When Should I Consider Hiring Azure Consultants for My Small Business?

If your Azure expenses were in the tens of thousands, that’s when you should start thinking about consultants. Basic evaluations can cost around 5K, and at this stage, you're better off using Azure's best practices guide and learning about their Bicep templates to save time.

Try leveraging community resources first instead of diving into consultancy. You can enable cost alerts in Azure Cost Management to avoid any surprises. Focus on learning and using tools that can help you manage what you've got.

At your current spend and simplicity of your setup, it sounds like you're managing fine without any help. Consultants are typically more beneficial when you face scalability issues, security challenges, or if your infrastructure becomes complex. If you ever feel stuck for days on an issue that impacts your work or revenue, then it might be worth considering outside help.

Short answer: No, you probably don’t need Azure consultants right now. As someone in consulting myself, I can tell you that you'd end up spending way more than the benefits you'd gain. If you're enjoying working with Azure, it's more valuable for you to upskill. There are plenty of Microsoft resources to learn best practices. If managing everything becomes overwhelming, you could consider hiring someone in-house, but for now, your current setup looks manageable.

Honestly, with your current spending of $90 a month, it's not worth it to hire a consultant. You might pay ten times that amount for their services! Stick with your current approach and keep learning – most of the answers you'll need are out there and accessible without the extra cost.