When your internet slows down, the natural instinct is to upgrade to a faster plan. But for small businesses and nonprofits, there’s a smarter strategy: adding a second internet connection instead of simply paying more for higher speeds.
The Real Cost of Downtime
When your single internet connection goes down, everything stops:
- Remote workers can’t connect
- Credit card transactions fail at the register
- Phone systems go silent (if you use VoIP)
- Cloud-based tools become inaccessible
- Email stops flowing
For a typical small business, even a few hours of downtime can mean thousands in lost revenue and frustrated customers. The question isn’t whether your internet will fail—it’s when.
Why Two Connections Beat One Faster Connection
Redundancy is your safety net. With two connections from different providers, if one fails, your business automatically fails over to the backup. Your team keeps working, transactions keep processing, and customers never know there was a problem.
You’re already fast enough. Most small businesses don’t actually need more speed—they need reliability. If you can currently stream video calls and access cloud applications without issues, adding bandwidth won’t improve your day-to-day operations. But adding redundancy will protect them.
It’s more affordable than you think. A second connection doesn’t need to match your primary connection’s speed. A modest backup line costs a fraction of upgrading to premium speeds, yet provides dramatically better protection.
Common Objections (And Why They Don’t Hold Up)
“Our internet rarely goes down.” That’s great—until it does. Construction crews, severe weather, equipment failures, and even squirrels can take out a connection. The average small business experiences 3-4 outages per year, often lasting several hours.
“It sounds complicated to set up.” Modern networking equipment makes failover automatic. Once configured, you won’t even notice when your system switches connections. It just works.
“We’ll just use our phone hotspots if the internet goes down.” Hotspots work for one person checking email, but they can’t support point-of-sale systems, VoIP phone systems, or multiple employees working simultaneously. Plus, who wants to scramble during a crisis?
Real-World Example
Consider a small retail store with a cloud-based POS system. Their single 500 Mbps connection costs $120/month. When it goes down during their busy Saturday afternoon, they lose 4 hours of peak sales—roughly $3,000 in revenue.
Alternative scenario: They keep their primary connection and add a $50/month backup line. Total cost: $170/month. When their primary connection fails on that same Saturday, their POS system automatically switches to the backup in seconds. Customers check out normally. Total lost revenue: $0.
Is Dual Internet Right for Your Organization?
Ask yourself:
- Would an internet outage prevent customers from completing purchases?
- Do you rely on cloud applications for daily operations?
- Does your team work remotely or use VoIP phones?
- Would being offline for even an hour impact your reputation or revenue?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, redundant internet connections should be part of your business continuity plan.
Next Steps
Don’t wait for an outage to expose your vulnerability. We help small businesses and nonprofits design reliable, redundant internet solutions that fit their budget and needs.
Schedule a free consultation to discuss your current setup and explore whether dual internet connections make sense for your organization. We’ll assess your risks, explain your options, and provide a clear recommendation—with no pressure and no obligation.
👉 Contact us today and let’s chat about how we can make technology work for you—not against you.
Keep hustling, keep growing—tech will be your sidekick on this journey!
Contact us at [email protected] or call +1‑585-333-0540