Tackling your Questions on Building, Growing or Scaling your IT Service Provider Business.

I’m Terry Rossi and in this episode of the IT Provider Network podcast, I want to share with you some of the feedback I have received on the show as well as some of my opinions on the questions you’ve sent in.  We are going to talk about getting started, sales compensation, contracts and more.Happy Thanksgiving!Crazy week this week for me.  It was Thanksgiving week in the US which means my company was closed Thursday and Friday, but it also means that many of my customers are closed too so we had a bunch of projects to be done during the downtime.

I had two large-scale data movement projects to do myself.  One was a multi-location lift and shift to the cloud for a tier one automotive manufacturer and the other one was a series of big database dump and loads for over the counter pharmaceutical manufacturer.

I started on Wednesday night, the day before Thanksgiving and I am just finishing today Sunday.   To make matters worse,  I am sick.  I have the worst type of illness known to man… the man cold.    Misunderstood by most females, the man cold can be totally debilitating.

I suffered through but it wasn’t easy  :)

I hope everyone in the US had a great holiday and enjoyed a little downtime and that you’re ready to hit it hard this week.  Remember you have 34 more days to kick it in the ass for 2017 and then the year is over.

 Questions from Steve in MN -Starting an MSPOur first couple of questions today comes from Steve in Minnesota – the first one isWhat advice would you give someone who is working a full time IT job who is looking to break away and start an MSP?

A couple of things come to mind right away.  First is to understand that it is a big risk.  According to Bloomberg, 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first 18 months. A whopping 80% crash and burn.   That’s not great odds but it doesn’t mean you can’t beat them.   Starting as a solopreneur with a skillset in IT it’s pretty easy to take the risk because if you really have chops but somehow still fail you should easily be able to get a job again.

If you do decide to bust out I would look for to secure a key client.  The client can be your sugar daddy.   If you work for an IT provider now don’t even think about poaching their clients but go find one on your own.   Ideally, this client should be able to cover your initial nut, your bills, and keep food on your table.   I don’t know you Steve but chances are you are a techie and you aren’t going to have any problem with the technical work but you really will need to force yourself to do the non-techie type work.  In particular SALES.

You can’t launch a successful business sitting in front of your computer.  You need to force yourself to get out and meet people, ASK for business,  give away services to prove your worth but then ASK for a deal.  Ask for the business.  Make sales and marketing a consistent part of your week.   Schedule it and then execute.

If you are buying tools,  go for cloud-based monthly services.  I think you can get Connectwise Manage monthly for as little as a 2 user commitment.  Heck, don’t even buy any tools, use a master MSP like Continuum or Collabrance.   I’ll put linked to all of these services in the show notes at the itprovidernetwork.com/episode24

And lastly, don’t forget about your silent partner Uncle Sam.  I have seen many soloprenuers think that if they bill $100 that’s $100 profit.  Sorry, Charlie, you have another hungry mouth to feed.  The mouth of the government.   I’m not a financial advisor but if you put away 30% of your revenues you should be in decent shape come April 15th.

There is way too much to go into but let me just remind you of a couple of important things.

Corporate Structure. Start an LLC or a Sub Chapter S corporation if you are in the US.