What Can Your Business Learn from The Abrupt Closure of Bench?
When Bench, a widely used bookkeeping service, announced its sudden closure, it left countless small business owners scrambling to pick up the pieces. For service-based businesses that rely on partners like Bench, the disruption was a wake-up call about the importance of preparation and resilience. There are lessons to be learned here—lessons that can help your business not just survive but thrive.
Here are seven key takeaways, and how an IT provider can help you build a stronger foundation
- Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
Relying entirely on a single provider, platform, or tool creates a single point of failure. The fact that Bench recorded $54M in revenue should be a huge alarm for small business owners that are depending on software solutions when it comes to their data. When Bench shut its doors, many businesses lost access to their critical financial data and had to scramble to find alternatives. Diversifying your tools and vendors to reduce your risk and being caught off guard.
How IT Can Help: Your IT provider should be a trusted advisor and part of your team. They should help you vet technology vendors and make sound decision. Your IT provider can set up integrations and backups across multiple platforms ensuring data redundancy. For example, your bookkeeping data SHOULD be backed up in a secure, cloud-based storage system independent of your main service provider.
- Back Up Your Data—Always
Businesses that didn’t regularly back up their financial data outside of Bench are facing delays and chaos. A robust backup system will ensure you can access your records even if a primary platform goes offline.
How IT Can Help: Your IT provider can implement automated backup solutions that securely store your critical business data. Financial data, client records, or operational information, frequent backups to cloud-based and local systems ensure you are never going to be locked out of what you need.
- Plan for Scalability
Many businesses initially chose Bench because to them it seemed to be a simple, affordable way to handle their bookkeeping. The old set it and forget it mentality. As businesses grow, their needs can often outpace the capabilities of the tool they selected. Bench’s abrupt closure highlights the risks of relying on a service that just couldn’t scale with its clients.
How IT Can Help: Your IT provider should be working hand in hand with you to identify scalable solutions. Whether it’s selecting software that grows with you or building the infrastructure that supports your expansion. Your IT provider should ensure that your tools are propelling your forward not holding you back.
- Stay on Top of Security
Data security should never be an afterthought. Bench’s closure should be a stark reminder that third-party providers store sensitive data, and when they fail, that data could be exposed to risks.
How IT Can Help: Your IT provider will prioritize security at every level. From setting up encryption protocols to performing regular cyber security risk assessments, they ensure your business data is protected even when working with outside vendors.
- Have a Contingency Plan
Businesses that had a contingency plan in place for their bookkeeping—such as a secondary provider or a quick way to transition to in-house systems—fared much better during abrupt Bench’s shutdown. Without proper planning your business will fail when faced with a crisis.
How IT Can Help: Your IT provider can help you develop disaster recovery and business continuity plans. These plans ensure you can maintain operations, access critical data, and be able communicate effectively with clients in the face of any disruption.
- Review Vendor Stability Regularly
This one is huge. Bench’s closure may have seemed abrupt to customers, but signs of instability often exist long before a company fails. Regularly reviewing the financial health and reliability of your vendors can alert you to potential risks.
How IT Can Help: Your IT providers can perform vendor assessments to evaluate the reliability, security, and scalability of your tools and platforms. They can help you choose partners that line up perfectly with your business’s long-term goals.
- Invest in Long-Term Relationships
The biggest frustration for Bench customers was the impersonal way they handled the closure. Epic fail. Having service providers that you are able to build strong relationships with can and will help your navigate challenges more effectively.
How IT Can Help: Having a dedicated IT provider that knows you, your team, and your business is key. Look for a company that excels at offering personalized support and ongoing collaboration. Instead of being just another account number, you are a valued partner, ensuring that your unique needs are a top priority.
The Bottom Line
The sudden closure of Bench was a tough lesson for many small business owners, but it doesn’t have to happen to you. You can learn from this and take proactive steps going forward to secure your data, plan for growth, and prioritize security.
You can and will build a business that’s resilient to disruptions.
At Code Blue Computing, we specialize in helping small businesses in service industries prepare for the unexpected. Whether you need IT support, data backup solutions, scalable infrastructure, or cybersecurity, we’ve got you covered. Let’s ensure your business thrives no matter what challenges come your way.
Take the first step towards safeguarding your business- call us today!