managed services business plan

How to write a business plan for a managed IT services company?

Writing a business plan for a managed IT services company can be an intimidating task, especially for those just starting.

This in-depth guide is designed to help entrepreneurs like you understand how to create a comprehensive business plan so that you can approach the exercise with method and confidence.

We'll cover: why writing a managed IT services company business plan is so important - both when starting up, and when running and growing the business - what information you need to include in your plan, how it should be structured, and what tools you can use to get the job done efficiently.

Let's get started!

In this guide:

Why write a business plan for a managed IT services company?

• What information is needed to create a business plan for a managed IT services company?
• What goes in the financial forecast for a managed IT services company?
• What goes in the written part of a managed IT services company business plan?
• What tool can I use to write my managed IT services company business plan?

Being clear on the scope and goals of the document will make it easier to understand its structure and content. So before diving into the actual content of the plan, let's have a quick look at the main reasons why you would want to write a managed IT services company business plan in the first place.

To have a clear roadmap to grow the business

It's rarely business as usual for small businesses. The economy follows cycles where years of growth are followed by recessions, and the business environment is always changing with new technologies, new regulations, new competitors, and new consumer behaviours appearing all the time...

In this context, running a business without a clear roadmap is like driving blindfolded: it's dangerous at best. That's why writing a business plan for a managed IT services company is essential to create successful and sustainable businesses.

To write an effective business plan, you will need to take stock of where you are (if you are already in business) and where you want the business to go in the next three to five years.

Once you know where you want your managed IT services company to be, you'll have to identify:

• what resources (human, equipment, and capital) are needed to get there,
• at what pace the business needs to progress to get there in time,
• and what risks you'll face along the way.

Going through this process regularly is beneficial, both for startups and existing companies, as it helps make informed decisions about how best to allocate resources to ensure the long-term success of the business.

To anticipate future cash flows

Regularly comparing your actual financial performance to the projections in the financial forecast of your managed IT services company's business plan gives you the ability to monitor your business's financial health and make necessary adjustments as needed.

This practice allows you to detect potential financial issues, such as unexpected cash shortfalls before they escalate into major problems. Giving you time to find additional financing or put in place corrective measures.

Additionally, it helps you identify growth opportunities, like excess cash flow that could be allocated to launch new products and services or expand into new markets.

Staying on track with these regular comparisons enables you to make well-informed decisions about the amount of financing your business might require, or the excess cash flow you can expect to generate from your main business activities.

To secure financing

Crafting a comprehensive business plan for your managed IT services company, whether you're starting up or already established, is paramount when you're seeking financing from banks or investors.

Given how fragile small businesses are, financiers will want to ensure that you have a clear roadmap in place as well as command and control of your future cash flows before entertaining the idea of funding you.

For banks, the information in your business plan will be used to assess your borrowing capacity - which is defined as the maximum amount of debt your business can afford alongside your ability to repay the loan. This evaluation helps them decide whether to extend credit to your business and under what terms (interest rate, duration, repayment options, collateral, etc.).

Similarly, investors will thoroughly review your plan to determine if their investment can yield an attractive return. They'll be looking for evidence that your managed IT services company has the potential for healthy growth, profitability, and consistent cash flow generation over time.

Now that you understand the importance of creating a business plan for your managed IT services company, let's delve into the necessary information needed to craft an effective plan.

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Information needed to create a business plan for a managed IT services company

You need the right data in order to project sales, investments and costs accurately in the financial forecast of your managed IT services company business plan.

Below, we'll cover three key pieces of information you should gather before drafting your business plan.

Carrying out market research for a managed IT services company

Carrying out market research before writing a business plan for a managed IT services company is essential to ensure that the financial projections are accurate and realistic.

Market research helps you gain insight into your target customer base, competitors, pricing strategies and other key factors which can have an impact on the commercial success of your business.

In particular, it is useful in forecasting revenue as it provides valuable data regarding potential customers’ spending habits and preferences.

You may discover that customers are increasingly interested in managed IT services that offer cloud-based solutions, as cloud technology become increasingly popular. Additionally, customers might be looking for services that can help them become more efficient, such as automation or artificial intelligence-powered solutions.

This information can then be used to create more accurate financial projections which will help investors make informed decisions about investing in your managed IT services company.

Developing the marketing plan for a managed IT services company

Before delving into your managed IT services company business plan, it's imperative to budget for sales and marketing expenses.

To achieve this, a comprehensive sales and marketing plan is essential. This plan should provide an accurate projection of the necessary actions to acquire and retain customers.

Additionally, it will outline the required workforce to carry out these initiatives and the corresponding budget for promotions, advertising, and other marketing endeavours.

By budgeting accordingly, you can ensure that the right resources are allocated to these vital activities, aligning them with the sales and growth objectives outlined in your business plan.

The staffing and equipment needs of a managed IT services company

As you embark on starting or expanding your managed IT services company, having a clear plan for recruitment and capital expenditures (investment in equipment and real estate) is essential for ensuring your business's success.

Both the recruitment and investment plans must align with the timing and level of growth projected in your forecast, and they require appropriate funding.

