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Ask us anything -Marketing, Sales, Pricing, Packaging, People, Service Delivery, Mindset, and more - and we'll give you our honest and informed answers. So, let's get the conversation started!
Running an MSP or IT Service Provider is incredibly hard 😖
(yet also VERY rewarding at the same time 😁)
Join Pete, Scott, Richard, and Andrew for this light-hearted, entertaining show full of lessons, mistakes, stories, & craziness from the trenches of running and selling our own MSPs.
Each week, we'll dig into the latest MSP news of the week and we'll then deep dive into a HOT topic that's super relevant to the MSP space.
(including Marketing, Sales, Pricing, Packaging, People, Service Delivery, Mindset, and more).
Andrew Moon: Happy Hump Day, . Sorry,
we're running a little late today.
We're blaming everything on
Microsoft today, by the way.
So the Global 365 outage yesterday.
So we're just blaming
everything on Microsoft.
So how's everybody doing today?
Pete Matheson: um, rolled
up until lunchtime, I think.
Andrew Moon: What's that?
Pete Matheson: I think the
outage for us was rolling up
until about lunchtime today.
It was still still going on today
Andrew Moon: I was wondering.
My, my inbox has been super quiet, so
I'm, I'm not gonna, I'm happy about that.
So it'll blow up later.
So
Richard Tubb: No, if your inbox is
quiet, that means there's no problems.
Andrew Moon: Exactly.
I can ignore them for a few more hours.
So if you're joining us over
on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook,
say hello in the comments, tell
us where you're tuning in from.
Always like to see where people tune
in from and what time of day it is.
It is 11:14 AM here.
I think it's what, four
14 for you guys in the a.
Scott Riley: Yeah.
Yeah.
Andrew Moon: over in, uh, over in the uk.
I, I was talking before the
show, Richard, you missed it.
We, I got, I'm getting all four
seasons of weather today, so it was 29
degrees overnight, so we got some ice.
It was snowing when I got up.
It is now raining and it's gonna
be 59 degrees this afternoon.
So all four seasons in one day.
But there's no global warming.
Uh, I don't know.
Richard Tubb: global warming.
Andrew Moon: No.
All right, so we've got a couple in here.
I've got, uh, Stefano, uh, Joseph,
he says I own and build a data center
from scratch and provide wireless
internet services and phone services.
So, I don't know whether there's
a question in there, Stefano, but
this is all about ask us anything.
This is a AMA show.
So Mark Barton is joining us from Georgia.
Got Georgia on the mind this morning.
Hello, mark?
Pete Matheson: I read that as
Mark, um, Mark's Hello from
Google, because that's the only
platform that's working right now.
Andrew Moon: John Harrison's tuning in.
He said he's just around the
corner from you, Richard.
Richard Tubb: Hey John.
Good to see you.
We've gotta catch up for
a beer sometimes soon.
It's been ages since I seen you.
Andrew Moon: Awesome.
Daniel's north of London, so our
UK contingent is held up well.
Like I said, we're probably
still half asleep this morning.
All of our IT providers are still
trying to figure out how many
tickets they actually have So
two weeks in a row, Microsoft
screwed the MSP industry, so yay.
And everybody gets a
price increase to boot.
Yay, Microsoft.
Yay,
Pete Matheson: But on the other
hand, you can use chat gpt to write
the email about the price increase.
Andrew Moon: We're gonna talk about that.
We're gonna talk about Chad g p t.
I think that that's one of
the things that's a hot topic
across all industries as well.
Uh, let's see here.
Some LinkedIn users, see who that is.
Um, says, I'm about to, I'm about to.
I'm about to get lost in all
the best advice I can get.
Yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll see.
You might get lost.
I don't know about the advice part.
We'll see.
So Kevin Lancaster, he heavy
hitter from the state of Maryland.
Thank you, Kevin for joining
us from channel program, John
McDonald from Birmingham.
I'm assuming
Richard Tubb: not Birmingham, Andrew.
It's Birmingham.
Andrew Moon: Birmingham.
See there is a Birmingham.
See, that's where exactly
we need to designate that.
It was like, I need to
pronounce things correctly.
So there is, it's Birmingham if
Scott Riley: It's Alabama
Andrew Moon: Alabama,
Richard Tubb: But
Birmingham, where I'm from,
Andrew Moon: John said he
doesn't, well, they don't do
global warming in New Castle.
So
Richard Tubb: don't do
warming at all in New Castle.
Yeah.
So
Scott Riley: Coates.
Yeah.
Richard Tubb: Yeah.
ORs.
Yeah.
That's.
Andrew Moon: Good stuff.
If you have questions for us, if you
wanna, if you wouldn't mind putting
the letter Q Colon and then your
question, that way it helps me as the
meathead moderator, uh, to be able to
find those, tag those and make sure we
get your question answered, uh, will
from Consumer Tech, Fife, Scotland.
So we're all over.
So this is awesome.
So again, this isn't Ask us.
Well, except for the private stuff, we'll
keep the private stuff out of there.
But anyway, so if anybody's got a
question to kick us off, I've got
kind of a few common questions.
Uh, but if you do have a question, you're
joining us live, put a letter Q Colon
and your question and we can make sure
that we get those up on the screen.
Everybody's up in lights today.
LinkedIn comments are working.
We're happy about that.
Microsoft has one thing working today
LinkedIn comments, so that that's good.
Richard Tubb: Nobody's
from Microsoft on the call.
I hope today because they're not
gonna be sponsoring this show anytime
soon, given the, uh, positive feedback
we're giving them at the moment.
Andrew Moon: Well, it's funny because I
do ha it, it, I go look at analytics and
I watch kind of what companies, Microsoft
is a huge proponent watcher of the show.
So, uh, which is kind of funny.
I, I find it interesting, some of
the big, big guys watch what we do.
So
Scott Riley: Hmm.
Andrew Moon: that, in that vein, I wanted
to thank, uh, James Steele from Lion.
For giving us a shout out, uh, last
Scott Riley: did?
Yeah.
Andrew Moon: So I was happy about that.
James has been, uh, a big fan of
my do what is necessary live stream
that we've been doing for a while.
