Start with a free assessment to see where you stand, then focus on the highest-impact items first. You don't need to do everything at once. Here's the practical priority order for a small professional services firm:
1. Take our free security posture assessment (3 minutes, no cost). It scores you across 6 security domains and tells you exactly where your gaps are.
2. Enable MFA on everything — email, cloud storage, practice management software. This is the single highest-impact action you can take, and it's usually free.
3. Get a basic set of security policies in place. An Information Security Policy, Incident Response Plan, and Acceptable Use Policy give you a foundation and demonstrate due diligence. TRM can produce these for as little as $1,500–$3,000.
4. Ensure you have working, tested backups. If ransomware hits tomorrow, can you restore your systems? If the answer isn't a confident "yes," this is urgent.
5. Run one security awareness training session. Teach your team to recognize phishing and social engineering. One 60-minute session can reduce your human-element risk by 70%.
Total investment to go from no program to a documented foundation: typically $1,500–$5,000 and 4–6 weeks. That gives your firm a credible security posture to show clients, insurers, and auditors — and a roadmap to keep improving from there.