Meet Travis Street, President and CEO of Complete Technology Solutions!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
Complete Technology Solutions (CTS) was founded in 2001 in Muncie, Indiana. I ‘accidentally’ started the company when I was finishing my bachelor’s degree at Ball State University. I was working at Staples at the time and a customer (an elderly lady in her 70s) asked if I would come to her house and setup a computer I sold her. I didn’t see the value of my skills at the time so I traded my labor for a home-cooked meal lol. After I was finished with my work, she gave me a $20 tip and asked if she could give my number out to some of her friends. I didn’t realize how connected she was in the community. The next week I had 10 elderly ladies calling me for computer help! And that was how CTS was started. Since our humble beginning as a one-man break/fix shop, CTS has evolved and grown over the years to a fully-managed IT department service with over 50 staff members, and offering nationwide IT support and consulting services exclusively to the multifamily industry.
How long have you been a member of The 20?
We joined The 20 in the spring of 2018.
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
Prior to joining, our company had hit a revenue ceiling for over 5 years that we could not overcome. At the time we did not have a vertical focus. And although we had been working with multifamily companies for close to 15 years, we still supported other local businesses and were competing with many IT companies locally. I wanted to change our direction and offer a service with a vertical focus that was unique and would give us a competitive advantage. I accidentally discovered The 20 while attending a ChannelPro conference in Dallas. After a ‘colorful’ keynote speech by Tim Conkle, I immediately recognized The 20 model was the way to succeed and allow CTS to scale up and grow. I signed up the next day! It was the best business decision I have ever made.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
The biggest change in our business since we joined is that we are now 100% vertically-focused. The tools and nationwide footprint of the 20 has given us the freedom to focus on our multifamily specialty and deliver superior all-inclusive service and support to our clients for a predictable, flat monthly fee.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The best thing about The 20 is the camaraderie between the partners. Every member is a great resource and has unique talents and skills they share with the group as a whole.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
In order to succeed, you gotta put in the work. Hard work, discipline, and determination.
What are your biggest business challenges?
I think I speak for most of the companies out there in saying sales and marketing is always a challenge for an IT company. One of the biggest advantages of joining The 20 is that they became my marketing and sales department and handle it all. This way I can focus on business development and on our vertical.
What are your areas of focus for 2020?
We are focused 100% on multifamily and student housing moving forward. This is a vertical we have been working with for over 15 years and have a wealth of experience. We truly understand the unique needs of property management and development companies which allows us to provide superior service and consulting services to this market.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Focus on at least 2 or 3 vertical markets and tailor your service delivery around them.
What book are you currently reading?
I switch between business development books and science fiction books. Currently I’m reading Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman, and Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories by Terry Bison (one of my favorite science fiction writers).
Favorite blogs / podcasts
Multifamily Matter Radio Show. I love listening to this show to stay on top of the latest trend and information in the multifamily industry.
Interested in becoming a member? Click here for more information!
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.
Wolves are my favorite animal and I’m in Montana — so that sounded cool and was unique.
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 when Raiders of the Lost Ark takes 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 Pages were 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.
Based on my initials… but it sounds so smooth! Could also be ‘Computer System Professionals’ or ‘Cloud Service Provider.’ It was fate.
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.
The UNI is spelled out U-N-I and refers to ‘you and I,’ meaning, ‘we’re in this together, let’s find a solution.’
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!
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?
Partner with The 20!
What book are you currently reading?
I am re-reading How to Stop Worrying and Start Living for the umpteenth time.
Favorite blogs / podcasts
My favorite blog is ‘The Negotiation Edge’ by The Black Swan Group
Interested in becoming a Partner? Click here for more information!
by Joseph Landes
Businesses of all sizes are looking to move their IT infrastructure to the cloud and the most important choice to make when doing so is finding a great IT provider who will have your best interests in mind on this journey. Promises will be made about capabilities and expertise, but it is important to keep your eye on three important things to ensure your Managed Services Provider is committed to helping you transform your IT infrastructure to the cloud.
