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Hello People,

I hope everyone is doing fantastic…!!!

I am trying to get into the MSP business space. However, I am not really sure how to begin and where to get started. All the ideas are penned down however, all the work cannot be done by me and if i keep an employee that will be far too much of an expense.

I need your help in letting me know what would be the best approach to start the business and how to look for employee \ contractors on project work only.

for example, if I start selling Dell server and storage and provide services around it to rack and configure and run it as a project from end to end…

In this scenario, I can prospect and do the sales however the problem is to develop the solution and do the correct pricing for which I have little experience and once the solution and pricing is done and is accepted how do i get the resources who will implement?

One option is to obtain funding for many dollars and start a complete office with a few resources but I am looking for an option which is low cost and I can try and do with a limited amount of funds.

Also, if you can help me with any associations etc…who can help with lead generation and further guidance it would be helpful.

Sorry for the long write up…!!!

Love and Light…!!!

@Dell_Technologies

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Any help on this will be highly appreciated…!!!

@community-team @maganle2208

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You might get more responses if you ask a Moderator to move your message to a different forum - Consulting Industry IT or maybe IT Service Provider.

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Pick a monitoring tool, and remote agent early on. Do not use a free one as that just makes you look bad. This is important when figuring out costs. Break even is around 40% to 70% over cost per agent depending on location. If you grow you want to also integrate with a ticket system. Track usage and such. Make sure you second the money on an attorney to go over any contracts it will help with any litigation and worth the cost. Make sure to LLC at a minimum to protect personal assets.

Number 1 lesson learned - Make sure you do not touch a client’s system with out a service agreement/liability waiver.

Number 2: Find tools that do mundane tasks every day. If it can be scripted script it. This is even more important when every client cost you money.

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HI Harry K,

Congrats on going the community, as well on planning on starting a MSP. If you have questions or need some guidance please dont hesitate to Private Message Me. I will be glad enough to hope on a call and talk and give you some pointers and help you out. When starting a MSP, it can be difficult but if you have the right plan you can be successful.

Felix

@harryk2

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What you’re looking for are occasional contractors, the problem here is that there are very few contractors who would want to work on a project that lasts a single week, the rates of pay would need to be generous.

If you can not develop the solution then you either need to hire someone or partner with someone who can, these people will need to go in front of clients so ideally, they’ll need some level of experience. Just hiring people to do one shot negotiations is not going to work well because clients will not have consistency.

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I agree with Gary 100%, you are not going to be able to run a MSP if you do not have the experience supporting the developing.installing/supporting the equipment you are selling, problems are going to occur after the install is complete and you can’t guarantee whoever you contracted will be around to support it on an ongoing basis. If sales are your strong point I suggest you approach a local MSP to work with/for them, or partner up with someone who can handle the technical aspect on a full time basis.

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Looks like you are a VAR, not an MSP. MSPs don’t sell things, VARs sell things. MSPs sell services. Of course you can sell both, but VAR is always the overriding function. Any VAR functionality, you are operating as a VAR. Your MSP aspects are just ancillary.

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Hello and welcome to this forum.

If it were me, I’d start by spending a year or two actually working for an MSP before trying to become one. Spend a year or two actually learning the business and the business cycle. Learn how to prospect for new customers, how to pitch for more work, how to deliver, and how to bill and collect. THEN take a look at the areas where you can do better than an incumbent.

As one person, with zero background, you are unlikely to et much work. A potential client probably alwlays prefers going with a firm that has a track record. Work for someone else for a bit, get the reputation for being good at the job, and then branch out on your own.

And before you do branch out - make sure you have a good lawyer, a good accountant, and at least 6-months living expenses to tide you over and help you get on your feet as an independent.

Best of luck.

