From 1 man show to more.
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Have any of you here started as a one man shop and grown to more? Have any of you been a part of the initial startup crew of a MSP/ITSP/WhateverSP. If so, what advice would you have for a proven one man shop that is having a tough time figuring out how to get over that first hurdle of becoming more than just a 1 man show.
Hey, Thanks!
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Moved this over to "IT Business."
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NTG had a crew of five on day one. Starting from just one and getting to the next level is an enormous leap.
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One idea is hiring a part timer, but I'm not sure how often that works. Almost never, is my guess. Might work for a month or two, but not long term.
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I think there's a thread full of gold about starting an MSP around here somewhere
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Moving to having a partner is probably the best bet. Someone who already owns a similar business that they can merge in or someone who can bring a substantial investment like several clients or lots of money in the bank that will work with you to co-own and champion the business up to the next level.
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@MattSpeller said:
I think there's a thread full of gold about starting an MSP around here somewhere
He's not starting, though, he's got a well established ITSP. He's trying to get over the massive hurtle of changing types from a one man show to a multiple-person organization.
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Look at maybe taking on an Intern. They can be a source of labor that does not cost much or at all. They need a place to learn, and you need the 'labor'.
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i can kind of see the benefit of a free/low cost employee, but i'm already in the "my time is precious" mode, so training someone up would just suck more time away from the tasks that i dont have time to complete.
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@gjacobse said:
Look at maybe taking on an Intern. They can be a source of labor that does not cost much or at all. They need a place to learn, and you need the 'labor'.
No, interns cannot work that way. An intern will always be a loss. The term "intern" means you have to provide training. If you don't pay them you can't use them for production work, period. So you have to pay for them to have any value at all. If you pay them, they cost a lot for not being a full IT staffer.
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You never bring on an intern to save money. It is at best an investment in a future employee, generally it is a loss that you are giving back to the industry.
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you cannot grow a business by being 'cheap" with staff. intern, part timer - doesn't work - i have tried, believe me
an intern - you need to train. you spend your time babysitting. it doesn't work.
ideally you want someone who knows what they are doing and pay them enough to stay.
the biggest hurdle from being a 1 man to any (number of) man business is leverage. you have to suddenly systemise things, document things, these time wasters are essential but not necessarily income earning.
but it is essential if you are to survive the next stage.
what works best is to get the new person in the field, getting customers used to dealing with them, then the back end you can focus on as the business owner. but don't expect to just work brilliantly with no input. you still need to monitor, and keep in touch with your clients to ensure that their expectations are still being met.
this is divorcing "you" from "the business of what you did"
if you don't do this, the business cannot grow to the next level and all you have is a job. -
I think that one of the toughest things to accept making the "big leap" is that when you are a one man show all of the money comes to you and there is extremely little overhead. You don't need to track things carefully, you don't have to coordinate or communicate, you don't need to check it, nothing.
But once you have even two people you start needing a way to communicate securely to each other, to track who is doing what and when, to see calendars, to share passwords, often tools move from free to paid, you need to make payroll, have set earnings instead of flexible, their pay comes first and you live off of profits, etc.
Adding a second person does not double your capacity, it adds maybe 50% capacity after you have them up to speed. It is a really big investment to get to the point where they are useful.
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I have to agree with @scottalanmiller most recent post. It's not an easy adjustment for the aforementioned reasons.
Payroll, communication, job tracking, before you consider hiring someone else you should implement several systems, and use them. You're not only becoming the "Boss" but your becoming, HR, Payroll, and the Hiring manager. Many hats.
Treat your self as an employee to the business and the business as the boss. Implement a payroll system, implement job tracking, implement an email solution.
All of the above will help facilitate when you do actually get staff.
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