A few days ago, we began accepting enrollment into the MSP Sales Academy hosted by The 20. We’re thrilled by the excitement and feedback we’ve received from members!
In case you missed the December member webinar, The 20 is conducting a 2-day training for building a systematic MSP sales process. The workshop will be held February 7-8, 2020 at our headquarters in Plano, TX.
The MSP Sales Academy won’t just tell you what to do and why you should do it. We will introduce to you critical concepts to move your MSP business forward, explain the reasoning behind every tactic covered, and provide the training and tools for you take swift action.
We’re opening this up for The 20 members and their teams to make take their sales to the next level in 2020!
Highlights include:
Filling your pipeline with qualified prospects
MSP talk tracks to overcome objections
Cost justification to validate implications
Presenting the MSA
Defining and differentiating your managed services offering
Selling Cloud & Security
Sales Tips Panel Session
Live Sales Demonstrations – practice/apply/correct
Most importantly, the workshop will be led by MSP owners who have founded multi-million dollar businesses. They’ll share the same techniques they use every day to grow their businesses.
Jacob Sanders, Sales Exec, Roland Technology Group
Robyn Starnes, Sales Exec, Roland Technology Group
Start, tweak, or perfect your sales strategy with this educational seminar brought to you by The 20. During this 2-day session, you’ll learn the primary areas of focus to help your MSP close more deals. We’ll cover common mistakes, successful lead generation strategies, lead nurturing tactics, effective post-FTA follow-up, and MUCH MORE! Above all, we’ll teach you how to escape the feast or famine roller coaster, fill your pipeline, and CLOSE. In other words, we’ll provide you with the tools you need for growth. In short, you don’t want to miss this in-depth sales training!
Register now to kickstart your new year momentum and secure your spot for The 20 | MSP Sales Academy!
What do you do here at The 20?
I am a Senior Tier 1 Support Technician.
Describe The 20 in three words…
Innovative, supportive, and rewarding.
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Getting my monitors to align correctly on the mounting bracket.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I once ran a mile in under 7 minutes.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Eagerness. One must be eager to relentlessly pursue his or her goals regardless of the circumstances.
What do you like most about The 20?
I enjoy having access to the abundance of knowledge shared by all the smart folks on the support desk.
What do you like to do in your spare time? / What are your hobbies?
I love rock climbing. It combines physical activity with the great outdoors and there’s nothing much better than that. I’m also very into music and regularly play guitar. Video games and ‘nerding-out’ on computer parts/other gadgets are also common pastimes.
Where are you going on your next vacation?
No plans yet, but hopefully somewhere cold with lots of mountains and trees.
What’s your top life hack?
A simple inventory of what you’re grateful for when you’re feeling down can often correct that sour mood (this may be a boring life hack, but IMPORTANT nonetheless)!
We find company names and how they were arrived at to be fascinating.
Amazon for example was originally “Cadabra,” intended as a reference to the word “abracadabra.” But CEO Jeff Bezos’ first lawyer pointed out that the reference was too obscure and that, “when you were on the phone, people sometimes heard ‘Cadaver’ instead.” So, Bezos started paging through the “A” section of the dictionary. At the time, website listings were alphabetized, so he wanted a word that started with “A.” When he landed on the word “Amazon,” the name of the largest river on the planet, he decided that was the perfect name for what would become the world’s largest bookstore.
As for our members, we thought we would go around the horn and ask how some of them landed upon their company names. We got some really great answers, so please enjoy! Perhaps if you’re looking to start your own business, some of these will serve to get the creative juices flowing!
We started over a decade ago as I was working as a systems admin at an education service center. In Texas, there are 20 education service centers that provide various services to school districts. During this time, I started working with smaller school districts outside of my normal job as a side gig. Eventually, I had so much side work that I decided to leave the education service center and pursue my own company full time. I really liked the idea of “synergy.” I also wanted to incorporate ISD (Independent School District) into the title, so ‘SynergISDic’ really seem to make sense.