Staffing costs may include salaries for IT professionals such as network engineers, system administrators, and help desk technicians. Equipment costs may include servers, routers, firewalls, and other hardware and software needed to provide managed IT services.

To create a realistic financial forecast, you also need to consider other operating expenses associated with the day-to-day running of your business, such as insurance and bookkeeping.

With all the necessary information at hand, you are ready to begin crafting your business plan and developing your financial forecast.

What goes into your managed IT services company's financial forecast?

The financial forecast of your managed IT services company will enable you to assess the profitability potential of your business in the coming years and how much capital is required to fund the actions planned in the business plan.

The four key outputs of a financial forecast for a managed IT services company are:

• The profit and loss (P&L) statement ,
• The projected balance sheet ,
• The cash flow forecast ,
• And the sources and uses table .

Let's take a closer look at each of these.

The projected P&L statement

The projected P&L statement for a managed IT services company shows how much revenue and profit your business is expected to make in the future.

A healthy managed IT services company's P&L statement should show:

• Sales growing at (minimum) or above (better) inflation
• Stable (minimum) or expanding (better) profit margins
• A healthy level of net profitability

This will of course depend on the stage of your business: numbers for a startup will look different than for an established managed IT services company.

The forecasted balance sheet of your managed IT services company

The projected balance sheet of your managed IT services company will enable the reader of your business plan to assess the overall financial health of your business.

It shows three elements: assets, liabilities and equity:

• Assets: are productive resources owned by the business, such as equipment, cash, and accounts receivable (money owed by clients).
• Liabilities: are debts owed to creditors, lenders, and other entities, such as accounts payable (money owed to suppliers).
• Equity: includes the sums invested by the shareholders or business owners and the profits and losses accumulated by the business to date (which are called retained earnings). It is a proxy for the value of the owner's stake in the business.

Analysing your managed IT services company projected balance sheet provides an understanding of your managed IT services company's working capital structure, investment and financing policies.

In particular, the readers of your plan can compare the level of financial debt on the balance sheet to the equity value to measure the level of financial risk (equity doesn't need to be reimbursed, while financial debt must be repaid, making it riskier).

They can also use your balance sheet to assess your managed IT services company's liquidity and solvency:

• A liquidity analysis: focuses on whether or not your business has sufficient cash and short-term assets to cover its liabilities due in the next 12 months.
• A solvency analysis: takes and longer view to assess whether or not your business has the capacity to repay its debts over the medium-term.

The cash flow forecast

A projected cash flow statement for a managed IT services company is used to show how much cash the business is generating or consuming.

The cash flow forecast is usually organized by nature to show three key metrics:

• The operating cash flow: do the core business activities generate or consume cash?
• The investing cash flow: how much is the business investing in long-term assets (this is usually compared to the level of fixed assets on the balance sheet to assess whether the business is regularly maintaining and renewing its equipment)?
• The financing cash flow: is the business raising new financing or repaying financiers (debt repayment, dividends)?

As we discussed earlier, cash is king and keeping an eye on future cash flows an imperative for running a successful business. Therefore, you can expect the reader of your managed IT services company business plan to pay close attention to your cash flow forecast.

Also, note that it is customary to provide both yearly and monthly cash flow forecasts in a business plan - so that the reader can analyze seasonal variation and ensure the managed IT services company is appropriately funded.

The initial financing plan

The sources and uses table or initial financing plan is a key component of your business plan when starting a managed IT services company.

It shows where the capital needed to set up the business will come from (sources) and how it will be spent (uses).

This table helps size the investment required to set up the managed IT services company, and understand how risks will be distributed between the business owners, and the financiers.

The sources and uses table also highlights what the starting cash position will be. This is key for startups as the business needs to have sufficient funding to sustain operations until the break-even point is reached.

Now that you have a clear understanding of what will go into the financial forecast of your managed IT services company business plan, let's have a look at the written part of the plan.

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The written part of a managed IT services company business plan

The written part of a managed IT services company business plan is composed of 7 main sections:

• The executive summary
• The presentation of the company
• The products and services
• The market analysis
• The strategy
• The operations
• The financial plan

Throughout these sections, you will seek to provide the reader with the details and context needed for them to form a view on whether or not your business plan is achievable and your forecast a realistic possibility.

Let's go through the content of each section in more detail!

1. The executive summary

The first section of your managed IT services company's business plan is the executive summary which provides, as its name suggests, an enticing summary of your plan which should hook the reader and make them want to know more about your business.

When writing the executive summary, it is important to provide an overview of the business, the market, the key financials, and what you are asking from the reader.

Start with a brief introduction of the business, its name, concept, location, how long it has been in operation, and what makes it unique. Mention any services or products you plan to offer and who you sell to.

Then you should follow with an overview of the addressable market for your managed IT services company, current trends, and potential growth opportunities.

You should then include a summary of your key financial figures such as projected revenues, profits, and cash flows.

Finally, you should detail any funding requirements in the ask section.

2. The presentation of the company

In your managed IT services company business plan, the second section should focus on the structure and ownership, location, and management team of your company.

