Unless You Own an IT Company, Don’t Manage Your Own IT
When you start or buy a business, there’s a familiar checklist:
- Pick a company name
- Register an LLC
- Maybe get a logo, maybe print some cards
Most people stop there and think, “Cool, I’m official.”
You’re not.
An LLC is just paperwork. Anybody can file one. It doesn’t make you real in the digital world. Another business in another state can grab a similar name, buy a domain, build a website, show up on Google, and completely shadow you online.
You are not a “real” company in the modern world until you own your domain.
Your Domain Is Your Digital Business License
Buying a domain (yourbusiness.com) isn’t just about having a website someday. It’s your digital identity. It’s how:
- Vendors look you up
- Clients verify you
- Banks, insurers, and partners take you seriously
And yes, you can go buy your own domain: GoDaddy, Wix, Tucows, Bluehost, whatever. Technically, it’s easy.
But here’s the part people miss:
|The second you own a domain, you become responsible for everything that can be done in your name with it.
That’s email. That’s spoofing. That’s phishing. That’s your reputation and your liability.
Email on Your Domain: Necessary… and Dangerous
When you buy a domain, you should absolutely be using it for email:
- [email protected] instead of [email protected]
That’s better for:
- Professionalism
- PCI, HIPAA, FINRA, and other compliance expectations
- Building trust with clients and vendors
But here’s the problem:
|Just because your email has a password does not mean it’s secure.
If your domain isn’t locked down properly with the right records and policies, other people can send emails pretending to be you — even if they have no access to your mailbox.
And if you proudly list a full staff directory on your website (names, roles, and emails), you’ve basically handed attackers a menu of people to impersonate.
That’s how:
- Your clients get phished
- Your vendors get tricked
- People in your community receive “you” asking them to click something or pay something
If that’s happening because you never secured your domain properly? Honestly, you should be held liable.
Who Should Control Your Domain and Email?
Short answer: your legitimate IT company.
Not:
- Your web developer
- Your marketing agency
- Your SEO person
- Your accountant
- Your brother-in-law
- “The guy down the street who knows computers”
If they’re not responsible for your full IT security stack, they should not own the keys to your:
- Domain registrar (where you bought the domain)
- DNS host (where all the technical records live)
- Email platform (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, etc.)
Your MSP/IT provider is the one group that should have centralized control over those three things, because:
|Your MSP cannot properly secure you if they don’t control your domain, DNS, and email.
That’s the foundation of all your digital risk.
Build Your Digital Power Team
Once your domain, DNS, and email are locked down by a real IT company, then you build around that.
You need a digital power team:
- IT Company / MSP
- Secures your domain, email, DNS, and network
- Manages your devices, security tools, and backups
- Owns the technical and security side
- Web Developer
- Designs and builds your website
- Works with your IT company to safely connect your website to your domain (DNS records, hosting, etc.)
- Should get controlled, limited access via their own account with enforced 2FA
- SEO / Marketing Team
- Makes sure people can actually find you
- Helps you show up on search results, not page 3 oblivion
- Tracks whether your marketing spend is actually working
Flow looks like this:
- IT locks down domain + email
- Web dev builds a secure, modern site
- SEO/marketing gets you found and keeps eyes on your brand
And everyone accesses your DNS/hosting/email through proper logins and multi-factor authentication, not by passing around one shared password scribbled on a sticky note.
“This All Sounds Expensive” (It Really Isn’t)
People often don’t do this right because they assume it’s going to cost a fortune. It doesn’t.
Rough example:
- Professional email + apps
You can get company email on your domain, with business apps, for around or under $100/month for five people on a standard Microsoft 365 plan. - Domain registration
- .com or .net: roughly $20/year
- .org: around $25/year
That’s once a year. Not a mortgage payment.
For that, you get:
- A real, branded business email
- A legit domain identity
- A foundational piece of your digital presence that says, “We take ourselves seriously.”
You respect yourself as a professional. Your business presence online should reflect that — and then some.
What Should Your Teams Be Doing Regularly?
Once the initial setup is done, what does good ongoing support look like?
Your Web Developer Should Be:
- Keeping your website platform, modules, and plugins up to date
- Making sure your SSL certificate is valid and renewed (no “Not Secure” warnings)
- Checking that your site hasn’t been compromised with:
- Malicious scripts
- Spam content
- Hidden redirects
If they don’t, your:
- Website link in email can start getting flagged by email filtering tools
- Clients visiting your site can get compromised or see warnings
- Brand trust takes a hit
Your SEO / Marketing Team Should Be:
- Tracking whether you’re showing up for relevant searches
- Sending you regular reports on traffic, rankings, and campaigns
- Confirming that you’re not buried on page 3 behind competitors
- Adjusting strategy based on what’s working and what isn’t
You shouldn’t be guessing if your outbound spend is doing anything.
Your MSP / IT Company Should Be:
- Providing regular security and health reports that cover:
- Email security / remediation tools
- Antivirus status on all machines
- Patch status and vulnerabilities from their RMM
- Results of any employee security awareness training
- Letting you know about:
- Security events and threats blocked
- Any devices or systems falling behind on updates
- Sending automated reminders for action items and training tasks
- Doing at least an annual on-site visit
- Not just remote-only, faceless tickets
- Showing up, walking your environment, talking about future plans
If your IT provider never shows their face and just feels like another utility bill, it’s very easy to switch… and very hard to trust.
Why You Shouldn’t DIY This (And It’s Not About Intelligence)
This isn’t about whether you’re smart. You are. You’re a business owner. You’re an expert in your craft — that’s why people pay you.
But:
|You cannot master your craft and master modern security at the same time.
Not because you’re not capable, but because:
- There are only so many hours in a day
- Security requirements change constantly
- It’s not your daily mission or focus
So even if you “kind of know what you’re doing,” you will leave gaps. And attackers live in those gaps.
Find Humans, Not 1-800 Numbers
The best thing you can do for your long-term business health:
- Get involved in local networking groups: BNI, chambers, industry groups
- Meet your IT, web, and marketing people in person
- Work with people whose names you know and who know your story
- Stop buying critical business services from whoever answered a random phone line first
And above all:
|Never stop asking questions.
The minute you stop asking “Why?”, “How does this work?”, or “What happens if we don’t?”, that’s when someone can take advantage of you — or when something slips through and hurts you later.
If something feels off, keep digging until it makes sense.
Final Thought
You don’t have to become an IT expert.
You don’t have to do everything yourself.
What you do need is:
- A secure domain and email, owned and managed by a legitimate IT company
- A strong website that’s maintained, not abandoned
- A marketing/SEO team that makes sure all of this effort actually reaches people
- Professionals you trust enough to ask hard questions — and who care enough to answer them honestly
Your business is a reflection of who you are.
Set it up — and secure it — like it deserves.