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So from a quick read, let me highlight where I’d be concerned…

  1. You want to be an MSP, but don’t seem to know what an MSP is. The only thing you talk about doing is something that is opposed to an MSP… being a VAR. You should know at very least what business you are trying to go into.
  2. You don’t know the business from the technical side either so you are going to sell… what exactly? How can you seel with knowing neither the business or the operational aspects of what you are selling?
  3. MSPs get started in one of two ways - by having a person that can do it all themselves and who works their butt off to make it happen. Or they start with deep pockets and invest like crazy, figure a million or two for a minimum. From your description, you seem to want to own a company you don’t even understand, without bringing anything to the table.
  4. You NEED a staff. Imagine starting ANY company and having sales, an office, etc. but absolutely no operations. That’s what you are talking about. Your IT staff is the WHOLE comapny. It’s what your company does. The quality of that staff literally defines how good you are and what you can do. You can’t outsource your core operations. So even once you have solutions, if you don’t have IT staff, you have no business, nothing, nada.

Basically you want to go out and sell something you don’t have. Anyone you are selling to could bypass you and get this directly for cheaper and have more control over it. You aren’t really bringing anything to the table. Sure, sales matters, but anyone can do sales themselves or pick up someone who does. And all of this in a field that even when done well, is almost impossible to get into.

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Tons of MSPs and VARs looking for salespeople. Those are in demand.

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Source.

I know several MSPs that are MSPs first and VARs second. I agree though if the back bone of your business is not the monitoring side then yes you are more a VAR. No laws or rules that say MSPs can’t sell anything/. If it is just what you think then that is fine, but yes you can be a MSP and offer items for sale. I disagree with what you think the definition is not in line with current industry standards… The MSP I work for offers items as a secondary software, backup solutions, hardware sales, but the bulk of our income is monitoring. In fact you really can’t be a effective MSP in my opinion if your don’t offer some in house offerings. The key is you offer more than one. We try to be a one shop stop, but do work with major industry LOBs. We don’t sell the solution for them we help implement them. I think your scope of MSP is way to narrow,

I do say if you have a exclusivity deal with one vendor for one solution area then you are a VAR.

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It is what it is. Once you are selling things, it taints everything that you do. Your staff are sales people, not consultants. It’s just business basics. Once the staff is incenitived, directly or indirectly to sell things, you become a store and store employees are sales staff. Can sales staff do MSP functions too, of course. But once you are a store, that’s what you are. No MSP is a VAR second, they ALL claim this because they feel shame for pretending to give advice, but it’s really just sales tactics.

In generally business like this, you are allowed to mislead customers in this way because being business customers they are expected to know better than to not realize. For consumers, this behaviour is protected by law for real estate transactions and this is why buyers and seller’s agents have to be declared and kept separate. US law recognizes this problem, but only deals with it for protecting consumers in large transactions, not businesses.

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Entrepreneurial Success…

  1. Pinch yourself to make sure you are not dreaming

  2. Make appointment with psychologist for a thorough checkup to ensure you have not lost your marbles! This step is very important! Don’t skip it!

  3. If you pass step 2, then pat yourself on the back for thinking positively, and then go back to sleep. However, Entrepreneurialism is not for everyone! You must now find out if you are a dreamer, or a mover and shaker! Everybody dreams, but unless you have so much passion welling up inside you, that you can’t, and won’t sit still, and you are used to making bold decisions and then driving them to conclusions, at whatever cost, then seriously, go back to sleep!

  4. Ask family and friends to pinch you, and perhaps kick you a few times, to see if you are seriously into abuse, and perhaps enjoy it a little!

  5. Put it out of your mind for about a month, to see if you still feel the same way. (This is for the benefit of all those with ADD/ADHD, who will lose interest after awhile).

  6. If you still feel the same way after a month, analyze the reasons that you want to become an entrepreneur, and specifically an MSP.

  7. If you are not already in business and have expertise in business, with a proven track record, and love the job for the technology and challenges, and not the money, seriously go back to sleep, and keep your day job!

  8. If you’ve read this far, and you still feel that you can make it happen, then understand that no matter how brilliant and accomplished you are, you cannot be expert at every fasset of business and Information Technology, and expend the proper time to do all the work in the trench, manage all the business finance, billing, collections, TAXES, and paper work, and do a great job of all of it! If you happen to be a brilliant I.t. guy, can you do the work of 3, to make enough to afford the office manager/accountant, to handle dispatch, and the business side, while you are working the amount of 3 excellent engineers? Paying them before you pay yourself, for at least the first year, while you create your brand and reputation? Most businesses don’t want to enter contracts with startup or brand new I.T. companies, and in this day in age, you already have some serious competition, so the customer base is scarce! So, unless you are already totally successful as part of an already established business, with an existing and in-tact reputation as an above average problem solver, or are filthy rich with nothing better to do with a few years pay, or know somebody that knows somebody, that is willing to mentor a glutton for punishment, with a vision, and the passion, and tenacity to drive it all the way to success, please save yourself a ton of heart-ache, keep your marriage, and seriously go back to sleep!

  9. If you made it this far, then you’re a fool! You better keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times, and enjoy the ride! Oh, and try not to get any on your friends and neighbors, and tell them all how much you love them before the ride starts. It probably won’t be very pretty to look at for a few years!

  10. Wash rinse, and repeat! Statistics indicate that the average successful business venture comes after a dozen failures! We all hope you live that long, and wish you all the success in the world! Any of us that are in a position to counsel you on this subject, are somewhere in this cycle, banging our heads against the wall, hanging on for dear life, probably screaming silently in our pillows at night, and wondering when it will all pay off… Serious Face Palm! What was I thinking? - Sleep? Money? I hope you’re not too attached! You’ve been warned! RUN AWAY! BE VEWY VEWY SCARED! Best of luck to you. This was not an official discouragement! That department is down the hall to the left! This is your free (ONE TIME ONLY) reality check! Who knows, we may have just saved your marriage, your home, or your future sanity! Now can I get $10 for the free advice while you still have $$$? Ren

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I’d say your scope of VAR is too narrow :slight_smile: Once a store, always a store. I’ve seen so many MSPs claim otherwise, but they all get affected by what they sell and their MSPs services are never pure. There is zero need for an MSP to sell things, too. Sure, it ups profits, that’s the point. But a pure MPS / ITSP can do anything a VAR can do without taking money in exchange for skewing recommendations.

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Being a one stop shop is perfectly fine unless you hide it from your customers. As long as they know that you are a VAR, there is nothing more that you need to do. They have the info that they need to know that you, as a company, make money selling certain products over others. If they seek your advice anyway, that’s purely their decision and nothing wrong with them asking or you giving. It’s only when people call themselves an MSP (consultants) but are actually a VAR (store) that there is a problem, because that’s deception to make the customer feel like they are getting advice from IT, rather than sales from salespeople.

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LOL… and nearly all those failures are MSP businesses. And about zero of the successes.

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Please stay on topic. The poster is not asking about the difference between VARs and MSPs. If you want to have a long discussion about that, please create a different thread. Any off topic posts from this post forward will be removed.

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How is that not exactly on topic? The poster is asking about starting a VAR, not an MSP. He specifically is focused on selling products. What could possibly be more on topic than his actual topic itself? The only truly off topic post is you starting to discuss what is on and is not on topic and THAT should really be removed. This is not the place to be discussing opinions about topics like this and is a derailment. The OP specifically asked about VAR business, mistakenly thought that that was an MSP, and this is as core to this discussion as it can possibly be.

How the heck could we legitimately have any post that DOESN’T discuss this? I feel like you must have skipped over the OP’s post and just guessed as to what he was asking and didn’t pay attention to what he wrote. Please take the time to understand the topic before getting preachy and threatening inappropriate moderation to meet your own person agenda.

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I would start by VERY careful self examination. What factors are making you want to go the MSP/VAR/IT business route? This is a TOUGH road and not one you do for money, usually people do it for passion in spite of the low profits. It seems like your passions, and I’m guessing from your description, are more around sales or general business. This doesn’t seem like the kind of business(es) that you’d want to be considering.

For most of us, MSP is a passion and we’d be sad doing something that paid better. but for you, are you sure that you want the pain (and sadness) of this difficult field (especially at a time when MSPs are dropping like flies) when you could likely succeed at something else and actually make money doing it?

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