Recommending Best in Class Products
Nothing else matters if a vendor’s product is not best-in-class and it is why so many vendors lose business in the competitive cloud ecosystem. There are too many other competitive solutions combined with somewhat low switching costs to settle for something that is not phenomenal and brings massive value to your business. When moving to the cloud, does the technology provider have a strong track record of performance? Do they have the infrastructure to scale with you as your company grows? A good sign that it is time to look elsewhere is if the product your partner is offering can’t pass a basic Proof of Concept or is just feature-poor relative to other comparable solutions. This is why I strongly recommend Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure as the core building blocks for any company’s initial foray into the cloud. No other company has invested so much into empowering businesses of all sizes to do more than Microsoft.
Adding Value to Your Business
My former CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, often says that a company’s past success does not define or predict their future. That each day your partner needs to come in and continue to win your business anew. This lesson holds great relevance in the burgeoning cloud ecosystem with so many vendors, replacement options, and new technologies emerging daily. The day your partner started working with you is the day the clock started ticking on their need to constantly create value that accrues to your business. The technologies they choose must help position you as a thought leader in front of your customers. They need a clear Conditions of Satisfaction that defines their relationship with you and there needs to be regular check-ins to make sure your business is growing as result of the relationship.
Driving Down Your Cost
The cloud ecosystem is a competitive space. New technologies continue to emerge with even more powerful functionality than in months prior. Startups are being born by the hundred and thousands in the cloud and the need to maintain on-premises hardware in your office is a thing of the past. One would think that while the technology gets better, it would be more expensive to move the cloud. But it is quite the opposite! Business have increasingly been able to take advantage of economies of scale the large cloud providers like Microsoft has achieved in order to drive their costs down dramatically. In the past, a company would have to shell out many thousands of dollars to buy a server and amortize that cost over time. Now the model is consumption-based, and you only need to pay for what you use just like the electricity in your home. Moving to the cloud has a number of benefits for your business—and one significant one is driving down the cost of IT.
Moving one’s IT infrastructure to the cloud should be a near-term goal of every business. Putting off the decision to digitally transform your business could be costing you customers and making you less competitive. The time to move is now and we look forward to partnering with you on this exciting journey.
Joseph Landes is the Chief Revenue Officer of Nerdio — an exciting cloud startup in Chicago that helps Managed Service Providers build cloud practices in Microsoft Azure. Prior to joining Nerdio, he spent 23 years at Microsoft leading high-performing international sales and marketing teams and helping businesses of all sizes move to the cloud. He has travelled to 108 countries and is attempting to read every NY Times Notable Book ever published.
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.
Tell us a little about your MSP…
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.
What book are you currently reading?
I am currently re-reading Traction and implementing more items. I plan on reading The Checklist Manifesto next.
Favorite blogs / podcasts
Seth Godin
The Hustle
Interested in becoming a Partner? Click here for more information!
by Sage Driskell
MSPs large and small are systematically being targeted over and over in the news. It’s almost weekly a new article comes out about a given large provider being targeted. Many of these attacks come from API weaknesses. You can’t control the provider or service, but you can minimize the chance of these attacks impacting you and your customers.
Leaky APIs
Leaky APIs are APIs which allow easy exfiltration of data from a service. These exploits often stem from deprecated APIs or privilege escalations. Many deprecated APIs exist in products for backwards compatibility, but they often come with caveats and holes.
Privilege escalations can happen on APIs due to loose queries which can return data from outside of their scope. Other escalations rely on multiple APIs which accidentally return data outside the scope a user can see normally due to their interactions. A deprecated API may help break another API when glued together with the wrong product.
These types of attacks are often used to harvest credentials or information for attacks later. Stolen passwords can be used on any similar account on multiple platforms to see what is shared. Hackers glean data which makes their later attacks easier either for traditional attacks or for things like phishing attacks.
