Being a business owner and working towards financial freedom is a good idea. But starting a new business needs a lot of planning and research.
Like any serious business venture out there, starting an MSP is not just as simple as turning on a switch and declaring you are open for business. Fortunately for you, there are several pieces of advice that can help guide you through the process and get you up and running.
Let’s find out what these are.
● Have an Offering
As IT services are transitioning into managed services, most of them make the mistake of offering what is popular in the industry. Instead, it would be best if you made your offering based on your existing location, clientele, and strengths.
While developing your offering, you should think about how you would give your clients value. Your services should offer a unique value proposition (UVP) that sets you apart from your competitors.
● Use the Right Software
Several MSPs use software to help manage their client’s endpoints and also help with running their MSPs. Unfortunately, some MSPs make mistakes by using cheap solutions found in the market. Such software might not get you anywhere in the market since they have limited functionalities.
Every MSP has its requirements. Therefore, you have to find a solution to boost your service and provide great service. Before choosing your software, ask yourself if it provides the IT functions you need? Does the software streamline your work process while reducing the service cost?
Do you require mobile capabilities? When you answer the questions, you will be able to narrow down your choices to the needed solutions for your requirements. Choosing software aims to streamline your work process, bring down the cost of service provision, and boost customer satisfaction.
● Have a Pricing Strategy
Pricing is vital and can make or break your MSP business and any business. However, if you are starting this kind of business, you’d need to know what is a managed service provider and is it worth it to pay for.
Moreover, choosing a pricing strategy can sometimes be extremely challenging. From the pricing patterns available in MSPs, it can be seen that there is no fixed pattern of pricing.
This is because each MSP is unique. Therefore you should choose a pricing strategy that aligns with your business goals and services offerings. The industry of MSP follows several pricing models.
Some widely used pricing models include a la carte pricing, tiered pricing, per-user pricing, and per-device pricing. Before you decide on a model, find out the advantages and benefits of each model, then consider your competitor’s models.
● Have a Marketing Strategy
This is an important thing that you should do as a business owner. First, you should develop a clear and documented marketing strategy to help develop leads for your business. Next, establish a marketing budget that would consume most of your initial budget to start your new business.
Have a database of prospective customers. You might also include buying a business list database, then verify the database information, and obtain each contact’s email address. It would be best if you were wary of the company selling email addresses. It is illegal to email businesses without first getting their approval.
● Create Your Marketing Presence
An important component of your marketing arsenal is an effective website focused on your customer’s needs and can generate business leads for you. It would be best if you didn’t cut corners when building a website.
Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly and responsive. About half of every internet traffic usually comes from mobile devices, and most business owners usually read their email or execute their call to action from their mobile device first.
When your website is up and running, you should develop a media kit consisting of educational white papers about technology, business cards, testimonials, and case studies.
● Establish Strong Vendor Relationships
MSPs usually act as the middleman between several IT vendors and their clients. These IT vendors usually provide a range of solutions like antivirus, cloud backup, business ticketing, remote monitoring, etc.
These solutions are very critical to the services offered by MSPs. Therefore, when buying new solutions, you should invest some time in the market and then identify the right solution that you can resell to your clients.
That’s A Wrap
Starting a managed service provider business needs a lot of research planning and careful work on the offering, pricing strategy, etc. However, this difficult planning process is usually worthwhile since it can help you avoid problems that might occur in the long run by ensuring that your business is profitable from the onset.