Small Business IT Policy Starter Kit

7 policies. 2 checklists. Ready to customize today.

You don't need a 40-page enterprise compliance document. You need IT policies your team can understand, implement, and follow. This Starter Kit gives you the seven policies and two checklists a small business actually needs — written in plain English, delivered as editable Word documents and PDF fillable, with step-by-step implementation instructions for each one.

What's Included

The 7 Policies (each delivered as a .docx file you can edit, brand, and deploy immediately):

• Password Policy — Minimum standards, MFA requirements, password manager guidance, shared account rules. Written for humans, not security engineers.
• Acceptable Use Policy — What employees can and can't do on company devices, networks, and accounts. Covers personal use, social media, software installation, and data handling.
• AI Usage Policy — The policy every business needs and almost nobody has. Approved AI tools, data privacy rules, mandatory disclosure requirements. Clear guardrails for tools your team is already using.
• BYOD Policy — Personal device rules for email, files, and company data access. Device requirements, lost device procedures, and offboarding when someone leaves.
• Remote Work Policy — Home network security. Video call privacy. Physical document handling. Equipment expectations. Built for distributed teams, not corporate offices.
• Employee Security Checklist — One page. Ten habits that stop 90% of incidents. New hires sign it on Day 1.
• IT Onboarding Checklist — Account creation. Access levels. Equipment setup. Security training. A repeatable process whether you hire one person a year or one a month.

Every policy comes with:

• The policy itself — ready to customize with your company name and logo
• A plain-English summary your team can read and understand in five minutes
• Implementation instructions — who needs to sign it, where to store it, when to review it

Who This Is For

• Small businesses (5–100 employees) that need documented IT policies for cyber insurance, vendor security questionnaires, or client requirements
• The person who "handles IT" — even though that's not their actual job — and doesn't have 40 hours to write policies from scratch
• Solo IT professionals at small companies who know what needs to be in these policies but don't have time to draft them
• Business owners who want to get compliant without hiring a consultant

Who This Is NOT For

• Enterprise companies with dedicated compliance and legal teams (these policies are built for small business reality — not 500-employee complexity)
• Organizations in highly regulated industries requiring certified compliance documentation (PCI DSS, HIPAA, etc. — these policies align with NIST and CIS Controls but are not certified for specific regulatory frameworks)

Why $99?

Because the alternatives are worse.

Free templates from SANS, CIS, or NIST are 40-page documents written for Fortune 500 compliance teams — you'll spend 20 hours cutting bloat before you can use them. Hiring a cybersecurity consultant starts at $2,000 and goes up from there. Etsy bundles cost less, but there's no name, no credentials, and no implementation guidance behind them.

$99 is less than one hour of a consultant's time. And you get policies you can use for the life of your business.

About the Author

30 years in IT — from help desk technician to CIO/CISO.

These aren't theoretical templates adapted from a textbook. They're the real policies I've written, deployed, and refined at companies from 15 employees to 5,000 — stripped of the enterprise bloat that doesn't apply to small businesses.

FAQ

Are these really editable? Yes. Every policy is a .docx file. Change the company name, and any rules that don't fit your business. Nothing is locked.

I'm not technical. Can I use these? That's who this kit was built for. Every policy includes a plain-English summary. The implementation instructions don't assume any IT background.

What if a policy doesn't apply to my business? Skip it. No remote workers? Skip Remote Work. Nobody uses personal devices? Skip BYOD. Use what you need.

Is this PCI / HIPAA / SOC 2 compliant? These policies align with NIST and CIS Controls frameworks and will satisfy most vendor questionnaires and cyber insurance requirements. But no downloadable template can guarantee compliance with a specific regulation. If you're in a regulated industry, have an attorney or compliance professional review your final versions.

Can I share these with other companies? No. Single-company license. Customize and use within your own business forever. No resale or redistribution.

What if I need a policy not in the kit? Reach out. I'm building additional policies based on customer requests and I answer my own emails.