Weaponizing APIs
With the creation of things like fileless malware and easy, privileged access via RMM tools, weaponizing an API has never been easier. Other products like Webroot have been had similar incidents from adding the feature to run commands remotely. This feature creep combined with API access makes these tools further targets.
Most products rely on various SQL products for databases. Many APIs where the developers are not security conscious will be a thin layer between the user and raw SQL queries. These can be weaponized to poison the data allowing greater access or to exfiltrate useful data. Depending on the product, it may be possible to insert hostile, arbitrary code which gets run by something within the API. Some RMMs even store scripts as blobs in the database.
How Do These Attacks Happen?
These attacks happen because of lax security policies on both sides of the equation. Many vendors do not take into account the ramifications of the access their API can provide. Vendors which integrate their products may ask for more permissions than they should need to function. A lot of permission sets are too permissive in general because its easier for the developer and the user to set up.
Clients of these products often fail to limit users enough. API users floating around provide an easy in to a company if they are compromised. Sometimes, the way multiple APIs talk to one another may be targeted as well. A simple return status from a query in a limited API may provide information that the other API would not normally have given. A simple boolean reply may provide a necessary bit of information for a malicious actor to work off of.
What Can You Do?
Removing unnecessary API users or users which may have API access is one of the easiest steps to protecting yourself, even from APIs outside of your control. Turning obsolete or unnecessary API versions, or even entire APIs off, is another great step. Use it or lose it. Trim off enough of the fat, and the hunter will target easier, more profitable prey.
Shrink your attack surface to shrink what you have to keep safe. Besides just trimming off the obsolete, scope your API users. An API user which only reports from a product doesn’t need write access. Your users need Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere possible. Do not share credentials between API users and do not recycle user names if you can help it. These basic steps have headed off many attacks before they even have the chance to become a threat with very little imposition on our technicians.
If you run products in house which have an API you use, try blocking traffic based on IP for whatever is using it. This isn’t always possible, but can often be used to limit certain service APIs to specific, known entities which limits the impact of a leaky or broken API. Rate limiting connections is another great step. If your average client hits 5 requests per hour, why not set a limit of 10 requests per hour so that brute force attempts take significantly longer? Alerting on these thresholds is another great step, especially if you control something in the stack which can see this.
Researching Products
No product is going to be perfect, but you can shop around to minimize damage. How does your current product handle exploitation? Are they quick to report it or do they take their time? A vendor which reacts fast, may still get hit, but at least you’ll know before your clients do and be able to protect yourself.
A vendor which tells you about an exploit quickly is also a vendor which works on fixing it quickly. Look at the vendor’s response history and how long it takes them to clear out serious CVEs to know how big a threat they are to your business. If they can’t keep up with serious vulnerabilities which are reported, what else are the missing that’s not reported yet?
Always be on the lookout to how a vendor impacts you and your clients. A vendor which never has real access is easier to trust than one which can make system level changes. Look out for how they handle older APIs too. A vendor which leaves deprecated features in too long runs the risk of being exploited down the line.
Ask your vendor what they do about older versions and whether or not they rate limit requests and accounts. See what the scope of their API access is. The irony is that those proudest of their APIs open access will usually be the first to tell you about it. Weigh this with your other options and the impact on your client before signing.
Our Strategy
We minimize unnecessary API interaction and work to maintain best practices to prevent exploits. When an API becomes obsolete, it is removed from our system where possible. API access is also further limited for fixed entities to prevent more wholesale access from being available off premise. Users need 2FA to get into basically anything. These patterns heavily minimize the attack surface with very little maintenance. Our large community contributes to helping make sure every potential exploit is known as soon as possible.
Our Security Focus
We focus on a holistic approach to security, and try to stay ahead of exploits and reduce the risk of any given component. Your security is only as strong as its weakest link, so you must be vigilant. Prevent unauthorized API access by preventing any access unless necessary. We want to know about an exploit as soon as it is public, if not before and be able to react to it.