So he's now joined us over here as well,
uh, heavy proponent in the IT space,
so we're happy to have the shoutouts.
So thank you, James.
We appreciate everything you do for
the IT channel as well, so I wanted
to make sure we get that out there.
So let's start off with, do have a
couple questions here and we'll just
start off with, I think this is Stefano.
Yeah.
So, so Stefano Joseph says, I'm
about to lose my data center.
What can I do to save it?
Hmm.
Richard Tubb: Wow.
Andrew Moon: Put in a
little more details for us.
Is it, is it financial?
Is it your lease isn't renewed?
Like
Pete Matheson: required.
Andrew Moon: Yeah.
Pete Matheson: Has it sunk in the floods?
What?
What's, please be more specific.
Andrew Moon: yeah.
So anyway, there is a,
uh, uh, let's see here.
Somebody.
I will see who that is.
Must be somebody over on
Richard's, uh, LinkedIn.
Let's see.
We met with Carl Polluck and Edinburg.
Uh, will there be another meetup
Richard Tubb: Really good question.
So, uh, to give some context to
that, that's Will, I think, isn't it?
Who's joining us from, uh, LinkedIn?
So, uh, Carl Puck, a friend of the
show, somebody, everybody knows
absolute legend in the industry.
And, uh, Carl loves to travel.
Uh, so Carl came across to, uh, Scotland.
In, uh, August of last year, and I've
been a, he's, he's one of my great
heroes, a great friend and a mentor.
We met up and we went on a
bit of a, a road, uh, trip.
We went to Edinburgh, we went to
Glasgow, we went to um, Falk Kirk.
We went to Manchester, and we met a ton
of MSPs and it was a heck of a good time.
So if you wanna see Carl in the UK
again, just ping the man a tweet or
ping him an email and say, Richard
says you want to come to the uk.
Let's make that happen.
Andrew Moon: Awesome.
That sounds like a heck
of a road trip for sure.
So,
Richard Tubb: It was a good one.
Andrew Moon: uh, let's see here.
So I believe that, yeah, that is
Stefano says further up question,
not enough revenue and his lease.
So it's kind of both.
So what would
Pete Matheson: I guess it depends on the
services you're offering as, as an off.
Um, you know, do you have a data center?
Do you have a rack?
Do you have a part of a rack?
Um, what kind of services are,
are you offering and could you
find that cheaper somewhere else?
Or could you outsource some parts?
You're only paying for what you use.
Yeah, it's quite a few, few additional
questions that spring to mind.
Andrew Moon: Yeah, and if you're, I
mean, if you're renting Rackspace,
which is what, what we did, that was
a whole segment of my M S P business,
another revenue generated for us.
Um, our data center was right
in the middle of the floor.
We were on 6,000 foot square, 6,000 square
foot data center right in the middle.
So we leased out a row and that's, we
subleased everything out from there.
So, um, yeah, so I would say like,
if, if I was in that situation and
I owned what was in the rack, yeah,
you definitely communication is, is,
we talked about that on last week.
You want to get ahead
of that conversation.
Uh, don't wait until somebody shuts
the lights off, um, or throws a switch
before you approach your customers.
I would get your customers involved
and let them know, you know, what is
going on, especially if it's lease.
That's, that's could be things outside
of your, your realm if your lease
is going up or they're not renewing
your lease on your data center.
I mean, there's just so many
variables with that, but I definitely.
I definitely would get your customers
involved as, as quickly as possible.
Um, I mean that sounds like it could
be a whole show in and of itself.
Stefano, if I wanted to know if you
are, if you wanted to jump on the show,
we can put you on the show as well.
Uh, if you were game for that,
whether you want to do video or not.
Um, yeah, he says he the whole building.
Um, yeah, so.
Scott Riley: that's, that's
the challenge, isn't it?
Data center's been so hard, especially
the last year or so with the, the
price increases for power as well.
It's, it's a such a
difficult space to be in.
Um, I used to run four or five data
centers for, uh, a previous organization,
and it was, it was always hard.
We'd, we'd have empty racks just,
you know, emptying out because people
were either, you know, virtualizing
or consolidating or moving, you
know, to, to 365 or Azure stuff.
All of that was happening.
Um, , you know, and it was, it
was all about like, how could we
make it more attractive for people
to take the colocation space?
How could we, you know, do something
that was interesting for them?
Um, so we had, and you know, Stefan
you, you, you probably already have
all these things, but like if you
do network connectivity and wireless
connectivity, um, can you get.
Um, you know, network connection
to your client's office and then
offload their service from their
building and into your racks.
Is that a service that you do?
Do you do hybrid services
with part in the cloud?
Um, some virtualization stuff
from you where you are providing
maybe VMs or v p s services?
But then also can tie to a dedicated
rack that the client has, so they can
have that blend of renting virtualization
from you, but also having, you
know, their dedicated sql, you know,
servers or with their, you know, their
sensitive data and that kind of stuff.
It's.
You know, can you, can
you offer those blends?
And then, you know, we all know
you've got the remote hand services,
you've got backup services and tape
management if they're still using tapes
or offsite backup for digital backups.
Um, but there's so much of that now
that's, it's hard, you know, and I
guess my question would really be
because of, because of what's happening
in the, the electricity space and.
Um, you know, just the cost and the lease.
Do you need to keep the data center?
Is there something about having the data
center and having the building that is, is
crucial to the service that you provide?
Or could you take some cabinets
in, in another data center?
Because then you can, you can
still provide your services.
You just don't have all the
ground costs underneath, right?
Like looking after the generators and
the UPSs and all that kind of nonsense.
So could you, could you move it and
keep it as a data center service, but
work with a, a data center partner who
isn't gonna charge you a fortune, but
you could at least then still have all
the other assurances around security
and access and all that kind of stuff.
Is that a possibility?
Um, if it's not, is there, is there
another business that you can partner up
with for this building that, that maybe
they need to use some of the data center
space, you know, and you could, you could
partner up on the data center space.
Um, or alternatively, could you rent out
private suites by partitioning the data
center space and, and separate access
that, those are all things that we've
kind of, you know, thought about for how.
