The difference between being the owner of a business or being self employed is at the end of the day when you consider exiting or selling your business, how does the business transition without you? As you grow your IT business, the way you make operational decisions to increase the equity of your business is very important. It will determine if you have established your MSP as a lifestyle business or a scalable enterprise.
Douglass Miller is the CEO of Straightedge Technologies. Like many MSPs, he was frustrated with his sales results. He had very few net new clients and sales to existing clients was uneven. In two-three years, he has doubled the size of his MSP; attracting one net new MRR client a month and growing his sales to existing clients by 3-4X. What changed? Douglass did.
Studies have shown that businesses are starting to increasingly rely on social media to help build brand awareness and drive the sale of their products and solutions. For example, according to a recent Forrester report, 98 percent of sales and marketing leaders see value in social selling in the short and long term, and 49 percent have already developed a formal social selling program. Many Channel companies would agree with the potential benefits of social media marketing, but they also acknowledge they’re a long way from realizing its full potential.
Selling professional services is tricky business. There is nothing tangible in the conversation. No product to pick up, turn over, and closely examine for quality and functionality. What clients are buying is you and your expertise.
The European Union’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is one of the most sweeping global IT regulations in history, set to impose penalties for non-compliance beginning May 25, 2018. Designed to protect European consumers from breaches of their personal identifying data (PID), it regulates how, and for how long, this data can be stored on an IT network.
The managed services market got its start as early as the 1990s as the recurring revenue business model sparked a new era of change in the technology industry. As managed service providers (MSPs) emerged, the market for their offerings grew, and it is expected to reach $193 billion by 2019, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.5%, according to Markets and Markets.
One of the notable highlights of Admiral Nelson’s win at Trafalgar is that he believed his better trained forces would be superior in a battle against overwhelming opposing odds, and he was correct. The more educated the workforce, the greater the productivity: we all know this, or we should.
Businesses turning to MSPs have no shortage of options in the marketplace, making the solution provider’s ability to distinguish itself crucial to its long-term viability. In my opinion, perhaps the surest path to differentiating a managed service is providing expertise that goes beyond simply delivering technology, and gets to really helping clients navigate the real-world complexities that govern how technology must be applied.
Recent headlines, including those from the global Wannacry ransomware cyberattack, have more businesses than ever concerned about the risks of not protecting their critical information from malicious software, electronic data breaches, denial of service attacks, and other natural or manmade disasters. Not only can shut-downs such as these significantly impact a business’s day-to-day revenue flow and reputation, any loss of data, either temporarily or permanently, also can lead to significant fines for companies that operate in highly regulated industries.
It seems like everything is being automated nowadays — that’s just where technology is headed. Even so, businesses have a keen eye for any new automated tools that makes their jobs easier. By Rick Delgado, contributing writer
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