In an exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Gordon Werstine, Vice President of Sales at Just Fix It, shares his insights on how small and mid-sized businesses can transform technology from a source of stress into a reliable, growth-enabling function. Drawing on over 15 years of experience in IT strategy, digital transformation, and sales leadership, Gordon explains how proactive, fully managed IT solutions can prevent downtime, strengthen cybersecurity, and provide predictable infrastructure that scales with business needs.
Interview By Maheen Bari
Gordon Werstine is Vice President of Sales at Just Fix It, where he helps Canadian small and mid-sized businesses simplify technology, strengthen cybersecurity, and adopt scalable solutions that support growth.
With more than 15 years of experience spanning sales leadership, IT strategy, and digital transformation, he works closely with organizations in manufacturing, healthcare, and professional services to align technology decisions with business goals.
You work with owners in manufacturing, healthcare, and professional services who often say, “I don’t care about servers, I just need my business to run.” From your vantage point, what are the most common IT mistakes Canadian SMEs make—and why do those missteps so often show up as instability and surprise costs?
Yes, we hear that all the time, and honestly, I think they’re right. Business owners shouldn’t have to think about IT… but the problem is, many are forced to because of how it’s been set up.
The most common mistake we see is treating IT as something you react to instead of something you plan. Systems get added over time, upgrades get delayed, and before long you’ve got a patchwork environment that’s harder to manage, less secure, and more prone to issues.
Cybersecurity is another big one. It’s often seen as a checkbox to meet the minimum standard until something happens. By then, the gaps have already been there for a while and the damage to the business could be existential.
And then there’s the cost side. Traditional IT is built around big, often unpredictable expenses—server replacements, emergency fixes, upgrades. That’s where the “surprise costs” come from.
All of this leads to instability and frustration.
That’s why I believe ZeroIT resonates. It flips the model. IT becomes a well-planned, proactive business function that business leaders no longer have to burn cycles worrying about. No more buying and maintaining hardware, no more patchwork environments, no more security concerns. Just a fully managed, predictable service where everything is taken care of and aligned to business objectives.
Just Fix It offers what is essentially “IT as an operating expense,” including infrastructure, security, and support for a simple monthly fee. Why do you believe SMEs should treat their hosted infrastructure as something that’s as agile as the business itself, rather than a big capital purchase every few years?
We often tell clients, if your business has a “busy season”, there has never been an easier time to ensure your IT infrastructure flexes with business demand without over or under provisioning resources.
The traditional model is built around big capital purchases every few years. You size your infrastructure for peak demand, hope it lasts, and then spend the next 3–5 years either underutilizing it or trying to stretch it past its limits. That’s where performance issues, bottlenecks, and surprise upgrades start to creep in.
But businesses today don’t operate on fixed cycles. They grow, pivot, and change quickly. Your IT needs to be responsive enough to keep up with that.
That’s why Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) just makes sense. It allows your IT infrastructure to scale up or down as needed, without the lag or risk of big, upfront investments. You’re not guessing what you’ll need three years from now, you’re aligning IT with what the business needs today and your monthly bill should reflect that.
If your IT looks the same in February as it does in July, it’s not necessarily wrong but may be worth examining as it probably doesn’t reflect the reality of how your business operates.
Cyber incidents and downtime can be existential threats for smaller firms. How does moving to a fully managed, done‑for‑you IT model change the risk equation for SMEs, particularly around security, business continuity, and that all‑important “what happens if something breaks?” question?
You’re right, this is where things get very real for SMBs. When something breaks, the question isn’t just “how do we fix it?”, it’s “how long can we afford to be down?”
In a traditional setup, risk is often spread across different systems, vendors, and tools. Security might be one solution, backups another, and support somewhere else. When something goes wrong, you’re coordinating across multiple parties and that’s where delays, gaps, and bigger impacts happen.
A fully managed, done-for-you model changes that completely. It brings everything—security, infrastructure, backups, and support—under one accountable partner who owns the outcome.
From a security standpoint, it means you’re proactive instead of reactive. Threats are monitored and addressed in real-time before they become incidents. A fully managed done-for-you environment brings an enterprise-grade security setup that is often out of reach for most SMBs.
From a continuity perspective, systems are built with redundancy and recovery in mind, so downtime is minimized.
And when something does break? There’s no finger-pointing—just a team that’s already in place, already familiar with your environment, and focused on getting you back up and running quickly.
That’s the real shift, a complete transfer of risk to your provider, faster recovery, and far fewer unknowns.
Cyber insurance is becoming a requirement in many industries, but a lot of SMEs are still unprepared for the questionnaires and controls insurers now expect. What does “cyber insurance readiness” really look like in practice, and where do you see the biggest gaps between what insurers ask for and what smaller businesses have in place?
We’re seeing this more and more. Businesses assume they’re “covered,” but when the questionnaire or the auditor shows up, it’s a different story. I’ve spoken with a few SMB owners recently who did not have cyber insurance because they thought they would be covered by their O&E or general liability policies in the event of a cyber incident. That simply is not the case. While cyber insurance is not legally required in all industries, it is highly advisable. Without it, business owners are essentially self-insuring their own businesses. A rather risky gamble.
Cyber insurance readiness, in practice, means having a baseline of controls that are not just in place, but consistently managed. Things like multi-factor authentication, endpoint protection, secure backups, access controls, and documented policies. It’s not overly complex but it does require discipline and consistency.
Where the gaps show up is in execution. Many SMEs have pieces of the puzzle—maybe they’ve got MFA on email, or backups running—but it’s not comprehensive, not enforced across the business, or not validated regularly. From an insurer’s perspective, that creates risk.
The other big gap is documentation. Even if controls exist, businesses often can’t prove it clearly, which can impact both approval and claims.
That’s why this has become such a challenge. It’s not just about having tools, it’s about having a complete, managed security posture.
With a fully managed model like ZeroIT, those controls are standardized, monitored, and documented by design. So when the questionnaire comes, it’s not a scramble, it’s already handled.
You’ve launched offerings like ZeroIT to simplify how companies finance and manage their technology. For a non‑technical business leader planning the next 12–24 months, what practical steps would you recommend they take to move away from reactive, ad‑hoc IT toward a more stable, predictable foundation that quietly supports growth?
The first step is really a mindset shift. The old adage of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” just doesn’t apply anymore. Stop thinking about IT as a series of reactive one-off fixes and start treating it like a core part of how your business operates.
From there, I’d suggest three practical moves.
First, get a clear picture of what you actually have today. Most business leaders are surprised at how fragmented their environment is—systems, vendors, and tools that have grown over time without a plan.
Second, standardize and secure the basics. Make sure things like access controls, backups, and endpoint security are consistent across the organization, not just partially implemented.
Third, rethink the financial model. If your IT strategy still relies on unpredictable capital purchases and reactive spending, it’s going to hold you back. Stability comes from predictability. Ask yourself why you need to own that rapidly depreciating piece of hardware?
That’s really where something like ZeroIT fits. It removes uncertainty by bundling infrastructure, security, and support into a single, managed service that’s always up to date and aligned with the business.
The goal isn’t more technology, it’s less disruption and more agility. When IT is done right, it should just fade into the background where it belongs.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CanadianSME Small Business Magazine. Our platform is dedicated to fostering dialogue and sharing insights that inspire and empower small and medium-sized businesses across Canada.