How to segregate and, and how to
make more revenue out of just sheer
footprint of cabinet space that we've
had kicking around in our data centers.
Andrew Moon: Yeah.
Stefano, it appears based upon your
LinkedIn profile that you're in Boston.
Give me a, a thumbs up whether
or not that is correct or not.
Uh, because I'll tell you one of
the other partners that we had
here in the States was expedient.
I believe they do have, uh,
points of presence in Boston all
throughout, uh, the East coast.
Uh, we partnered with them.
They had three data centers
in Columbus where I.
And I know they have interconnects with
all of their data centers throughout
the East coast, so that might be
somebody, and they do have boots on
the ground, people that can help too.
So yeah, he did say he is in Boston.
Um, Stefano ping me a a direct message
on LinkedIn so you and I can follow
up, I can get you in touch with
some of the folks from Expedient.
Um, I don't know how big your staff
is, but they might be able to sup,
supplant, supplement you with some.
To be able to make that move.
Um, I actually interviewed, um, one of
the top folks in the Columbus market
on, on my show about a year and a half
ago cuz it kind of went through this.
There was a data center that went belly
up in, in the Pittsburgh area and just
basically gave everybody 30 days and said
we're turning everything off in 30 days.
Um, so yeah, definitely want to have
those supplemental partners available.
But yeah, if you ping me, I can definit.
You know, do a little more legwork
for you, get you introduced
to the folks from Expedient.
Um, yeah, they do some, some massive
stuff for, uh, over here in the States.
Um, but yeah, I think
reasonably priced too.
They were, again, they were kind
of my supplemental data center if I
needed interconnect that we didn't
Stefano: Hi, good morning.
Andrew Moon: we did some,
Stefano: Thank you for
having me guys today.
Thank you.
Andrew Moon: But yeah, it's, I think
it's just kind of leans to the tough
times that we're gonna see as MSPs
going forward this year, just with
the uncertainties, uh, especially with
office space, that's kind of where
I'm seeing, uh, a lot of commercial
real estate here in the States is
Stefano: Absolutely.
So I build a data center, um,
Andrew Moon: Uh, and unfortunately
the people who are staying
Stefano: technically, bro, Brockton Mass
Andrew Moon: are getting those nice
price increases right now, which
Stefano: and never had a data
Andrew Moon: Either
pricing them out or having,
Stefano: I build
Andrew Moon: them to do what,
Stefano: my office up in New
Hampshire and build the data center.
But really my first
Richard Tubb: A couple
Pete Matheson: I'd love to know
how, um, oh, sorry about should you
Stefano: uh, a
Richard Tubb: Yeah, a couple of thoughts
for Stefano and I, I guess the first one
is, and this goes for the entire audience,
whether you're a data center, M s P Var or
Stefano: I build a data center from
Richard Tubb: you know,
when times are tough,
Stefano: from running
Richard Tubb: and we keep
banging the drum about it.
I'm sure you'll agree
Stefano: server,
Richard Tubb: Andrew here, but
you've gotta manage by metrics.
And what I mean by that is to
actually look and see, right?
Where, where is the revenue coming from?
Stefano: Linux.
So I build the data
Richard Tubb: working with profitable?
Where's the lean areas?
And so Stefano, I would say to
Stefano: have a
Richard Tubb: know, it's all too easy.
And I speak as a former M S P owner, we
often know who our biggest client is in
terms of revenue, but are they profitable?
So I would, uh, challenge you to
have a look within your business
and say like, where is, which?
Parts of your business are
profitable, which parts are not
so profitable, and which parts
are actually losing your money?
Cuz that can be quite eye-opening.
So that's the first
Stefano: revenue.
I do also try to
Richard Tubb: to hand, and
that goes for, for anybody
Stefano: I do provide
Richard Tubb: s A tool or, or
whatever tool you need to do.
To, to find out their profitability is.
Then second, you can make metrics-based
Stefano: or an actual
customer as well as, you
Richard Tubb: uh, measurements
rather than this gut feeling we have.
So if you're anything like Mete
Stefano: that I installed on
Richard Tubb: at the moment,
you're sitting there and you're
like, I dunno where to turn.
I dunno what the real problem is.
I just know we're not making enough
Stefano: the first
Richard Tubb: first
thing is to measure it.
Second thing, you can then make
decisions about the areas that
are not earning you the money.
So Andrew's offered you a really
kind, uh, introduction there.
We actually mentioned James Steele
of Le uh, who were purchased
by Akamai for 950 million,
Stefano: But right now I
Richard Tubb: Or is it $900 million?
There's a few quid, uh, there, but,
um, you, it might be that, let's just
say some of your Linux hosted service.
A running a loss, you know, the cost
of powering up the, uh, the hardware
and everything else is a loss.
You could have a conversation with
somebody like LE and or any one of
the alternative cloud providers.
Stefano: Palo
Richard Tubb: About doing that more
cost effectively, mate, could you get
the machines from there, uh, from them?
Could they be spun up for you a more,
you know, convenient, a more cost
effective rate than you are paying
at the moment to host it yourself?
I don't know, because only you know
your, your business inside and out.
But there are plenty of
Stefano: I try my
Richard Tubb: there.
So,
Stefano: the
Richard Tubb: fingers crossed,
given you all the best.
But the very first thing I would do
is, um, measure where you're at and
work out what's working and what.
Andrew Moon: Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, I sent him the link.
He just messaged me, so we'll see if
he jumps on the, on the call with us.
Maybe we can get a little more details and
help help him work through that as well.
Another big hitter on the show this week.
Jason Slagel coming to us.
Sweet.
Jason is, uh, a fantastic
resource over here in the.
Uh, when it comes to cybersecurity.
Stefano: so when I started the
data center, I used all my money.
Andrew Moon: honored
to have your presence.
Jason.
Uh, he actually made a comment.
It's interesting because some of those
that moved to Azure, AWS things are coming
back because people are finally getting
Stefano: aspect
Andrew Moon: non in
non intro period bills.
Stefano: um, Google and um, AWS mostly.
Right?
Even though I try
Andrew Moon: return of the
on on-premise servers this
Stefano: One of the bids
that I've done was for a
Andrew Moon: posted the other day, he.