Cutting off your finger is better than losing your arm, but not having to lose either is best. Prioritization of exploits is extremely important to surviving in the modern security landscape. We’re well past the days of “perfect security” even being a pipe dream, let alone realistic. We work to hedge our bets and make our platform the least ideal for hackers without sacrificing functionality. An ounce of prevention, even if it’s bitter, is a lot better than a pound of cure.
Going Forward
Stay ahead of hackers by locking down every aspect of your security. APIs are one of the most often overlooked, easily exploited part of many products. Almost every major software product is going to have an API of some kind too. Know what you’re dealing with and limit the damage where you can. MSPs have become low hanging fruit to many hackers, elevate your security and elevate yourself from being next.
Our very own Sage Driskell is a Core Services Engineer at The 20. Interested in working for us? We’re hiring!
Happy World Entrepreneurs’ Day!
On August 21 of each year, we like to take a moment and reflect on the day that’s been coined to celebrate innovation and empowerment of entrepreneurship and leadership throughout the world. Entrepreneurship is vital not just for job creation, but a very essential and integral part of our economic growth and problem-solving. Today we’re celebrating the 30.2 million entrepreneurs who are running and operating small businesses in this country! So to do so, we wanted to hear some of our partners’ advice on running an MSP. We asked the question: What do you wish you’d known when you started your MSP that you know now?
This is what a few of them said…
I wish I had known about recurring revenues and what products to sell and how to sell them to get this MRR.
– George Monroy, President/CEO of Monroy IT Services
I wish I had fully understood the idea that ‘if you aren’t growing, you’re shrinking.’ Going from full tech to many hats that include sales, it’s easy to forget to fill the sales funnel when business is ‘just right.’
– Patrick Hoerter, Owner of Your Network Security
A few things: Hire for culture fit, know what numbers are important to track, seek outside counsel and mentorship, and standards and processes are your friend.
– Kevin Peterson, Owner of Peterson Technology Group
None of us is as smart as ‘all of us.’ The early days were ‘lone wolf.’ I believed you ask no one; figure it out by yourself. I learned, however, that that’s wrong, and to trust other IT people; ask for help when needed. And give help freely in return. The more you give, the more your get.
– John Rutkowski, CEO of Bolder Designs
Two things: 1) Real marketing! Referral marketing is good but direct mail, telemarketing and others are what keep growth going and profits increasing. 2) Read and FOLLOW ‘The E-Myth,’ which is to understand that YOU are the business owner and MUST transition from technician to owner for a real business. 3) Yes, I said two things, but I thought I’d give a bonus: Continue to learn from your peers. They have a wealth of history to share that you later can share with the new guys as they come along.
– Bill Wright, Owner of WCI Technology Solutions
I wish I’d known about The 20 because no one tells you that you’ll be working 80 hour weeks and not getting vacations.
– Rodney Sees, CEO of Accurate Computer Solutions
Borrowing money for expansion — don’t do it. Worse than drugs. Also, there are a million apps, tools, etc. out there to “support and grow your business.” Then, there are the basic tools — RMM, AV, Backup, Billing. Don’t confuse the things you NEED with the things vendors promise will make life awesome. Some of them will, and most of them won’t, but regardless, they will cost you a lot of money. Beware of metered storage and metered throughput. NEVER agree to a long-term contract for a product you “will grow into.” If you’re staring at $300/month for 50 licenses of something you only need 5 of, then it isn’t $6/month per device, it’s $60.
– Jim Bachaud, CEO of Stratocent Technologies
So there you have it! Hopefully this sheds a little a light onto what you can expect from running your own business as entrepreneurs. We think it’s important to listen to those who have tried it — if for nothing else, it brings attention to things you may have not yet considered.
