MSP Voice

Podcast main page: www.mspvoice.com/

Show-notes: www.mspvoice.com/msp-voice-episode-62/

Matt Lewis is a technician for CMIT Solutions of Cincinnati, Northeast. Matt has been working in the MSP business for several years, starting at an MSP while still in college. Matt enjoys MSP work and the variety it provides and is onsite with customers most of his time. Matt is active on Reddit and Discord MSP channels and likes the help they provide through the community.

CMIT Solutions is a national MSP franchise and provides for group buying power and also standardized tools and software. Some franchise locations still use different software if it fits their business and customers better. The franchise model also helps with marketing at the local level which can be a big help for a small MSP. As part of the franchise, you can also get support from other locations as needed.

Podcast main page: www.mspvoice.com/

Show-notes: www.mspvoice.com/msp-voice-episode-61/

Guest: Josh Strzalko

Companies: Spiderhost and Eleet Technologies

Josh started his business, Eleet Technologies, in 2004 after working for a dial-up internet service provider. Eleet started as an IT company but over the years evolved more into a development company focusing on websites and other services. Recently Josh acquired a local MSP hosting company, Spiderhost, and plans to bring the 2 companies together to offer MSP services as well as some of the development services offered by Eleet. Spiderhost focuses on hosting private clouds for their customers and since it’s hosting, their customers can save money since they don’t need a lot of equipment in their office.

Podcast main page: www.mspvoice.com/

Show-notes: www.mspvoice.com/msp-voice-episode-60/

Guest: Marvin Bee https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-bee-5a775a5/

Company: MB Systems http://mbsystems.net/

My guest this week is Marvin Bee of MB Systems in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Marvin has been in business for himself for over 20 years. Marvin initially got started because he saw an opportunity at his previous employer that his employer didn’t want to pursue. While Marvin has been successful, his previous employer is no longer in business. Marvin wasn’t convinced that IT was for him but after some experience in college and not liking his marketing job, he decided to move into the computing industry. Marvin is a big believer in using the right tools for the job, especially good quality network testers. Marvin is also the host of a popular MSP podcast called Podnutz Pro https://podnutz.com/category/podnutz-pro/ which is part of the Podnutz tech podcasting network.

Podcast main page: www.mspvoice.com/

Show-notes: www.mspvoice.com/msp-voice-episode-59/

Guest: Tony Tsao

Company: Purplo 

This week’s guest is Tony Tsao with Purplo out of Vancouver, BC. Tony starts off by explaining his company name (hint: red and blue make purple) and then we jump into the interview. Tony has a background in programming but he’s also a CPA and he uses technology to help customers with the business processes. Tony typically starts working with customers on “mini-projects” before transitioning them to the managed services model. This way he knows if the companies are a good fit for each other. Purplo is a big proponent of the desktop as a service (DaaS) and they utilize Azure and CloudJumper to help deliver it.

Podcast main page: www.mspvoice.com/

Show-notes: www.mspvoice.com/msp-voice-episode-58/ 

Guest: Gilles Gozlan

Company: TeamReso 

Gilles is the president of Paris based TeamReso. In business for 10 years, TeamReso has also launched a few other companies including CloudReso (MSP, CloudBackup) and SysReso (customer development). With the EU adopting the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) backup has now become a very sought after service in France. Previously small businesses may not have seen value in backup with the new regulation they now know it’s required. GDPR covers just more than backup so it’s been driving a lot of MSP business over the past several years. Gilles did formally have a break/fix company but he sold that and formed TeamReso to focus on MSP and monthly contracts.

News of the Week

Podcast main page: www.mspvoice.com/

Show-notes: www.mspvoice.com/msp-voice-episode-57/ 

Guest: Nate Sheen

Company: DataCom Technologies

This week I am joined by Nate Sheen out of the greater Cleveland, OH area. Nate has owned his own MSP, DataCom Technologies, for over 4 years now and having great success by focusing both on residential and commercial customers. Nate has all his customers on a month-to-month contract, even his residential customers which is great. Nate had a few different jobs before starting his own MSP, including 6 years in sales (but not technology sales). Nate has used his experience gained in sales and put it into his business. Nate loves to help people and he really enjoys helping people understand technology.

Podcast main page: www.mspvoice.com/

Show-notes: www.mspvoice.com/msp-voice-episode-56/ 

Guest: Brian Helwig

Company: MSP360

This week I’m happy to be joined by Brian Helwig, the CEO of MSP360 (formerly CloudBerry Lab). In case you haven’t heard, CloudBerry Lab is now MSP360. Brian and I previously worked together at Veeam where we had office next to each other. When I heard Brian was joining CloudBerry I was excited to work with him again.

In this episode we start off talking about Brain’s new role as CEO and about CloudBerry’s name change to MSP360 but then we get into a great discussion about hiring (and retaining) sales people. Brian’s experience is building teams, and especially sales teams, makes him the perfect guest to share his advice. To start with, Brian recommends a book, “Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again” which allows you to identify the key traits to hire someone who’s going to be successful. Brian continues the conversation with some great advice for all of you looking to hire salespeople. 

 Podcast main page: www.mspvoice.com/

Show-notes: www.mspvoice.com/msp-voice-episode-55/ 

Guest: Bob Coppedge

Company: Simplex-IT

Bob Coppedge is back and he has a new book. You may remember Bob from episode 33, Monthly Recurring Relationships where we talked about his MSP, Simplex-IT, and he also mentioned that he was writing a book about Co-Managed IT. The book is now available and I highly recommend it if you’re looking to grow your business in an area you may have thought there was no opportunity in. Co-Managed IT Services (or CoMITS as Bob calls them) is essentially working with customers who already have an IT staff but helping them to be more efficient. Bob explains the different types of CoMITs and also gives guidance on marketing, selling and delivering CoMITS. Bob talks about all of this and more in this episode and he even gives us a hint about his next book.

Check out Bob’s book on Amazon - The MSP’S Survival Guide To Co-Managed IT Services: A Crotchety Old Geek’s Road Map on Marketing, Selling and Providing Managed Services to Organizations with Existing IT Staff (CoMITs)

Podcast main page: www.mspvoice.com/

Show-notes: www.mspvoice.com/msp-voice-episode-54/ 

Guest: Dave Davenport

Company: MotherG

MotherG started out in 2006 as a pure play MSP serving the Chicago area (and now expanding to Milwaukee). Over time they’ve gone through several changes, including rebranding to what they’re known as now, MotherG. Dave shares the story of how they picked the name and what it means to them. With such a unique name Dave says that it helps people to remember who they are, much more than their previous name “TransTech Consulting Services”. Dave goes on to share what they’ve done over the years to expand and shares a number of great tips to be successful.

 Podcast main page: www.mspvoice.com/

Show-notes: www.mspvoice.com/msp-voice-episode-53/

Guest: John Kulas

Company: undisclosed

 This week is a special episode where I have a security expert, John Kulas, join me to talk about security. John has spent a lot of time on the security side working for different companies. While he doesn’t work for an MSP he does have some great tips for MSPs (and others) when it comes to security. John talks first about his experiences in visiting cloud data centers and then shares some great tips on firewall rules. We also discuss some best practices around audits and when they should be performed. We finish things up with a special rapid-fire round.