Stefano: their primary internet
Andrew Moon: did an
inventory of their, their
Stefano: and their secondary
goes to Rhode Island.
I think that's,
Andrew Moon: server 2012,
Stefano: as well.
So,
Andrew Moon: end of life.
Stefano: But by
Andrew Moon: he sent out six
Stefano: closer to them, I was like,
Andrew Moon: and five of those
Stefano: like the distance.
I could make the distance.
And that comes with the
Andrew Moon: he's getting,
Stefano: But it's a matter of,
Andrew Moon: just to let you know, there
Stefano: to them.
Now I
Andrew Moon: is still
Stefano: um, earlier you mentioned about
Andrew Moon: Stefano's
joining us, so just gimme a
Stefano: Prior to before,
Andrew Moon: in the show
Stefano: Covid.
Prior to Covid, when I opened, I had about
Andrew Moon: bring him.
Stefano: but my operation
guy tried to screw
Andrew Moon: gimme a second guys.
Stefano: I had to let him
Andrew Moon: create a camera spot for him.
Stefano: and I was actually
pretty good with Covid.
Um,
Richard Tubb: Live guest.
This is the first.
Andrew Moon: yes, that's why I love this.
Um, now I
Richard Tubb: I mean, it's something,
some weeks the four of us can't turn
up in the same place at the same time.
So, uh, this will be really,
this will be really impressive.
Yeah.
Andrew Moon: All right, so
we're gonna get Stefano in
Stefano: That's the only,
yeah, that's the only, that's
the only form of income that I
Andrew Moon: see here.
Let's do, we'll put him
in a circle down here
Stefano: Everything
Andrew Moon: and put Stefano in there.
So, awesome.
So I'm gonna move your
camera around real quick,
Stefano: right now.
Minus three zero minus
three zeros behind it.
Right now as you're speaking,
Andrew Moon: or a little circle here.
Stefano: really like, yeah.
Andrew Moon: And there you are.
You're on Live with us, Stefano.
So welcome.
Yeah.
So walk us through kind of what
you're going through right now,
um, just so we can kind of get a, a
good, clear picture to kind of give,
we're kind of giving advice on bits
and pieces of info that we have.
So yeah, just tell us what
you're, what you're going through.
Right.
Stefano: Well.
So I already have, I
already have the electrical.
Um, I did actually, uh, order the
generator, but with the whole supply
chain being back ordered, so that
end up with still being, you know,
on the water, um, battery backup.
I do have, actually, I have that.
Mm-hmm.
. Um, I could do that, um, with Markley.
I could do that with Markley.
Um, just to save it even though I
have the cross connect that, um,
you know, that's direct to Markley.
Cause I did that.
I tried to do that in order to make
it data center like, you know, a sweet
spot to be among the players because my
markley is at one summer, um, in Boston.
That's actually.
, uh, the hub for the New
England pretty much.
Um, and I have been that
cross connect, um, to them.
You know, I thought could have make
me like a very interesting, even
with the Comcast, um, having Comcast
having their own rack in there.
I thought I could have,
you know, Hey, bye.
Break.
Interconnecting their customer
straight to me, but the headed of,
not even happening and even like,
um, headed of being charged for their
own equipment as we are speaking too.
So it's.
Scott Riley: Hmm.
Stefano: Okay.
Okay.
Well my main, my main concern Andrew,
was the fact that, um, I already
dispense so much on the fiber cause I
have about like 10 miles fiber straight
Andrew Moon: a
Pete Matheson: couple questions.
I'd like to.
Andrew Moon: yourself, so go ahead.
Stefano: that
Pete Matheson: of questions
I'd like for to clarify there.
One, uh, if you can answer what, what's
the, like the financial gap that you
are kind down on each month, and two,
is this something that's, has it been
a, um, a, a con consistent loss or has
have cost gone up recently and that's
been the reason why this is now happening
to you, to you in anywhere to keep up
with taking on new clients as fast.
Andrew Moon: What is, what does
that percentage of profit look like
for you in your entire business
right now from data center versus.
Ms.
P or whatever, what, is this your
only form of income right now, or, all
right, so, so basically you've got all
your eggs in that basket with Gotcha.
What is, what is your profit
percentage right now with what
you're doing on the data center side?
And again, if, what's that?
Gotcha.
Scott Riley: Yes.
Andrew Moon: Yeah.
The other thing I thought of too that,
um, I'll, I'll, I'll reach out to,
because I've got some angel investors,
one of 'em that was involved with the
original data center that we were part of.
Um, that's the only thing I can think.
If you want, if you want to keep the
business open and keep it going, you
obviously need a, a cash infusion of some
kind, whether that's an angel investor.
Yeah, so there's a lot of variables
you have kind of working against
you in the data center space.
One of 'em, I know you're working for,
um, you know, trying to get your SOC
two and the other certifications in,
that's gonna, that's gonna be a kind
of an inhibitor trying to get a cash
infusion right now from an angel investor.
Um, just because there are
so many variables with the
data center when it comes to.
Electrical redundancies, generator
redundancies, battery like that
alone by itself is a huge investment.
Stefano: well, that, that's actually the
only resources that I've actually liked.
Cause I actually tried to use Google,
Andrew Moon: so are there any
clients that you can salvage out
of that and, and maybe move over to
Stefano: And that's
Andrew Moon: else?
Just move, relocate some
gear into another data
Stefano: were responsive to it.
Um, but I had to be in New Hampshire,
which I was not opposing to that.
Uh, but other than, because, uh,
they actually have the log assumption
that because I'm already in Brock,
they think Brockton is the man.
Um, um, operation when I try.
So I have to actually try to
explain to them that now I can
also explain, um, to New Hampshire.
Cause you know, the more, the more
data center, the more presence I would
call it pop, the more point of presence
that you have, it's easier for any
carriers and any vendors to be there.
Like I try to use example at Netflix,
for instance, with the CDN network.
Um, But it seems like, uh,
with my accent, it's hard not,
it's hard to even get it so,
Andrew Moon: Yeah.
so I, I would say that we'll
probably take that offline.
