Meet Caleb Brown, Owner of JS Computek!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
JS Computek is headquartered in Columbia, MO and we’ve been serving Mid-Missouri since 1997.
How long have you been a member of The 20?
We chose to strategically partner with The 20 in early 2019.
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
There were many factors, but here are the most influential:
A. The ability to scale with confidence.
B. The extra knowledge, cooperation, and human resources.
C. The ability to deliver the MID model which aligned with our company mission of delivering “IT Sanity” to our clients and staff.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
Since joining, the biggest impact has really been internally — thinking about making documentation and processes clear, concise, and accurate.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The helpful members; so many great resources in the group to share with.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Be willing to grow and adapt in your mindset and processes.
What are your biggest business challenges?
Breaking through the mindset of the prospect’s belief that IT should be like calling a plumber and that break/fix is a smart way to run a business.
What are your areas of focus for 2020?
For 2020 our core areas of focus are cloud migrations and new client acquisition.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Find your uniques, define and sharpen your core processes, and then build systems around those processes that allow you to scale up or down on demand.
What book are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading The Compound Effect.
Favorite blogs / podcasts
Krebs on Security and Darran Daily.
Interested in becoming a member like JS Computek? Click here for more information!
Meet Allan Sivils, CEO of Sivils IT Consulting!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
Sivils IT Consulting is located in Virginia Beach, VA. We were established in 2014 after I spent 15 years managing enterprise IT operations. I wanted to create a niche business that focused strictly on partnering with our clients’ IT operations, and not selling software or hardware. We focus on building true partnerships with our clients that allow us to advocate for their business growth.
How long have you been a member of The 20?
We joined in December 2019!
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
A couple of reasons – The 20’s model is very similar to what we have been building since we started our business; to focus on being the best “Managed IT Department” for our clients. So, it made perfect sense from a partnership standpoint. Second, we have clients on both coasts, and being a part of The 20 gives us the resources that we need in order to serve clients across the United States. This allows us to scale faster, while not sacrificing the quality that our clients should expect. Lastly, the shared expertise of being a member alongside other top MSP’s allows us to work together to bring the best solutions to our clients.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
We do not feel limited by how much we can scale our business by being a member of The 20.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The network of being a member. Being part of such a large community has already helped us since joining in December operationally. We’ve been able to provide onsite resources to our clients that are thousands of miles away, and have these resources follow the same processes we do internally. We’ve been able to implement better technical solutions and processes that have helped us internally to service our clients.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Relationships. Both within our MSP community, our vendors, and especially our clients.
What are your biggest business challenges?
Managing the ebb and flow of IT projects around our clients growth – while we do our best to ensure that we can schedule to meet expectations, sometimes the volume of projects needed at one time can be difficult to manage. Also, sometimes projects require a wide range of very specific expertise. Being a member of The 20, this is quickly becoming less of a challenge.
What are your areas of focus for 2020?
Microsoft Azure, Windows WVD and Nerdio. We see that these have a huge operational advantage and efficiency versus having workloads onsite. It also helps us scale our clients faster, while ensuring their business continues to have the highest availability for their operations.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Stay focused on the relationships I mentioned above and being the IT Department advocate. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the business, with a lot of us being engineers that get too focused on the details, leverage your fellow partners/vendors instead of trying to take the entire pie for yourself. Follow this up by a repeatable IT operational standard and processes that will be clear and focused for your team to support and, most importantly; stable, secure, and protected for your client.
What book are you currently reading?
I travel a lot, so by “reading…” that really means “audio book” for me. This would be Traction by Gino Wickman. I’m actually listening to it again! I will listen to audio books that I have enjoyed, multiple times — that is — if I find the information extremely valuable.
Favorite blogs / podcasts
Honestly, I don’t have any. I spend so much time investigating, reviewing, testing, and reading about various IT solutions and methods. I guess I would say, I read “the internet.”
Interested in becoming a member? Click here for more information!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
Cirrus Technologies is located just north of Dayton, OH, and service the greater Dayton region, Cincinnati, and Columbus. We support clients and technology in 16 states and 2 countries. We were founded in 2015.
How long have you been a member of The 20?
We’ve been a member of The 20 from day 1 of our business.
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
I wanted the ability to scale and grow quickly, and this meant having the team and resources of The 20 behind me vs. going alone as a “one-man-band.”
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20…
We’ve had triple digit growth, and achieved an annual revenue that puts us at the top 4% of the industry!
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The community, collaboration and sharing of best practices and collective knowledge.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Tenacity. The going will get tough, but it’s those who persevere and don’t give up who succeed.
What are your biggest business challenges?
Continuing to build reliable lead generation oil wells to grow at the same pace we have been.
What are your areas of focus for 2019?
Sales operations and marketing.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
2 things:
1. Find someone else successful and model their success; it’s foolish to try and re-invent the wheel.
2. This is a very unforgiving business to those who try to go it alone. Join a community and peer groups; join The 20 – you cannot be successful living on your own island!
What book are you currently reading?
Traction by Gino Wickman, Blue Ocean Strategy by Chan Kim, High Probability Selling by Jacques Werth, and Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself by Mike Michalowicz are all on my short term reading list.
Favorite blogs / podcasts?
EntreLeadership, Lead to Win by Michael Hyatt, and The Brendan Show by Brendan Burchard.