My advice? Always find the domain first, THEN name the company. I wanted a name that sounded corporate, ‘techy,’ and represented what we do. I’ve also always loved the Art Deco era of exploration: graceful and bold design, rich textures and materials, a massive explosion of technology and communication, and adventure. After all, that’s whenRaiders of the Lost Arktakes place. Who doesn’t love that? ‘Stratoliner’ and ‘stratofortress’ were coined in the Art Deco era. ‘Strato’ is latin, relating to ‘layers,’ ‘spreading,’ and ‘cloud.’ ‘Cent’ literally means 100, but it is also heard in words like ‘magnificent’ and ‘luminescent.’ In Latin, ‘ent’ is applied to adjectives to make them into nouns or verbs. For me, adding ‘cent’ to the end was to imply knowledge, and the word put together was intended to mean ‘cloud knowledge’ — but I also love the alternate meanings of 100 layers and spreading knowledge. It all works perfectly.
We were formed over 33 years ago, and so in the dial-up days, there was no email or web. The Yellow Pageswere big. We were selling Computer Aided Design software (CAD), and so ‘B’ comes before ‘Computers,’ ‘CAD’ or ‘Consulting’ in the Yellow Pages. I liked ‘bolder’ because it represented ‘new,’ ‘innovative,’ and ‘different.’ And we were at the top of the listings.
I launched my business at a full sprint and was very busy before I even retired from the Navy. Windows 95 was such a flurry of business. One thing I noticed was that there was a real struggle with adopting Windows 95 and LAN technology and a lot of “computer guys” were sloppy and did shoddy work. Often times I was sent in after someone else and would do something in 30-45 minutes that the last guy took 4 hours to do, and it wasn’t even done right! This pattern seemed to continue and I had a knack for getting things done right the first time. So, I came up with ‘Just Right’ because a lot of these businesses absolutely hated it when they would have to get work redone.
‘Managed IT Systems’ just fit. While working in a break-fix role for another company, I knew there had to be a better way. I heard rumblings of managed networks and thought it sounded like a great idea for IT. In 2004, I learned I wasn’t alone and there was a movement starting. I wanted to offer managed IT to my clients and luckily the name was available.
It honestly was a slip of the tongue. I was looking at doing wireless connectivity for hotels and a friend of mine trying to say ‘concierge’ said ‘com-cierge’ instead. Thus, it was born. ‘Com’ also being for ‘computers,’ ‘communications,’ and ‘common sense.’
In our service area there was a lot of slow providers. When we started, business people still used phonebooks a lot to find providers. We wanted to be the first one listed. So how do you promote faster service and have a top listing in alphabetical order? You brainstorm. If it weren’t for old marketing ideas and a client-based need to market for, we would have a different name.
We had left a franchise with a catchy name and wanted to make sure that the new name stuck as well. After many weeks of soul searching, conference calls, and narrowing down ideas, we finally came up with something catchy and created our tagline, “We manage your technology so your business doesn’t croak.” Also, as some may know, ‘frog’ stands for ‘Fully Rely On God,’ which ‘Works’ for us.
I had 14 hours from when I was first informed my services would no longer be needed at my former company to the next morning when I needed to have an email and a ‘real’ company name for the benefit of three clients I might be taking on. Being the really expressive and creative type, I came up with ‘Peterson Technology Group’ in about an hour, using my last name and knowing we would work with ‘technology.’ I added ‘Group’ so I didn’t look small, even though it was me and one sub-contractor.
There are many businesses with names that specify their area of expertise with “works” appended to it… much like the ‘Water Works’ property in the Monopoly game. I was teaching at the local technical school in 2014, and a local computer shop decided to close after more than 15 years in business. The stars aligned: it presented a very low financial risk, and I had a student ready and willing to run the shop (she had previously worked there for a long time). Knowing that I didn’t want my own name in the business name, it really just popped in my head on the way to work one morning: ‘Tifton Tech Works.’ At the time, it was perfect — it didn’t limit us to anything specific. If it’s tech, we make it work.
When we started in 2007, I kept getting referred to as ‘computer geek’ or ‘computer nerd’ and it drove me crazy. Mainly, it was because people had this negative connotation of what tech people were like: nerdy, geeky, ill-mannered, unkempt. I knew this was far from the truth. I wanted a name that my staff and I could adopt that described who we were but was still fun and a little tongue-in-cheek. We handled more than just ‘computer repair.’ We were IT specialists. We worked with personal computers, phones, networks, audio visual, home automation, business environments, security, and so much more. Basically, anything tech-related we gravitated toward. We were techies, tech enthusiasts, we’re… ‘tech junkies.’ The name stuck.