Maybe you, and you and I can do
a follow up conversation because
I did a lot up in New England
myself way back in the.com era.
So I still have some
connections in Boston.
Manchester, New Hampshire, Portland,
Maine, Portland might be something to
look into just for sheer cost savings.
Uh, there is an interconnect
that comes outta Boston and
dumps right into, uh, city center
right in the middle of Portland.
your, your cost for real estate and data
center space might be much less than
Stefano: Yeah, I really need
Andrew Moon: you know, within
an hour drive of Boston.
So, just a thought, but yeah.
Yep.
Yeah.
The, and the thing of it is the
fact you're leasing that building.
Yeah.
That's, that's the only thing.
Yeah.
That is, you're gonna run it.
Trying to recoup that cross on a
building you don't own is gonna be hard.
Scott Riley: And I think the, for
me, you know, there's, there's some
small data center guys local here.
Um, and I'm just trying to think of
some of the things they've done, you
know, to diversify what they offer.
Um, Because I mentioned earlier on the
call, like about, um, you've got the
data center, you've got some great real
estate, you've got good network access,
um, and maybe you're trying to sell by
cabinet or by half a cabinet at a time
to, to people who don't understand.
The benefits of a data center.
But some of the ways they've managed
to position themselves here is, um,
you know, as your AWS and Google have
such variable costs for anything that
you do in there, whereas you have the
opportunity to come in at them with some
fixed costs and real price predictability.
And that's something that
works for a lot of fds.
But it's, I mean, this is all about,
you know, how you're getting that
message out to people and, and I
dunno how much runway you've got left.
But it's, you know, part of that message
has worked really well, especially with
the businesses here, for them to say.
You know, we can fix your costs for
one, two or three years, and they're
getting people to sign up for those
longer contracts because when they do the
maths and they compare it against Azure,
aws, you can't get that predictability.
And so the businesses that are
investing in, in this data center
here are looking at it going,
well, I know what my price is.
It's nice and clear.
It's really obvious.
The security's great.
It does what I want.
. And so they're, they're
winning business that way.
But part of the other thing that
they've done to kind of help that
along as well is also provide their
own virtual, uh, machine platforms.
They're using, I believe Virtuoso,
which is a really low cost, you know,
easy point of entry way to go in.
They actually move to that from Nutanix,
um, which can be quite expensive, you
know, on all the kit to get it set up.
But Virtuoso has given them this
really nice, very friendly front end.
Easy customer self service as well
if they want that side of things.
So it's given them quite a powerful
portfolio with a really low cost for them,
and they've kind of taken that to say.
Let's try and expand.
We've got data center, we've got
wireless connectivity, we've now
got virtual machine services.
You've obviously already
got the backup stuff sorted.
Now it's about going out and
just having that, you know,
trying to have that conversation.
Hey, we're, we're fixed price.
You're not gonna get any,
you know, bill shock from us.
It's about getting that message
out, but it's not, I, I know
there's, there's no easy fix, right?
But it's, it's thinking about how
much time you've got left in there.
And if.
I, I get it.
You, you've kind of got that sunk cost.
Now you've, you've put
everything in there.
You've put all your
heart and soul into it.
It's a thing that you made.
I, I, I totally get it.
We have to see how much runway you've got
left, because if there isn't enough time
for you to get that revenue and get the
message out, and the lease is gonna come
up and you need to move, you're gonna
want to have that plan ready just in case.
I know it's not what you wanna
do because you've put, you
put your heart into it, right.
, you don't wanna do it.
So have we got time?
Can you, can you get an investor?
Can we get the message out to, to get
those services and get people interested?
Sounds like you just need
more runway, genuinely.
Yeah.
Andrew Moon: Yeah,
Scott Riley: No.
Absolutely.
With, like you say, getting nodes like,
you know, Netflix nodes or Akamai nodes
or getting someone like the local carriers
to use you as a local point of presence.
Those are great ways, but you, I think you
said you, you tried that with someone and
now, now they're charging you for the kit.
You're like, no, no, that
works the other way round.
I'm, I'm, I'm your hop off point.
You pay me to rent the space.
But yeah, I think that those
are all the right things.
I mean, Andrew, I think you, you've got
the, the best contacts maybe in the area
for investment maybe, but it's, it sounds
like you just need more timely, you're on
the right, I understand the pressure where
you are not wanting to give up right now.
Richard Tubb: I was gonna say, Stefano,
this is, it's not my area of expertise,
but going back to, I think, first of
all, thank you for sharing so openly,
and there's that whole thing that I've
learned that whenever I have a problem,
Whenever I've got a challenge, keeping
it to yourself is not the way forward.
That old, that old adage about
a problem shared is a problem.
Haled, I would reach out to as many
people as you can make contact with.
You know, Andrew's gonna set you
up with some, uh, connections.
Uh, I'd reach out to the folks at
Le Node and have a conversation
with them, uh, because sometimes
it's about the serendipity of it.
Somebody might be looking for exactly
what you can offer, but unless they know.
That it's there, you
know, that's difficult.
So whilst it's difficult to, to go
to other people and say, actually
I, I've got a problem at the moment,
I'd encourage you to do that.
And, um, you know, thank you for,
for sharing so openly with us.
Wish you all the best with it, mate.
Andrew Moon: Yeah.
Thanks.
Thanks for jumping on.
I I'm gonna reach out to
you on LinkedIn as well.
You and I can set up a secondary call.
We'll get you, we'll get
you hooked up, my friend.
All right.
Best day six.
Thanks for joining us today.
Scott Riley: you, man.
Andrew Moon: Oh, awesome.
Yeah, and it's, yeah, I hate the
heartbreaker stories that, I think
it's just the tough realities
of business in this climate.
Um, I've been through multiple recessions.
I went through the.com era, like
two hours north of where he's at, so
I, I know what he's going through.
I mean, we were running.
Wireless Internet services, well,
let's see what I'm trying to think.
It's, they're owned by Cisco Air,
air Aero net, Cisco aero net.
Uh, before they got bought by Cisco,
we were putting repeaters on cell
phone towers up there to bring
internet, uh, to small communities.
