Top 10 Pieces Of Advice For A Growing MSP (If I Only Knew Then…)

By Arlin Sorensen, O and Founder of the Heartland Companies which includes HTG Peer Groups

Building a managed services practice is a tedious and never ending process. I first got involved in building a managed service practice at HTS (Heartland Technology Solutions), back in 2005 when the topic became a focus for our HTG group. I sold HTS in 2012, but I still vividly recall the meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, when the group debated the idea of managed services — this concept of providing flat fee services for a monthly rate. 

There were some in the group who proclaimed managed services to be the wave of the future and others who said they would never offer a service at a fixed fee because of the variability of client needs and demands. It was interesting to watch as over the next year or so, almost all the group members jumped on the bandwagon and introduced managed services in some form or other to their clients. In the end, managed services are simply one way to provide service to clients. Done well, it can be a profitable way to meet client needs. 

There were plenty of things I learned along that journey that would have made it a lot less painful had I known earlier. Delivering managed services is not a magic path to recurring revenue, and there are no silver bullets. Still, there are some basics that, put in place, can pave the way and make the journey a lot smoother. 

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