So there you have it! A little insight into how our members came up with their identity!
Are you interested in becoming a Member of The 20? Click here for more information!
ID 20/20: Putting a Stop to Social Engineering
2019 marked the first year a deepfake was used to pull off a heist. 2020 is likely going to be the last year it makes it to the front page though. The cat’s out of the bag with this one.
There’s a lot to be concerned about for 2020. Windows 7 is reaching end of life, the Internet of Things is everywhere, and everything is more connected than ever before. There are so many security concerns, but most of them can be fixed by applying basic security principles and technology.
The one thing that technology has so far been unable to change is the threat of social engineering. As Kevin Mitnick put it in his keynote at VISION 2019, social engineering is the easiest way to get into any given network. It doesn’t matter how smart the system is if the person behind it is stupid and unlocks it for them.
There are solutions, but most of them are cumbersome for IT administration. Things like Duo require installation of an app or some other end user interaction. We thought about this and built a system called ID 20/20 targeted with ease for end-users in mind. Your bank doesn’t make you install an app to call in, so why should any other service? Let’s go over what makes social engineering tick and what makes ID 20/20 so different from other security solutions.
What Is Social Engineering?
At its highest level, social engineering is the use of human weakness to exploit a network. This is where someone calls in and pretends to be “Carl from the accounting department” and is locked out of the building or his account with the hopes the person answering doesn’t check. This gets especially problematic in larger companies where it is harder to know who someone is. Social engineering preys on common, social courtesy.
Social engineering is made even more problematic when it is combined with technology. There are tools to steal RFID card codes, compromised personal information on the dark web, and countless ways to ascertain information in the digital age. It’s near trivial to spoof a phone number with the right tricks. There are deepfake programs which can emulate a voice live.
How Could Social Engineering Impact an MSP?
How soon do you know about a fired employee from one of your clients? How often do you take inventory of employees at a given company? These all seem like a waste of time at first, but if you know who can ask for what from your client, you can prevent compromises and reduce costs.
A fired employee may call the help desk before they’re notified and ask for a trivial account to be made which can later be used to shred files. Whose fault is that one? Will your client just happily accept it wasn’t yours and be on their way? Almost definitely not, and even if they do, a single employee can bring down a business with the right damage.
By keeping tabs on your clients, you further understand what different people do which can help you better tailor your services and get acquainted with potential opportunities for upsales. It gives you a stronger relationship and keeps your client safer. You also lower the chance of social engineering because you know who is who at the company and you make sure when someone is fired, you know first. You also know if “Carl from accounting” is actually someone there.
How Could Social Engineering Impact The 20?
To put it simply, The 20 takes the MSP model and extrapolates it to the next level. Multiple clients could be hit without the right preparation against social engineering. We know this and we take security seriously.
Due to the fact that we have so much oversight into so many environments, we need to be sure we know who we’re talking to has permission to do what they’re asking for. It doesn’t matter if they claim to be the regional VP if they aren’t documented properly (though obviously we say this a lot less directly to the client). What happens when an MSP’s employee is terminated and calls in for a password? We tell them the same thing, no. We have to, or else we’d be compromised. Process needs to be followed or else social engineering becomes trivial.
What is ID 20/20?
In the era of deepfakes, we had no choice but to evolve with the times, so we created ID 20/20. ID 20/20 is a multi-factor authentication solution which takes out any requirement from the end user except they have an email address or a cell phone (and either one can be optional if necessary), and even a code for places where they can’t be near a computer or phone.
We thought through the pain points of our end users so that they are safe but not impacted. We also thought through the pain points of our partners and what makes it hard to push out these kinds of changes. Applying security changes is always hard, but it doesn’t have to always be painful.
How Does ID 20/20 Stop Social Engineering?
ID 20/20 requires a user verify their identity partially verbally then again with a randomly generated code which is sent to their email or cell phone. The tech then asks them for this code and puts it into the system which verifies. The tech does not know the code and does not volunteer any information about the user unless necessary. This prevents us from unwittingly providing information to a potential malicious actor.
ID 20/20 sits on top of the standard operating procedure of the site as well. By combining these factors, we limit what a user can get from us and what they can do unless they’re authorized. The process takes about a minute total so far.