And so I know what he's going through.
And when all the venture cap money dried
up, everything vaporized in 90 days.
Uh,
Richard Tubb: tough, isn't it?
And there's gonna be loads of MSPs,
you know, watching or listening to
this and people, um, you know, not
to put a banner on the situation,
but there are people struggling.
Uh, there isn't there.
But I, you know, going back to what
I said, the first thing for me is to
take stock truly of where you are.
What's working what isn't, because we
all have a tendency, I think, as human
beings, me more than most to catastrophize
and actually say nothing is working.
And that's rarely the situation.
You know, you can look at things and if
you've got those black and white figures,
uh, you can say, well, this is working.
This isn't working.
And then even if it's not what you
want to hear, what you want to see,
you can then lean into fixing the
things that are not working and
accentuating the things that are working.
And, and basically when it boils down
to it, that's what business is about.
Letting go of the things that don't
work, uh, or fixing them and, um,
leaning into the things that do work.
And, you know, so many MSPs will
have that same challenge as well.
You've got, you've gotta
manage by the metrics.
I would say.
Andrew Moon: What's
that Kenny Rogers song?
You gotta know When to Hold him.
Know When to Hold Him.
Richard Tubb: I fail them.
Yeah.
You're on fire with the music
references this week, Andrew
Andrew Moon: I'm just, I don't know.
I'm just all into music
this week, so anyway.
Yeah.
So a couple more questions
have come in, uh, let me make
sure, let's go back up here.
Daniel, um, Rader, uh, hopefully
I'm pronouncing that correctly.
His question is, what are your thoughts
on charging for Office 365 management?
We don't add anything in the R R
P license as customers in the past
haven't liked that, so, Should, should
one charge an hour a month, obviously
put that back up there, obviously,
depending on number of users and thoughts
please, on Office 365 management.
Richard Tubb: if only we had somebody
on our little group who was wildly
successful at doing this, but we don't.
So we'll just have to take a stab at it.
What do you think, Scott?
Scott Riley: No, I think, I think
you absolutely have to judge.
Um, so interestingly, a lot of people
get hung up on the fact that if
you're a C S P provider, you have
to provide support as part of that.
Yeah, you absolutely do.
But it's up to you to
define what that support is.
There's a minimum requirement,
but it, it is absolutely not.
The Office 365 management that
a lot of MSPs end up doing.
Um, and, and when they do that, you
know, the 10 or 15% of margin that
you're making on the R R P license
isn't enough to cover the time.
Um, so again, it's, it's really about
communicating, I think, really clearly.
Yes, this is the service.
Here's how we'll help you for adding
licenses, removing licenses, and any
issues where the service is not working
the way it should do because of a
service I'd like today, for example.
Thank you, Microsoft.
Um, then that is all covered inside the
license cost, but please understand,
we're just selling you the licenses
and then anything above that.
Is part of your managed service offering.
Now I've actually seen some, um, MSPs
charge around about, um, I'm gonna
say $5 to keep it simple, but $5 as
a license only user support charge.
So if there's anything to do with
getting their phone connected or
password resets or anything like that,
they have a standard set charge, just
$5 per user per month that just gets
added on top of that license price.
And so if you just want basic support,
Monday to Friday, nine till five.
Um, you can make an email only if
you want, but you know, essentially
using the software, fine.
It's $5.
They're not doing any kind
of patching, update, service
packs, antivirus management.
They're not managing any devices for you.
But if you've got any queries, it's
there, um, you can scale that as well.
I've seen some people just
charge a site fee, so they might
say, Hey, you've got one head.
And we're gonna charge
you 250 $500 a month.
Uh, maybe it's depending on the number
of views exactly as you've said there.
Daniel, I wanna say my
thing isn't scrolling.
Yes, Daniel, um, is basically they
might charge like half a day or
one day of time, a month of their
consultancy or their engineering rate
just as a retainer again, so that you
are happy to provide that support.
So I'd say if you've got someone
that you're just selling licenses to
and you don't have a managed service
contract, This is a great way actually
for you to kind of evidence to them,
we're here, we're really responsive.
You know, we do charge for that
time because there is value in it.
And actually as they get to know
you and your team, it gives you
an opportunity to move up into
a managed service opportunity.
Um, But also, you know, you get these
clients where they're buying a lot
of licenses from you and they have
their own IT guys and they just need
you maybe for the licenses and maybe
they're buying connectivity or some
other service off you, but they don't
ever want to move to managed IT support.
This is another great
way to say, that's cool.
We're happy to support you and maybe
the per user cost isn't right, but
that site support cost where we're
supporting your IT team when it
comes to these users and any issues,
we're right there for you as well.
Andrew Moon: Yeah, great idea.
Yeah, I think I would be
doing that if we weren't.
Yeah.
Well I think we're gonna, we're
gonna mic drop that so, uh,
Richard Tubb: No further comment needed.
Andrew Moon: Exactly.
Yeah.
Uh, another question that came
in from Mark Barton, is there
a good social proof app to help
drive visibilities and reviews?
Richard Tubb: Yeah, there's, there's
a, there's a couple that I'll, uh, sort
of name drop and there's plenty more.
I can see Pete smiling and
nodding cuz he knows some as well.
Uh, so specifically for the
MSP market, uh, smile back.
Was acquired by ConnectWise,
I'm gonna say last year.
Uh, but I only checked on that
product yesterday, and that's still
part of the ConnectWise family.
Uh, there.
So smart back excellence for if, if,
for anybody who's watching this and
saying, well, you've got that built
into ConnectWise, Autotask, whatever.
Uh, with all due respect, like I've
seen the statistics, the amount of
people who click on the, uh, the,
you know, the tickets, you know, the
little message you get at the bottom.
What did you think of this?
The amount of people that click
on that is absolutely negligible.
So these tile, uh, uh, tools like
Smile Back and you've got Simple sat,
uh, which is another great tool there.
Uh, you've got, uh, customer thermometer,
uh, which is another one out.
These are tools that if, if you've
been here in the uk, if you've ever
been, bear with me on this one through
the, uh, the toilets in an airport or
a motorway service station, and as you
Pete Matheson: IKEA might be a
more worldwide recognized, uh,
Richard Tubb: Ikea.
