Before 2025 Ends: Ask Your IT These 3 Questions
1) Hook 🎬
Early 2025, one of our event production clients slumps into a chair and says:
“We spend half the day just managing projects.”
So I asked a question that changed everything:
“Do you have a consistent process for how your projects start and finish?”
The room went quiet.
Not because they did not have smart people.
Not because they did not work hard.
But because when they really looked at it, the truth was unavoidable:
Some things had five answers and others had none.
So we did what every great business does when it wants to grow up.
We mapped the blueprint.
We wrote the punch list.
Then we built the project dashboard that made the workflow visible, repeatable, and improvable.
Fast forward to our last meeting of the year.
Calm leadership team.
All smiles and a new level of zen around the desk.
Bagels, coffee, and a true time out for everyone.
Not perfect. Not finished.
But finally… managed.
And that is exactly why I am sending you this in December.
Because when I look back at our most engaged clients, these three shifts created real transformation.
And the ones who did not do anything paid for it.
2) Empathy 🙄
Creative and project based firms run on timing, coordination, and delivery.
When the blueprint lives in people’s heads:
Projects drift
Owners lose sleep
Money leaks in silence
You do not need another trend list.
You need three questions that force clarity.
And that can be answered with a plan.
3) Insight 💡
If projects are your business, then your first IT question must be about how the system protects and accelerates projects.
Cash flow is the blood supply. Surprise spend is preventable when you forecast and set caps with your partner.
AI is an amazing tool but not a miracle.
It is also becoming a language that has to be learned if you want to stay relevant.
But without a clear plan and smart execution, AI becomes a major point of regression.
4) Guidance ✅
The three questions to send your IT partner now
Question 1 Projects
Help me see our projects and progress on a single pane of glass and visualize and improve our process. Where do start to finish steps live, who owns each checkpoint, and what dashboard proves the status of every active project?
This is the question that separates:
We are busy
from
We are operationally mature
If your IT partner is truly a partner, they should be able to help you make your work visible and measurable.
What a good answer looks like:
✅ We are ready to partner with you to plan and execute this outcome for your business in x number of days.
Not “cool idea.”
Not “maybe.”
A real plan with a timeline.
What you don’t want to hear:
🚩 A. We don’t do that.
🚩 B. We can look around for you.
🚩 C. I think we can help with that.
Owners do not need “I think.”
Owners need a blueprint and a punch list.
Question 2 Cash flow
Now that we got all of what we want and need outlined. Where will our IT costs be for 2026
This is where a lot of companies get hit.
Not because the tools are too expensive.
Because the expenses show up like a surprise weather event.
If your IT partner cannot help you forecast, you will eventually pay in stress or in margin.
What a good answer looks like:
✅ A 12 month forecast by category: hardware refresh, recurring cloud and IT services, line of business app subscriptions
In other words, you should be able to look at 2026 and say:
Here is what we are spending
Here is why
Here is what will change
Here is what we can control
What you don’t want to hear
🚩 A. Costs are hard to predict.
🚩 B. We can make a pretty good guess.
🚩 C. We don’t track that information.
🚩 D. Budgeting will take a lot of effort and very hard to do.
If budgeting is “too hard,” what you are really being told is:
You will keep getting surprised.
Question 3 AI
What are the best practices and ahead of the curve approaches to AI implementation for a type and size of business like ours.
This is not about playing with AI.
This is about deciding, on purpose, how AI enters your business so it creates momentum and not mess.
Your team is already using AI, even if leadership has not approved it formally.
Owners who win in 2026 will not be the ones who “wait and see.”
They will be the ones who set the rules, pick the use cases, and measure outcomes.
What a good answer looks like:
✅ We have a list of options we can review for every department (sales, marketing, operations, finance, account management, etc) of a business that is like yours and determine based on figures we can calculate together your ROI. Let’s start from where you are. Meet with your team as soon as you can and check in on how they use AI on their own and we can have a baseline.
That answer signals maturity because it includes:
Options per department
ROI and figures
A starting point based on reality
A baseline before spending money
What you don’t want to hear
🚩 A. We can look at some stuff together.
🚩 B. What do you need?
🚩 C. AI isn’t great yet, better wait.
🚩 D. We don’t do that.
If they cannot guide you here, no one else will.
The anti pitch 🧊
This is not for everyone.
If you want a quick fix or if you like living through the same chaos, you will resist.
But if you want operational maturity, cleaner growth, and a better quality of life…
These three questions are your starting point.
5) Takeaway 🎯
Vision
You walk into 2026 with:
A visible project blueprint
Predictable spend
AI that speeds work without drama
Fewer unknowns. More calm.
Consequence of inaction
Another year of drift and chaos.
Surprises to tackle.
Fires to put out.
Exhaustion.
Sincerely, with my very best wishes for a calm, steady, and successful year ahead for you and yours,
Burak Sarac
Technology Support and Solutions Expert for Creative Businesses
P.S. We will be quiet next week for the holidays. Before you log off, forward these three questions to your IT partner and ask to get a planning call on the calendar for the first weeks of January 2026 so you can kick off the new year with a winning game plan.