It also integrates with Kaseya BMS in order to update a ticket to log what the tech did, whether they were successful or not, and helps keep track of how the client was verified. If a client won’t cooperate, you know. If someone has been unable to be verified, you know. There are no more questions of whether a tech followed protocol or not for verification. If a malicious actor can get through, you’re already compromised.
How Can You Stop Social Engineering?
ID 20/20 can reduce a lot of social engineering attacks, but you have to also train the end users. Do you click on an email from a bank you don’t use? I know I don’t, but I know plenty of users do. Teach your users how to recognize and avoid phishing attempts.
Following a process which butts against social norms is hard, especially for things like doors. Social engineers will use door holding to get physical access. How do you tell your employees: “Pull the door shut and make the next person badge in?” It’s hard, but necessary in bigger companies. You also have to make sure verification processes are followed. There may be a “Jim in accounting,” but how do you know you have permission to grant their request or not? There has to be process.
Conclusion
Technology may eliminate as many issues with security as it helps create, but little has previously been manageable with social engineering. Social engineering preys on common courtesy and the fallibility of the human element. ID 20/20 aims to address that weakness with the cold resolve of a machine for the underlying process and a human face guiding the process to make it acceptably warm.
ID 20/20 is ready to address the technological side of many social engineering attacks with negligible overhead for the end-users. Just because deepfakes are here, doesn’t mean they will get through unchecked. We thought ahead, what about you?
by Sage Driskell
The 20 Appoints Crystal McFerran as Chief Marketing Officer
Leading MSP organization, The 20, proudly announces the promotion of Crystal McFerran to Chief Marketing Officer
With more than 16 years of marketing and brand development experience, McFerran leads the company’s marketing team responsible for successful integration of modern marketing practices into multi-channel, digitally-driven demand creation, lead generation and sales enablement approaches. She joined The 20 in 2018 as Senior Vice President of Marketing, leading end-to-end integrated marketing strategy and execution, with a deep focus on digital marketing.
Prior to her time at The 20, McFerran served in key strategic marketing and brand communications roles, including as head of marketing at The 20’s sister companies, Roland Technology Group and Cytracom. She began her career with HP and has a Bachelor’s Degree, MBA, and Master’s Degree in International Business from the University of Texas at Dallas. Crystal is a member of the Forbes Communications Council and a 2019 CRN Women of the Channel honoree.
As CMO, McFerran will play a key strategic leadership role in helping achieve growth objectives for The 20. In addition to developing strategies for member acquisition and engagement, she will work to enhance The 20’s brand equity and further its reputation as an innovative, partner-centric MSP consortium, dedicated to growing MSPs through a proven sales model. Among her responsibilities, McFerran oversees The 20’s strategy for marketing across a wide array of traditional and digital channels.
“Crystal is exceptionally innovative and forward-thinking,” said Tim Conkle, CEO of The 20. “A proven leader and marketing visionary with great passion for the brand, she has proven herself time and again as an alchemist for innovation-fueled growth. I’m enormously proud to announce her promotion to Chief Marketing Officer.”
“I’m excited for the opportunity to accelerate The 20’s growth as we continue to pioneer a new category in the MSP space.” said McFerran. “Our ability to expand marketing’s impact within the company to drive revenue is vast, and it starts with a creative, passionate and collaborative team.”
About The 20
The 20 is an exclusive business development group for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) aimed at dominating and revolutionizing the IT industry with its standardized all-in-one approach. The 20’s robust RMM, PSA, and documentation platform ensures superior service for MSP clients utilizing their completely US-based Help Desk and Network Operations Center. Extending beyond cutting-edge tools and processes, The 20 touts a proven sales model, a community of industry leaders, and ultimate scalability.
Employee Spotlight: Matt Mariaux, Support Desk Team Lead
What do you do here at The 20?
I am a Support Desk Team Lead, which makes me a bit of a catch-all. I try to provide auxiliary support in a variety of ways like acting as a resource, investigating service delivery issues with Zach, monitoring call and ticket flow, as well as tracking data for optimizing efficiency. I help out where I can.
Describe The 20 in three words…
People who help computer.
