Compliance is not cheap. We all know that. But as a percentage of a company’s gross revenue, the work necessary for compliance is more expensive for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) than the big boys. This is a key reason so many SMBs’ compliance efforts are woefully inadequate.

Many SMBs fail to properly consider the cost of compliance when building or updating their business models. There is a lot of opportunity for this oversight because it can happen with so many different people: the owners, upper management, technical leadership, and sometimes all of them. Regardless of the cause, this inadequate planning leaves funding for compliance lacking. In most cases, this funding shortage is directly related to the manpower needed for the ongoing tasks required for proper industry compliance.

There is still a lot “the little guys” in business can do toward compliance, the first being to embrace the benefits of compliance. Avoiding or ignoring compliance is not viable option, because it is not a safe answer for your business.

Regardless of your industry, and even if you are never audited, noncompliant technical and business operations are typically at much greater risk for complicated and expensive problems. A data breach or a flawed back-up process can cost money, time, and even reputations. Organizations with a reasonable compliance effort have inherently better-protected business processes and technology. A commitment to compliance efforts may be forced business discipline, but it’s an important and healthy discipline.

For those SMBs that have acknowledged and accepted that their compliance efforts are inadequate, here are five tips for better compliance when resources are limited: