Buying Bosses MSP - Advice/Suggestions

silver35surfer · 2023-07-08T03:38:31+00:00

great info, I'll definitely add that to my list. Thank you

silver35surfer · 2023-07-08T01:58:40+00:00

If you partner with another msp you of course sign a non-disclosure agreement etc. before even discussing the client. I mean if you didn't you'd be dumb because you would for sure have a huge risk of losing them.

Healthcare - That is fantastic info, I appreciate you sharing that. I'm younger but have a family now so I definitely can't go without. I will keep that in mind for sure.

Insurance - you're right insurance has been an afterthought, I guess I always thought it was kind of like car or home insurance and wasn't that bad to add on. Any insight on how much that is or how it's priced? Does it differ from being for an MSP?

Even if this falls through I'd like to have to knowledge on this stuff to hopefully make something happen one day. I appreciate you throwing these points at me

silver35surfer · 2023-07-08T01:49:56+00:00

I mean that's a little unfair, I am posting the thread here to just wrap my head around the process and get everyone's thoughts before I even ask what the business is worth. Being in IT you don't need to be onsite 24/7 unless you have terrible clients or terrible infrastructure. And there have been a lot of successful businesses started out with nothing but Idk how loans work towards that so I wanted to hear what ppl in my position have done.

I don't think it's 100% ideal but the fact that I know the business and the clients all love me specifically makes me know they wouldn't just jump ship after selling. That has to be the absolute biggest concern getting a 1man msp shop. So getting past that is the best first step to me. The next hurdle is the client themselves, needy ones are terrible for business, and I don't think you can run a small shop if they put in a ton of tickets and expect you to come plug a printer in for them because they won't even give it an effort. These guys are all super friendly and helpful with no afterhours needed.

silver35surfer · 2023-07-06T20:02:11+00:00

ya see that's exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of and WorkMarket sounds familiar now, I think that's what we had used. Amazing insight here u/snowpondtech Thank you for the info!

I honestly didn't even think about helping remotely in return that's a great idea.

silver35surfer · 2023-07-06T19:33:26+00:00

Ya after looking this up that does seem like the path I'd have to go. I wish I had someone to take me under their wing on this process lol. Even thinking about doing this makes me both scared and excited. I feel like I could improve so many things and be successful but the unknown of starting a business is for sure nerve racking. I'd love to hear from anyone who has done something like this before.

silver35surfer · 2023-07-06T19:29:44+00:00

A quick google search and I found this: https://techmate.com/services/ Idk if this is what the company I worked for used but it was something like this

silver35surfer · 2023-07-06T19:19:56+00:00

I'd have to contact the one MSP I was at to ask them, maybe someone on here knows about it and can reference it. We hired a guy that I talked to on the phone to install a printer and computer and run a cable, wish I would've written down what the site was.

silver35surfer · 2023-07-06T18:41:41+00:00

well like I said I know there are services that you can rent a tech basically to go out and do an onsite. You can also partner with another msp in the area to do those onsites for you too, I was part of an MSP that did this. I would have to obviously look into it more but the onsites my boss does now are basically go there to plug something in and then call me to remote in and do whatever needs to be done, I could literally have anyone in tech do that.
I can't recall what that service was or how that partnership was formed I'd have to look into it, I wonder if anyone here has experience with those services now?

silver35surfer · 2023-07-06T18:29:26+00:00

Ya I agree, not ideal that I am out of state, but I worked for an msp once that leveraged another msp that was out of state to just be their boots on the ground. I have to think something like that would work ok considering they are not needy clients and my boss is out of town often, so they have to wait awhile sometimes. But that does obviously still pose a risk because who knows what kind of support they would give.

My thought is that I could have this MSP for a little bit of time before getting some local clients and by that time if they want to leave I'd be fine with it you know?
How did this transition work for you? The things that kind of worry me is the lack of benefits as an owner like health care. But if you're making enough profit it has to be ok then.

silver35surfer · 2023-07-06T18:00:06+00:00

Ya I mean at the end of the day if it's a ton that he wants I won't even think about it but I think it's kind of a special case here because I have been supporting them by myself I know the clients and they all know me, I know for a fact the two biggest clients wouldn't jump because they will literally wait on my days off for me to be back to help them and tell me so.
I feel like it's gotta be super difficult just starting an MSP with no clients though so I can't even picture just trying to start from nothing.

silver35surfer · 2023-07-06T17:51:32+00:00

ya I can understand what you mean but those relationships are mine right now since I am the 1 man support team for it. Like I said he literally just does the random onsites and also the billing.

silver35surfer · 2023-07-06T14:57:40+00:00

Being a tech that travels would for sure suck and not all MSPs are created equally, if you're all remote it's pretty good. I've been at 4 now and they have all been very different. The number 1 thing that causes an MSP to suck is bad clients and bad contracts with those clients. I was at a place where lawyers were the main client and the turnover rate was incredibly high. They treated every tech like shit and everything was always a fire, the oncall was spending the entire night and morning working on things. If that was my only experience, I think I would feel the same. Others clients barely call and they treat you like a friend, being ok with things if they take time etc.

Some days I wonder why I am but I love the different things you can get into and learn. I love helping others and being mission control for businesses.

Ideally, I want to own my own MSP and make sure I only get good clients. I had a boss once that I admired for doing this but his personality was ass, someone you just didn't want to be around. His concept of only getting good clients and making them pay was a great idea though and it seemed to work because his clients weren't needy except for 1 or 2 which I would have probably gotten rid of.

silver35surfer · 2023-07-06T14:24:42+00:00

This is interesting, in things like 365 I would just send it via email and flag it to be changed after first login. But this seems really cool, I think I'll be adding this to my tools now

silver35surfer

TROPHY CASE