Book by Nolan Garrett, CEO of TorchLight Secured & Managed IT
The IT Survival Playbook
How Small Businesses Stay Safe, Stable, and Sane
in a Rapidly Changing Digital World
THE IT SURVIVAL PLAYBOOK
by: Nolan Garrett (CEO of TorchLight Secured & Managed IT)
Broken down by chapter (Click to read)
INTRODUCTION A Letter to the Business Leader Who Feels Behind
A reassuring opener for any leader who’s accountable for IT but never felt qualified to make the calls; it reframes that anxiety as normal and promises clarity, not a sales pitch.
CHAPTER 1 Why IT Feels Harder Than Ever
Explains why IT feels overwhelming today (and why it isn’t your fault), and introduces the three things every leader actually wants from technology: stability, security, and clarity.
CHAPTER 2 The Anatomy of a Healthy IT Environment
Lays out the Five Pillars of a healthy IT environment in plain English, with a quick 7-question self-check to gauge where you stand.
CHAPTER 3 Cybersecurity for Non-Technical Leaders
Covers the Big Seven protections every business needs, and reframes the goal of security: not blocking every attack, but detecting early, containing fast, and recovering quickly.
CHAPTER 4 The MSP Landscape, Decoded
Breaks down the five types of IT providers, which ones to avoid, and the hidden warning signs that you’re with a risky partner.
CHAPTER 5 The MSP Buyer’s Guide
The 12 questions that reveal the truth about any IT provider, paired with the strong vs. weak answers that should reassure, or alarm, you.
CHAPTER 6 Why Security-First IT Outperforms Cheap IT
Makes the case that “cheap IT is the most expensive IT you’ll ever buy,” and shows how the healthiest environments often spend less over time.
CHAPTER 7 The 12-Month IT Roadmap
A phased, practical plan to transform your IT over a year, with clear deliverables, success criteria, and warning signs at each stage.
CHAPTER 8 Building a Culture of Security
Introduces the “human firewall” and the four pillars of a security culture, the people-side discipline that took one firm’s phishing click rate from 47% to 4%.
APPENDIX A The IT Health Assessment Checklist
A comprehensive, self-scoring checklist across eight categories so you can benchmark your own environment and prioritize what to fix first.
APPENDIX B Glossary of Terms
A plain-English guide to the IT and security jargon you’ll actually encounter; the only translation guide you’ll need.
APPENDIX C Resources and Further Reading
Curated resources to go deeper on the topics that matter most to your organization.
You’re Not Behind. You Were Handed Accountability Without Clarity.
If you’ve ever sat in an IT meeting nodding along while quietly wondering whether your business is actually protected, you are not alone. Most leaders weren’t trained for this. The technology landscape simply changed faster than the guidance did.
The IT Survival Playbook was written for the CEO, COO, or operations leader who is accountable for IT decisions they don’t feel qualified to make. By the time you finish, you won’t be a technician. You’ll be something far more valuable: an informed decision-maker who knows what to ask, what to expect, and what to fix first.
“You do not need to become technical. You only need to understand what healthy looks like.”
What You’ll Walk Away With
– A clear picture of what a healthy, secure IT environment actually looks like.
– The Big Seven protections every business must have today (and a fast way to tell whether you have them).
– 12 questions that reveal the truth about any IT provider, every time, with strong vs. weak answers side by side.
– A 12-month roadmap to turn IT from a constant fire drill into a quiet competitive advantage.
– How to build a “human firewall” that took one firm’s phishing click rate from 47% to 4%.
– An 8-category IT Health Assessment you can score yourself, no consultant required.
Built for leaders in regulated, high-trust industries
TorchLight has spent nearly two decades serving organizations that can’t afford to get compliance wrong. If you lead one of these, this playbook speaks your language:
Credit Unions
Built for the realities of NCUA Part 748, FFIEC exams, board-level cyber training, and the 72-hour incident notification rule.
RIAs & Wealth Management
SEC and GLBA Safeguards expectations, vendor oversight, and protecting the client trust your reputation is built on.
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Ready for the 2026 HIPAA Security Rule shift that makes MFA, encryption, and 72-hour recovery mandatory; not optional.
Family Offices
Discreet protection for the rare blend of institutional complexity and deeply personal risk that family offices carry.
Co-Managed IT
For organizations with an internal IT team that needs senior expertise, 24/7 coverage, and capacity, not a replacement.
Education | Washington & California
An approved cybersecurity vendor through Washington Learning Source (WLS) and the Foundation for California Community Colleges, serving K-12 districts and community colleges.
About the Author
Nolan Garrett
[“The IT Survival Playbook“, “F*ck Me Running(A business)“]
The CEO of TorchLight, a managed IT and cybersecurity firm built specifically for regulated industries. A former IT regulatory examiner with more than two decades in the field, he founded the company in 2007 with a clear mission: to serve organizations that couldn’t afford to get compliance wrong. He wrote this playbook for the leaders he meets every week; smart, accountable people who were never handed a clear answer to one simple question: “Are we actually protected?”
“Predictability always costs less than reaction.”