There we go.
Thank, thank you Pete.
Um, people were like, what the hell
are we talking about toilets for?
But you come out and you'll see a
little smiley face or a sad face
that says, how was our toilets today?
Like, yeah, whatever.
Um, but that system works.
People respond to a really
simple feedback me mechanism.
So tools like smile back,
simple SAT customer thermometer.
They're built for MSPs.
They, uh, Uh, a typically rate of
up to about 50% responsive rate.
Uh, so you actually get
really good feedback.
But the real key to this mark
is the automation and what
you do with that feedback.
It's not just gathering feedback for
the sake of it, it's then saying,
okay, we've had great feedback.
Bully for us.
No, no, no.
What you wanna be doing is reaching out
to those people and saying, okay, can
you give us a Google My Business review?
Can you leave a, you know, a Facebook
review, whatever it might be, and the
people who get in touch and say, uh,
I'm not so happy, you wanna be all over
that, like a rash and picking up the
phone and finding out what's gone wrong.
So smile back, simple
sat customer thermometer.
I'm sure Pete, there's gonna be,
uh, other ones out there as well.
Isn't.
Pete Matheson: Yeah, I, I, I, I
was laughing cause we were chatting
about this yesterday, weren't we all
Richard Tubb: We were, yeah.
Pete Matheson: I think customer for
me, was the only one that I came
across when I was looking at it.
And this was a few years ago
now, but, Um, it was the only
one where you pay per feedback.
So I think you pay like 50
cent per feedback action.
So it's just like, you know, you, you
pay whatever your kind of cost is for 50
credits and you're guaranteed to get 50
responses of some form for that money.
So I absolutely love that kind
of model because then you're only
paying to actually get the responses.
Um, the other, um, and, and this is
kinda where you're going here, is
none of the PSA tools or any tools in
there that have this kind of built in.
Really built in with, um,
weirdly with the M s P in mind.
Um, it's, it's a great kind of tick
box to have, you know, a feature
to have on their products, but they
don't actually do anything with it.
And I find that yes, the, um, if you're
asking multiple questions, that's the
kind of the biggest, um, false kind of
economy I see on, on kind of csap surveys
of, you know, here's 10 questions.
Sit here and answer these 10
questions and let us know how we're.
No one's really got time to
answer 10 questions or even three.
Um, so don't kind of do those things
and look for these really simple,
yeah, the, the three smiley face, or,
you know, something along those lines.
There was also, um, oh, I
can't remember the name of it.
There's one that, um, did, um,
like gamification behind it as
well that did work quite well.
Um, Where you can kind of award
people for getting so many
reviews and so many smiley faces.
And you can al also like
reward your colleagues for
being extra helpful as well.
But I think it's, it's exactly
what we just said there.
It's the, you wanna collect the
feedback, you wanna action the
bad feedback immediately, and you
want to take the good feedback.
And I always caveat this as.
Good feedback that's had a comment
because you know they like you and
you know they've had time to actually
leave you some more thoughtful
feedback and then communicate with
those people through an automation.
If you're a small Ms P, you can
even do that manually as you
see the, the, the feedback come
through and exactly like that.
Say, Hey, love your feedback.
Thank you so much.
We're trying to grow our
Google reviews right now.
Would you mind just clicking on this
link and then link them directly to
your Google reviews or testimonials?
Um, you know, the feature where you
can leave the feedback because by
doing something like that, You can
and you will grow your Google reviews.
And we've, we've done it with a few
clients as well, where they do that, they
set up this system and the automation
in place, and within a few weeks,
within a few months, they can basically
call themselves the most, uh, highly
rated IT company in, you know, insert
local area because no one else really
focuses on their Google testimonials.
And I know when we were chatting,
um, wasn't there some horrible
statistic, like half of them
don't even bother with a Google.
Interesting.
Thank you.
Um,
Scott Riley: it's an interesting question.
Yeah, it was.
Pete Matheson: don't even bother
with a Google My Business page
Richard Tubb: It was 50%.
Yeah.
The guys at Fronto Marketing
found out that it was 50% of MSPs
don't have a Google My Business
place, which is mind blowing.
So yeah.
Andrew Moon: Yeah.
So we got one last question that was
in the queue from, uh, John Harrison.
He said has, has anyone
installed starlink?
I'm looking at it as a possible
solution for a client in Richard.
What's the, how do you pronounce that?
Richard Tubb: Rural Northland.
You go on.
You've gotta be, you've gotta
Andrew Moon: anybody's name.
Uh, I'll be getting tomatoes
thrown up in the next week's show.
So
Richard Tubb: So I've
never tried starlink.
I'm really intrigued,
uh, for anybody who has.
But, um, there, there is
something, John, that you might
want to, um, uh, take a look at.
Um, I've here, uh, in Newcastle, I'm in.
Semi rural or I'm in, um,
Northumbria and, um, I've got
what's called Sim Rush fitted,
which is four 5g, uh, connectivity.
But before you sort of dismiss
and go, well, there's no signal.
What Sim Rush does is, uh, it
mounts the signal and they've
got a really good way of finding.
The local antenna that
gives top quality signal.
So, I mean, I've been getting like,
uh, I, I've got a gigabit connection
via Virgin, uh, when it works.
And then I've got, uh, it's an 80 meg
connection, uh, on 4g, uh, with an antenna
stuck to the side of my, um, uh, property.
So Sim Rush is an alternative.
Um, um, To starlink, so worth looking at.
And the price is not too bad.
It's, you know, it's what you'd pay.
You're gonna pay maybe a thousand
pounds up front for an installation.
Uh, but then the actual ongoing
costs are, you know, 20, 30 pound
depending on what, what, uh, sort
of sim contract you have there.
So, at the moment, I know,
Pete Matheson: I have seen,
Richard Tubb: yeah.
Pete Matheson: one thing I have
seen, so I remember a while ago I was
looking at that kind of situation for
the house, even for a few clients.
We were looking at that and in terms of, I
think consistency was the issue for us in.
We actually turned up a few times the
day to do speed tests and we're like,
whoa, you get some really great speeds.
