Empowering Your MSP Business to Grow and Prosper—One Post at a Time

With Hurricane Irma set to make landfall this weekend, we wanted to provide several important reminders to both Continuum partners and other MSPs or IT service providers with customers in the affected area. 

The National Hurricane Center expects “severe hurricane conditions” over portions of the Florida peninsula and Florida Keys beginning late Saturday evening, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott said the storm has the potential to “catastrophically devastate” the state.

While public safety and rescue operations are always the top priorities following a disaster scenario, there are a number of other processes and practices IT providers must put into place to ensure that their customers are able to recover and resume operations as quickly as possible.

We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words—but what about video? Today, marketers are responding to audiences' shorter attention spans by making content more interactive and visual—and it's paying off. In fact, videos are responsible for 74 percent of all internet traffic in 2017, according to data from Syndacast. So, if you don’t already have a video marketing strategy in place, you could be missing a tremendous opportunity. Managed services providers (MSPs) can leverage video marketing to engage with their target audience, market their IT services, and promote their business. But where exactly can you start?

Recently, the video team at Continuum won a 2017 Videographer Award of Excellence for our Continuity247 Archive video. I sat down with Joel Burgos, Digital Animator at Continuum, to discuss not only what this award means to him, but also the importance of video marketing today and how MSPs can work to implement it into their overall marketing strategy.

As technology continues to evolve and mature, so too do the challenges facing those in the IT industry. This is especially true for managed services providers (MSPs). Hiring and retaining technical talent is becoming increasingly difficult, putting many MSPs at a disadvantage to maintain a lean operation and maximize profits. What’s more, some MSPs are seeing decreased margins as a result of downward market trends. So, what can MSPs do to counteract these trends and avoid falling behind?

Fortunately, MSPs who partner with Continuum are able to overcome these challenges—among others—by leveraging our transformative IT management and service delivery platform. In the infographic below, we’ll take a deeper look at the three main ways MSPs can benefit from Continuum’s model and dive into the data behind how Continuum partners are achieving greater growth and profitability.

One of the biggest challenges for managed services providers (MSPs) looking to add new clients is that prospects don't always realize their need for managed IT services. A business that may be a prime candidate for your services may be operating under the mindset of, "I've come this far without your help, why should I pay for it now?" The tough part is getting these prospects to answer that question for themselves.

So, how do you go about getting your prospects to that "aha!" moment? You need them to truly understand the risks that are facing them. Once they do, there is a very good chance that they will realize that they can't afford to risk data loss, data breach or the downtime that many of these vulnerabilities present. Instead of preaching to your prospects for hours on end, try challenging them to answer a set of security questions for you to make them realize just how ill-prepared they may be.

Technicians play an absolutely critical role in every Managed Services Provider (MSP) organization today—but finding, hiring and retaining the right talent are often difficult and expensive processes. And while MSPs do need an in-house team to conduct onsite work and meet with customers, they can further-extend their capabilities and remain cost-effective by leveraging an outside Network Operations Center (NOC). 

Are you looking to create a webinar your clients, prospects, and target audience will actually want to attend? Webinars are a great way to build and engage with your audience, share specific content and expertise, and they can play a large role in your lead generation and inbound marketing. However, effectively executing a live webinar takes careful planning and consideration. To help you, let’s take a look at the four keys to successfully creating and hosting live webinars.

As a managed services provider (MSP), you likely entered this line of business because you wanted to help organizations optimize their IT infrastructures, get the most out of their technology, and become a helpful and strategic business partner. What started as a dream has now turned into a full-time business—one that you must ensure remains successful.

Now, it’s probable that you didn’t earn your MBA to become an MSP, but now that you’re in charge of your business you need to become well-versed in the business-side of things—like finances, accounting and mergers and acquisitions. For example, you may have a goal this year to grow your bottom line, but what does that actually mean? What goes into that metric? If you want your MSP business to grow and succeed, you need to start thinking like a chief finance officer (CFO). Use this post as your guide to better understand the factors that can impact your profitability and learn how to maximize your managed services margins.

Is it just me, or is this summer flying by way too fast? I always long for those longer, lazier summer days, but as a managed services provider (MSP), you know that your line of business never gets the day off. So, to make the most of your summer and help you set up your MSP business for long-term success, we’ve gathered our most helpful and valuable blog posts from July.

This past month was full of tips and best practices to help you grow your MSP business, including how to make impactful relationships with clients, what every MSP should include in their LinkedIn profile, which cybersecurity threats you need to look out for and much more. Let’s take a look at what the month of July had to offer on the MSP blog!

As a managed services provider (MSP), you strive to be an IT superhero for your clients—covering all of their needs and providing exceptional service—all within a certain budget. Unfortunately, this is often easier said than done. Supporting your customers’ every need can become wearying, overwhelming and costly, which is why many MSPs are beginning to seek outside help. Every superhero needs a sidekick, and outsourcing can empower you to elevate your business and become the leading provider you strive to be.

Whether you’re looking to free up your staff to work on more strategic projects or reduce in-house costs and resources, outsourcing has plenty of advantages for MSPs. Let’s take a closer look at the top five benefits of augmenting your business model by outsourcing certain functions to a third-party provider.

Today, we released an analysis from Service Leadership, Inc., the leading financial and operational benchmark organization for MSPs and IT solution providers worldwide, that indicates that Continuum’s partners are able to achieve greater profitability, operate more efficiently and withstand market pressures better than other MSPs as a result of our transformative platform and business model. Let’s take a deeper look into these findings and how leveraging Continuum could be the key to becoming a world class MSP.