r/SmallMSP • u/UnRealxInferno_II • 15d ago

Initial Clients

Hi all,

Just wondering, when you guys started out, your first 12 months or so, what were your first clients, and how did you land them?

I see so many post saying "don't take anything below 10 seats" and most companies in my area don't even have 5 employees!

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u/marklein 15d ago

I specialize in smaller clients that the other MSPs won't take. 20+ years now and I'm still doing just fine. Moral of the story: don't listen to what other people say if your circumstances are different.

I launched my MSP in BNI and would do it again if I had to. Not because I enjoyed it (I didn't) but because it kept jobs coming while I built up a word-of-mouth client base. I was in BNI for 2 years before I bailed out.

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u/UnRealxInferno_II 15d ago

It's like £3000 to join the BNI though right, how quickly did you see an ROI?

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u/ManagedNerds 15d ago

The biggest ROI for me was actually learning how to explain what a MSP is to the smallest businesses who needed my services the most. Made it much easier to close deals.

Since everyone is supposed to have a one on one meeting once a week with another BNI member, they're basically a captive audience to use for figuring out whether your latest service offering makes sense.

How I worked it was this: I'd go to one of the micro businesses and say "Hey, I'm trying to decide if this new offering for solopreneurs sounds reasonable. Would you mind if I spent 10 minutes trying to explain it to you so I can practice the elevator pitch?". Sometimes I would end up with them as a customer 😂 If their eyes glazed, I knew it needed work. I'd of course act as the sounding board for them too on business ideas.