And then we got to the stage of actually
installing like the sim card and,
and finding the kind of right, right
route that supports everything and
the speeds just weren't consistently
like that throughout the day.
And obviously if they have a, a network
busy period, then things really slow down.
Um, I think from what I've seen
so far, and I know a few people
that have tried starlink and I
think are even using starlink and.
It's good.
Speeds are pretty good and consistent
and you can pretty much take it anywhere.
And you know, you can plug in a
portable battery power and have internet
literally anywhere port, you know,
powered by the starlink situation.
So I think nowadays we had a few clients
that would, we were looking for satellite
connectivity cuz that was again, the
only way of get, trying to get reliable,
consistent, you know, good speed.
But starlink would be
my, my kind of go-to.
Um, nowadays I think it's, yeah, it
seems to be a very, very good service.
Richard Tubb: It's the,
the latency, isn't it?
I mean, tri, it's way better than your
typical sort of satellite latency, but
it's still, you know, uh, uh, not the
best where, you know, SIM rush in that
we, we found it really reliable actually.
Uh, so we're consistently getting sort
of 80 meg, uh, uh, connection there.
So again, and I guess sim, I think, uh,
starlink it was like $80 a month or Right.
Quit a month and it's jumped
up recently, hasn't it?
2,930, so, yeah, I believe so.
I believe so.
So, yeah.
Scott Riley: It's got, it's uh, I
guess 600, I think here in the UK
it's 600 pound setup fee as well.
Um, the latency doesn't look too bad.
Reports are saying 20 to 40 milliseconds,
which is great to say it's near orbit.
Let's be honest.
It's much better than satellite was.
Um, I think he's saying it's
like it's way out in the middle
of nowhere and did a dip.
So seeing, seeing a
towel might be a problem.
Um, we ran our, our
office of 5G for a year,
Richard Tubb: Sorry to interrupt Scott.
I just say don't dismiss it
cause it's in the dip though.
Honestly, they do some incredible stuff.
So, yeah.
Scott Riley: mean, if they'll
do a site survey, then it's
definitely worth checking, isn't it?
Yeah.
Andrew Moon: Yep.
That was where they, when we were
doing wireless internet up in
New England, that's what it was.
I wouldn't climb the cell phone tower.
My partner actually did.
I'm like, I'm not getting up there.
So anyway.
hopefully that answer your question, John,
let us know how that turns out as well.
Um, Matt, uh, Deville actually had
said starlink did one customer, it's
viable for streaming and downloads,
but slow DNS resolution and delay
getting to pages so, It's kind of
typical for satellite internet.
So yeah, I remember those days,
Scott, I think you had commented,
somebody posted a US robotics 14
four modem on LinkedIn today, so
I was like, I remember those days.
Well,
Scott Riley: I was gonna say, let's
just put slow into context, shall we?
Andrew Moon: Exactly.
Yeah.
John said you can come with him, Richard.
Oh, he's got
Scott Riley: Oh my.
He's an acoustic
Andrew Moon: gotta zoom in on that.
Let me
Richard Tubb: an acoustic coupler.
There we go.
This is, this is a, you know,
for, for people listening on
the podcast, I'm holding up an
Atari eight 10 acoustic coupler.
Oh, sorry.
An eight 30, just a
coupler from about 1982.
So if you send the film, uh, war
Games with Matthew Broderick,
you'll know what I'm talking about.
If you haven't, you are way too young.
Andrew Moon: Nice.
Scott Riley: absolutely.
You, you're gonna be playing,
uh, chess against Whopper.
There we go.
Look, I remember
Andrew Moon: Okay, I'm gonna end the show.
I don't know whether you guys
have a little bit of time.
Pete, do you have time to talk
about your watch fetish today?
Pete Matheson: Uh, I I need to
get going soon, but, um, I, I was,
I only mentioned it earlier, so
I'm wearing weird three watches.
I'm doing a.
So we, we, tomorrow we're shooting
a load of shorts and I'm doing a
battery life test, but also I'm doing
another video that's about this watch.
So I'm wearing this one to shoot a video
and I'm wearing this one to shoot a video
tomorrow once the battery's both died.
So yeah.
Anyway,
Andrew Moon: Check out Pete's
YouTube channel if you want.
If you're into watch fetish, um,
he'll fill you in on all the details.
Richard Tubb: He's gonna
get a real audience now.
Pete Matheson: I was, I was chatting
with someone earlier today about that,
like, which content's performing well
and I put so much time and effort
into, you know, lots of the content
I I make and the content where I've
literally spent five minutes doing
really what feels to me really stupid
things that why would you even do it?
For example, like the Pixel Watch
that I'm wearing, generally any
watch only really charges with
the charger that it comes with.
You know, you're not gonna charge
an iPhone off of a Galaxy Watch
charger or anything like that.
I've literally done that in my, my like
short, I've taken a mobile phone and gone,
well, here are all the different chargers.
Let's see which, which charger charges it?
No, it doesn't work on that one.
No, it doesn't work on that one.
Ah, magically it works on the one
that it came with, and those ones
have got like 4 million views.
I'm just like, why
Andrew Moon: Yeah, the YouTube
algorithm Anyway, so, all right.
I know you guys got a jet.
So I just wanted to thank all
of the folks who turned up live
today, Mark Barton, Daniel Reer,
Kevin Lancaster, John McDonald, uh,
obviously our good friends, Stefano.
Tony Edwards, Jason Slagel.
Uh, hopefully I didn't
miss any John Harrison.
So thank you all for
showing up live today.
And if you're catching this on the
replay, thank you for watching.
If you're catching it on the podcast,
thanks for dropping your earbuds with us.
So that will end this show.
Uh, I, I figured we would end it
with some, uh, uh, watch fetish.
So that's, we're gonna show up
in all the YouTube search terms.
Um, , we're gonna show up in
some weird places, I think.
So that will wrap it for us.
We will see you all same
time, same place next week.
I can't believe we're, the month
of January is already over.
It'll be February 1st.
Uh, so our February broadcast
so crazy, crazy, crazy.
We'll see you all next week.
Take care.
Be.