You know, I think I biffed that one…
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A Private Investigator. I grew up loving the Sherlock Holmes stories. I used to set up “crime scenes” around the house and question my whole family while writing down notes in my composition book. I was the best fake crime solver in the neighborhood.
What’s the most challenging thing about your job?
Sometimes you have to have tough conversations with people. I want to challenge techs when a ticket didn’t quite go as well as we’d like to see. That’s not always an easy chat, but it’s necessary to keep everyone at their best. Fortunately, they don’t hear all the quiet cursing coming from my desk beforehand. Or maybe they do. I don’t know.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Probably ‘Doctor of the Peggle Arts’on Xbox 360. It took a long time.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Success is sort of a moving target, isn’t it? I prefer to focus on goals. If you want to achieve something, you have to put in on paper. You don’t truly know or understand anything unless you can write it down. So do that.
What do you like most about The 20?
I’ve really enjoyed seeing the growth and the changes that come with that growth. It’s nice to look back every once in a while and think, ‘I remember when…’
What do you like to do in your spare time? / What are your hobbies?
I’m an actor part-time, though I haven’t worked much lately. I’m also a bit of a film buff and have a totally not unhealthy love of video games.
Where are you going on your next vacation?
I was thinking I might find a small town somewhere I can drive to. I’d interview people and research the town’s history and quirks so that I could write a profile on the place. I might not even try to sell it. It’d really just be to unwind while focusing on a new challenge.
What’s your top life hack?
Did you know you can get blood out of clothing if you soak it in Hydrogen Peroxide? That probably makes me sound like a serial killer, but I just learned it recently and I thought it was cool!
MSP Spotlight: Meet Bill Whelden, President and CEO of Rx-IT
Tell us a little about your MSP…
Rx-IT started in 1999 with one client; just barely large enough for me to make a go of it. That was a 35-seat law firm — they owned me and they knew it. It was a really good feeling to get enough clients so they didn’t own me anymore. I was highly motivated! It was a better feeling bringing on the first hire so I didn’t have to do everything for everyone all the time. Up until then, I used to joke that my girlfriends name was ‘Palm Treo.’
How long have you been a member of The 20?
We’ve been in The 20 just over 3 years now.
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
I went to some channel event back in early 2016. As I recall, someone invited me to a party. There was a man there. He talked and cussed a lot. Some called him ‘MSP Holy Man’ others called him ‘IT Prophet.’ He said to me, ‘Come, eat, be at peace and drink Tito’s.’ The next morning I woke on the sofa in the lobby of the hotel. I had a signed contract with The 20 and a one dollar bill stapled to my shirt collar.
Seriously, we spent a good number of years bumping our heads on the ceiling, we just couldn’t grow past a certain point. I was getting tired, really tired; burned out you might say. We were looking for a way to scale and grow the business. We knew we needed a good help desk but we also knew that peer guidance and a wider knowledge base were just as important. When we found The 20, it seemed to fit like a comfortable shoe.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
We’ve almost tripled our revenue in just over 36 months!
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The community. There are many communities within the channel but nothing quite like this.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Motivation.
What are your biggest business challenges?
Our biggest challenge right now is learning how to better prioritize and keep what’s truly important in front and center. It’s amazing to me that I will find myself mindlessly organizing my sock drawer when there are so many other things to do, so many opportunities in front of us. Motivation and organization are things we always strive to keep in focus.
What are your areas of focus for 2019?
Profitability and growth.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Interested in becoming a Partner? Click here for more information!
by Michael Pascuzzi
Digital transformation and innovation are becoming the keystone of modern business strategy. Automating facilities, collecting and analyzing more information, streamlining actions, and creating fresh ideas all require complex procedures. Complex doesn’t have to mean complicated. Moving processes to cloud architecture is viable and introduces high ROI possibilities. However, moving is not without cost.
Where Cloud Costs the Most
Business units often move to the cloud independent of the whole, obscuring the visibility of cloud resource consumption.
It’s become all too easy for anyone within the organization to buy or subscribe to cloud services and bypass centralized procurement or specified procurement policies. These bypasses lead to unforeseen, unplanned, unbudgeted spends.
When it comes to IaaS, IT spending can grow even faster. Without the right tools in place cloud resources are not optimized; servers can be running 24/7 unnecessarily, and expensive software can be left idling on forgotten servers. Compounding the issue vendors are not forthcoming when it comes to detailing which services have been run up and by whom — resulting in organizations being unable to attribute exact costs of IT spending to the right business unit.
