Answers
You have a question before a meeting and no time for a long article. Get a direct answer, short enough to read now and specific enough to act on.
- The questions MSP owners ask about pricing, hiring, sales and compliance.
- Search the questions, or filter them by topic.
- Free to read, with no account needed.
All answers
Operations
8How Do I Let Go of a Bad Client?First confirm the problem cannot be fixed by repricing or a changed agreement.How Many Endpoints Can One Technician Support?A commonly cited target is about 350 fully managed endpoints per technician, but surveyed MSPs report anything from under 50 to more than 750.PSA vs RMM: What Is the Difference?RMM is how you do the work; PSA is how you run the business.What Does NOC Mean?NOC stands for network operations center, the function that watches infrastructure for faults and performance problems and responds to what the monitoring reports.What Is an MSP?A managed service provider is a company that takes ongoing responsibility for another business's IT (monitoring it, maintaining it, securing it and supporting its users) for a recurring fee rather than by the hour.What Is Co-managed IT?Co-managed IT is an arrangement where an MSP works alongside a client's internal IT staff instead of replacing them, with responsibilities divided by written agreement.What Should Technician Utilization Be?Set utilization targets by role, not one number for the whole MSP.When Should I Hire a vCIO?Hire a vCIO when strategy conversations are being lost because nobody has the time or the standing to have them.
Finance
3How Do I Calculate Cost per Ticket?Divide the total monthly cost of running your service desk by the number of tickets it handled that month.How Much Is My MSP Worth?Most MSPs sell for a multiple of adjusted EBITDA, not revenue.What Gross Margin Should I Target?Higher on the labor you deliver than on the hardware and licenses you resell, and high enough that overhead and profit both fit underneath.
Pricing
3How Do I Price Security Services?Price security from your fully loaded cost upward: add up the per-seat cost of every tool in the stack, the vendor or SOC fees, and the labor to run, review and respond, then set a price that holds your target gross margin.How Do I Scope and Price a Project?Scope a project with a paid or tightly limited discovery first, then write a statement of work that names deliverables, assumptions, exclusions, client responsibilities and acceptance criteria.How Do MSPs Price Their Services?Most MSPs price on a recurring per-user or per-device basis, sometimes in tiers, with project work and hardware billed separately.
Sales
3How Do I Get My First Ten Clients?Your first ten clients most often come from people who already know you: former employers and colleagues, your personal network, and referrals from them.How Long Should a Sales Cycle Take?Long enough for the buyer to make the decision and no longer.What Is a QBR, and Why Does It Matter?A quarterly business review is a scheduled meeting where an MSP and a client step out of day-to-day support to review how the service is going, discuss where the client's business is heading, and agree the technology work that follows.
Security
3Do I Need a SOC for My MSP?You need the security-monitoring function; you almost certainly should not build the team yourself.Should I Require Cyber Insurance From My Clients?Yes, in most cases.What Is the Difference Between an MSP and an MSSP?An MSP runs a client's IT: help desk, devices, networks, backups and vendors, with security as one part of the job.
Hiring
2How Much Should an L1 Technician Make?Enough that they stay, and structured so that getting better is worth their while.When Should I Hire My First Technician?Hire your first technician when recurring gross profit can cover their fully loaded cost, and when your own time is the thing stopping you from selling or keeping clients happy.
Compliance
1Contracts
1No answers match that. Clear the search to see them all.