Are you interested in becoming a Partner with The 20? Click here for more information!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
Since 2002, VM Squared has been a leading provider of IT support and consulting, focusing on small and medium-sized businesses in the North Mississippi area. We have helped hundreds of businesses increase productivity and profitability by making IT a streamlined part of operations. We equip our clients with customized technology solutions for greater operational value and to reduce risk.
How long have you been a member of The 20?
Since April of 2019.
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
I was at a crossroads. My Marketing Director resigned with no notice for medical reasons and our marketing/sales machine was just gaining traction. I really didn’t need help desk support but badly needed the marketing piece. I talked with Matt King to see how we could make this thing work. I discovered that I could deliver the help desk for much less than it was costing me for my team of 2, and I’d get the whole help desk. I moved forward thinking I’d transition my on-site team to field engineers. I ended up removing 1 and the other is my field engineer.
We will be starting with marketing next month.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
Re-aligning my business to work well with The 20 is the biggest change. I not only changed roles around but I also changed our sales process and size of client to seek out (larger).
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
I enjoy the community and the staff of The 20. They are my extended team and are there to bounce ideas off of — then help you run with them.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Process, Process, Process. You cannot scale without well-documented processes.
What are your biggest business challenges?
Sales. I have been doing all the sales and have just not been getting in front of the right people. It goes back to marketing, but I am growing my sales team.
What are your areas of focus for 2019?
Adding prospects with 500-plus endpoints. Becoming the MID for these companies. With sales, the other problems can be dealt with. We are also opening a BCDR Failover facility for enterprise clients. This will give them a physical place to conduct business when their primary facility is disrupted.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Get the right people in the right seat on the right bus. Then, get your processes documented and stick to them. Get in front of prospects that match your core values and mirror your best clients.
What book are you currently reading?
I’m always reading or listening to books on Audible. My current books are The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick, Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz, and Social Engineering by Paul Wilson.
Favorite blogs / podcasts
I listen to Leo Laporte and read Brian Krebs.
Interested in becoming a Partner? Click here for more information!
This summer, we have welcomed 3 new interns here at The 20!
Alexis, Courtney and Jakob have been a great addition to our team. Here’s a little more about them:
Alexis Williams
Marketing Intern
Major: Digital Retailing and Fashion Merchandising
Minor: Consumer Experience Management
Classification: Senior at the University of North Texas
Describe Yourself: Goofy, Considerate, and Observant
Career Path: Digital Retailing wasn’t my initial choice when it came to deciding on a major. I have always had a passion for fashion, but I realized my skill set was better fit for the digital world. I enjoy creating ideas to promote or increase traction within businesses. I am mostly interested in social media marketing, but I am excited to explore all aspects of Digital Marketing.
Courtney Ford
Graphic Design Intern
Major: Graphic Design
Classification: Senior at Texas Women’s University
Describe Yourself: Curious, Easy-Going, and Reliable
Career Path: I chose to major in graphic design because I was a page designer/editor for my high school newspaper, so that really made me fall in love with designing. I am also a sucker for great product packaging. This internship is great because it allows me to create real collateral for The 20 as well as other companies. I really enjoy making something that people will be able to use, whether for business or just for a laugh on social media. This internship is really helping me understand what goes into the day-to-day life of a designer.
Jakob Field
Sales Intern
Major: Marketing
Minor: Business Management
Classification: Senior at the University of Oklahoma
Describe Yourself: Funny, Laid back, and Practical
Career Path: I’ve always been fascinated by marketing and the dramatic impact it can have on consumer’s choices. The duality of marketing with the vastly different analytical and creatives sides has always seemed like a perfect fit because I have such a strong interest in both. Also, the psychology behind why certain tactics work in certain situations and how to best implement those has always interested me. This Sales Internship with The 20 has given me the opportunity to explore the numerous similarities between marketing and sales and has allowed me to gain real world experience and learn from talented people.
If you happened to miss our blog about the five reasons one should intern in college, written by our very own Talent Acquisition Manager, Camden Rendon — be sure to check it out!
Interested in joining the team? Check out our Careers page for all current openings!
