security.
This is exactly where a flat-fee managed IT model helps New Hampshire businesses budget with confidence. Instead of unpredictable hourly and per-ticket invoices, you pay one monthly number that covers strategy, support, security, and maintenance. It doesn't eliminate hardware costs, but it turns the biggest and most volatile part of your IT spend — support and security — into a line you can actually forecast.
A few questions worth asking as you plan: Are you still paying for software licenses nobody uses? When did you last review your internet and telecom contracts? Is there a server in a closet that's due for retirement in the next year? Each of those is either a cost to cut or a project to budget for — and naming them now beats discovering them mid-year.
The bottom line: don't budget IT as an afterthought or a rounding error. For most New Hampshire small businesses, a realistic 2026 plan pairs a predictable monthly cost with a modest annual allowance for hardware and modernization. If your current spend swings wildly month to month, that's usually a sign your model — not just your number — needs a rethink.