Giles
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Thanks, that is encouraging to hear! There is no one-size fits all approach in this industry IMO.
Advice for doing MSP part-time?
- Thread starter Giles
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Thanks, that is encouraging to hear! There is no one-size fits all approach in this industry IMO.
RetiredGuy1000
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The guy who wrote "MSP in 30 days", Karl Palachuk is having an online seminar starting July 2. It goes weekly for five weeks. Topic is "Cloud Services in a Month".. I signed up. $259
http://www.smbbooks.com/Cloud-Services-in-the-SMB-Market-p/5w-17.htm
I am still reading his "MSP in 30 days "book which is excellent.
http://www.smbbooks.com/Cloud-Services-in-the-SMB-Market-p/5w-17.htm
I am still reading his "MSP in 30 days "book which is excellent.
Giles
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Thanks for the recommendation. I just read the preview on Amazon and I think I'm going to grab this one.
cypress
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I've done it part-time and it can absolutely work when you manage and set expectations. Most of my clients are either small business or SOHO.
Giles
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That's encouraging to hear that you've had some success. What kind of availability do you have for MSP services?
cypress
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Mostly evening. They understand that they can call or email me and I will get back to them during the day. But when it comes to performing work, that is done after hours after the 9-5 day job.
Giles
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Just wondering if you advertise specific hours on your website/Google or do you not mention hours until they call?
Archon Prime
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I specify specific hours on the site. contact hours 9-6pm -service call hours 5-8pm mon/friday Sat: 10-4pm. However I'll do stuff on Sunday too as a per-call basis for my current clients.
My SLA even has those hours in there too.
The difference is with other MSP's they deal with small to medium/large businesses. I keep it under 10 endpoints. It's easier to manage them, and you don't have a huge list of people to keep happy. I dedicate myself 110% to them though either it be on the phone, email or remote support. I'll help them on lunch break or even when I'm not busy. But they all understand of the operation hours and have no problems.
Giles
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Excellent, I’m going that same route. I like your idea of listing contact hours and service call hours separately.
cypress
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ryan_fts
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Just chiming in to say that I'm looking to go the same route. I have an 8 to 5 right now, but I'm looking to find some clients to support after I'm done at the day job along with doing typical repairs for residential customers. I've already helped out one business (through a friend of mine) with upgrading their network and setting up file storage for them. Got paid by them so I'm reinvesting it into my business. Even taking on 3-5 clients would help me out right now financially. Just looking for any sort of supplemental income.
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Your PCMD
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The best advice I can give to anyone looking to do part-time (after normal business hours) MSP is to look for businesses that are open 24/7 or those that don't close til late, say 10 or 11 at night. A business that operates in the norm of 8 or 9 to 5 or 6 could be had for MSP if you can talk to them about doing your work after hours to avoid any possibility of downtime - which would be by luck.
Working a full time job and trying to balance MSP during the time you are actually at your own job is a hard venture as if an issue arises chances are you won't be able to help and most clients would not want to wait hours for a resolution. I say business because thats where the majority of MSP is concentrated and where MSP vendors should focus.
The only way I can see a full time worker doing MSP during the time they are working is to obtain help from an outside source whom you can call or text to take care of immediate issues that may arise.
Working a full time job and trying to balance MSP during the time you are actually at your own job is a hard venture as if an issue arises chances are you won't be able to help and most clients would not want to wait hours for a resolution. I say business because thats where the majority of MSP is concentrated and where MSP vendors should focus.
The only way I can see a full time worker doing MSP during the time they are working is to obtain help from an outside source whom you can call or text to take care of immediate issues that may arise.
ryan_fts
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I agree that it will be hard. My strategy is to be upfront and honest of my availability, which is what I told my first client and they were very much ok with that. Now of course majority of businesses won't want to enter into an agreement because of my availability. Doesn't hurt to try though, that's the mentality I'm trying to keep.
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