First IT setup as a freelancer, what do you actually need
Not everything at once. One laptop, a mailbox on your own domain, a password manager, a backup. That covers the first year.
Try this first
- 1Buy one decent laptop, minimum 16 GB RAM and SSD. A business model with three-year warranty costs more but outlives the consumer machine that gets sluggish after eighteen months.
- 2Register your own domain and put a mailbox on it via Microsoft 365 Business Basic or Google Workspace Business Starter. A gmail.com or outlook.com address looks amateur and you cannot take the domain with you later.
- 3Set up a password manager (Bitwarden, 1Password). One strong master password, everything else generated. Starting small costs nothing, switching later costs days.
- 4Arrange a backup for your laptop. OneDrive or Google Drive for documents, plus an external disk for everything else. One copy is no copy.
- 5Turn on MFA for your mailbox, your bank, your accounting tool, and your domain registrar. The registrar is often forgotten, even though it controls every mail address you have.
When to bring us in
If you handle a lot of client data (health, finance, legal) or you fall under NIS2 supplier requirements as a sole trader, the minimum above is not enough. A short call saves rework later.
See also
- Hiring your first employee, what IT to arrange before day oneLaptop, account, mailbox, access to the right folders. In that order, not all of it at 9 a.m. on day one.
- Moving to a new office, IT checklistInternet and power have the longest lead times. Plan at least three months out, not three weeks.
- Picking internet for a small office, fibre vs business DSL vs 5GFor most offices fibre is the answer. DSL and 5G are fallback or bridge, not plan A.
None of the above fits?
Describe your situation below. We pass your input plus the steps you already saw to our AI and return tailored next-step advice. If it's too risky to DIY, we'll say so.
Or skip the DIY entirely
Our Managed IT clients do not look these things up. One point of contact, a fixed monthly price, resolved within working hours.