Optimization of Cloud ROI
With visibility into what individual business units are using, the IT department can then begin the process of cost optimization. This type of optimization is a great way to understand end-user needs and preferences. It is also an opportunity to ask users about the value of the technology they have deployed and what problems it is solving. Knowing this can help other business units solve similar issues through better pan-enterprise deployment of such technologies.
Cloud Economics and Collaboration
It’s important to note that many business units require access to the same information. Individual copies throughout a business are redundant and potentially spreads misinformation; this is where cloud economics meets collaboration. Nowadays, it seems inconceivable, and almost lousy form, that co-workers would send hundreds of versions of the same word document across an organization via email. Instead, using a chat platform can help colleagues stay connected wherever they are, but everyone has to be on the same page. For many businesses, Office 365 provides software solutions to achieve these goals, allowing many users to edit a single document concurrently, in real-time via Word.
Still, many enterprises use on-premises Microsoft Office, and while that is a great tool, Office 365 takes collaboration to the next level. The Cloud Easy service from Crayon helps organizations migrate to Office 365 to achieve that next level.
Enhancing the collaboration efforts of your business can be impeded if you lack the appropriately skilled resources. The easy button to overcome such issues is to lean on an expert partner like Crayon to smooth your organization’s digital transformation journey to the cloud.
Interested in learning more about combating increases in IT spending? Don’t miss Crayon at The 20’s upcoming VISION Conference!
And to learn more about The 20 and how we can help your business, be sure to check us out here.
I am an administrative coordinator here at The 20 and Roland Technology.
Describe The 20 in three words…
Innovative, Upbeat and Dynamic.
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A history professor!
What’s the most challenging thing about your job?
There are times when the job can be pretty demanding, and as a result, I can feel overwhelmed. But I have such a strong support system here that these occasional storms always get weathered!
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Losing over 150 pounds!
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Tenacity.
What do you like most about The 20?
My colleagues!
What do you like to do in your spare time? / What are your hobbies?
Traveling for food with the kid, making different vegan meals, attending conferences, workshops and DIY classes.
Where are you going on your next vacation?
Seychelles, Africa.
What’s your top life hack?
If you feel a cold coming on, consume spicy foods and foods with a lot of garlic. It assists in alleviating the mucus in your body, possibly avoiding getting sick all together.
Network Management Solutions is located in Santa Cruz, California. We serve Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Jose and the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The business was established in 1984 by Greg and Robin Sirakides under the name ‘ComputerLand of Capitola.’ I began working for them in 1998 and offered to purchase the business from them in 2006. I renamed the business in 2009 and began migrating my clients to an all-you-can-eat monthly support model. We enjoy serving our clients and giving back to the community that we live in!
How long have you been a member of The 20?
I believe we’re close to 3 years!
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
We wanted to augment our support staff with a 24/7 service desk that was US-based. Additionally, we were already operating a managed IT department and liked the idea of partnering with like-minded MSPs to extend our breadth and depth of skill and location.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
Joining The 20 caused me to focus on the type of deals that were win-wins for both us and the client. This meant that I needed to start saying ‘no’ to opportunities, which was one of the best things I could have ever done. Not all deal are the right deals.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The community. I have been a part of other networking groups, but everyone in this group is conducting business essentially the same way — and it helps when getting and giving advice.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Having a growth mindset. All businesses make mistakes, including myself, including the service desk — it’s what we learn from those mistakes and how we grow from them that make us better and creates a better offering for our clients.
What are your biggest business challenges?
I have had 2 significant challenges to face in the last 4 years. First: finding and keeping good talent. This business is often a platform for younger people to launch there careers. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just that the churn is hard. The second issue is that in the course of a 2-year period, I lost my 2 biggest clients to circumstances out of my control. It made my business feel stagnant for several years even though we were still growing; the problem was replacing what we once had.
What are your areas of focus for 2019?
We are making sure to discuss with each of our clients what the current cybersecurity landscape is and ensure that they are as protected as possible.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Make sure to start working on process now. Document the way you do business. Scaling is hard when you’re attempting to reinvent the wheel each time.