In the structure and ownership part, you'll provide an overview of the business's legal structure, details about the owners, and their respective investments and ownership shares. This clarity is crucial, especially if you're seeking financing, as it helps the reader understand which legal entity will receive the funds and who controls the business.

Moving on to the location part, you'll offer an overview of the company's premises and their surroundings. Explain why this particular location is of interest, highlighting factors like catchment area, accessibility, and nearby amenities.

When describing the location of your managed IT services company, you may want to emphasize its access to a sizable and well-educated labor force, as well as its proximity to major transportation hubs. The area may also have a favorable tax structure, making it an attractive investment for the financier. Additionally, the region could have strong economic growth potential, and may be well-positioned to capitalize on new opportunities.

Finally, you should introduce your management team. Describe each member's role, background, and experience.

Don't forget to emphasize any past successes achieved by the management team and how long they've been working together. Demonstrating their track record and teamwork will help potential lenders or investors gain confidence in their leadership and ability to execute the business plan.

3. The products and services section

The products and services section of your business plan should include a detailed description of what your company offers, who are the target customers, and what distribution channels are part of your go-to-market. 

For example, your managed IT services company might offer IT support such as hardware and software installation, system monitoring, and backup and restoration services to ensure the smooth operation of a customer's systems. They might also provide cloud computing services to allow customers to access data and applications from any location. Lastly, they could provide security and compliance services to ensure that customer data is protected and meets all applicable industry regulations.

4. The market analysis

When you present your market analysis in your managed IT services company business plan, it's crucial to include detailed information about customers' demographics and segmentation, target market, competition, barriers to entry, and any relevant regulations.

The main objective of this section is to help the reader understand the size and attractiveness of the market while demonstrating your solid understanding of the industry.

Begin with the demographics and segmentation subsection, providing an overview of the addressable market for your managed IT services company, the key trends in the marketplace, and introducing different customer segments along with their preferences in terms of purchasing habits and budgets.

Next, focus on your target market, zooming in on the specific customer segments your managed IT services company aims to serve and explaining how your products and services fulfil their distinct needs.

For example, your target market might include small to medium-sized businesses who don't have the resources to hire an in-house IT team. These businesses need reliable and efficient IT services, so they would benefit from a managed IT services provider to help them manage their IT infrastructure. These businesses may also be interested in a managed IT services provider to help them with more complex tasks, such as setting up cloud-based solutions or monitoring their networks for potential security threats.

Then proceed to the competition subsection, where you introduce your main competitors and highlight what sets you apart from them.

Finally, conclude your market analysis with an overview of the key regulations applicable to your managed IT services company.

5. The strategy section

When crafting the strategy section of your business plan for your managed IT services company, it's important to cover several key aspects, including your competitive edge, pricing strategy, sales & marketing plan, milestones, and risks and mitigants.

In the competitive edge subsection, clearly explain what sets your company apart from competitors. This is particularly critical if you're a startup, as you'll be trying to establish your presence in the marketplace among entrenched players.

The pricing strategy subsection should demonstrate how you aim to maintain profitability while offering competitive prices to your customers.

For the sales & marketing plan, outline how you plan to reach and acquire new customers, as well as retain existing ones through loyalty programs or special offers.

In the milestones subsection, detail what your company has achieved thus far and outline your primary objectives for the coming years by including specific dates for expected progress. This ensures everyone involved has clear expectations.

Lastly, in the risks and mitigants subsection, list the main risks that could potentially impact the execution of your plan. Explain the measures you've taken to minimize these risks. This is vital for investors or lenders to feel confident in supporting your venture - try to proactively address any objection they might have.

Your managed IT services company faces a number of risks. For example, the company could be exposed to cyber-attacks that may lead to a data breach or theft of customer information. Additionally, the company may face operational issues caused by a power failure or natural disaster, which could lead to the disruption of services. To mitigate these risks, the company should have comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plans in place.

6. The operations section

In your business plan, it's also essential to provide a detailed overview of the operations of your managed IT services company.

Start by covering your team, highlighting key roles and your recruitment plan to support the expected growth. Outline the qualifications and experience required for each role and your intended recruitment methods, whether through job boards, referrals, or headhunters.

Next, clearly state your managed IT services company's operating hours, allowing the reader to assess staffing levels adequately. Additionally, mention any plans for varying opening times during peak seasons and how you'll handle customer queries outside normal operating hours.

Then, shift your focus to the key assets and intellectual property (IP) necessary for your business. If you rely on licenses, trademarks, physical structures like equipment or property, or lease agreements, make sure to include them in this section.

You may have key assets such as customer data and business-critical applications. This data and applications could be hosted on-premises or in the cloud and might be accessible to authorized users. Additionally, the managed IT services company could have intellectual property such as software, processes, or technical know-how that they use to deliver IT services to their customers. These assets and IP could be crucial to the success of the company's operations.

Lastly, include a list of suppliers you plan to work with, detailing their services and main commercial terms, such as price, payment terms, and contract duration. Investors are interested in understanding why you've chosen specific suppliers, which may be due to higher-quality products or established relationships from previous ventures.

7. The presentation of the financial plan

The financial plan section is where we will include the financial forecast we talked about earlier in this guide.

Now that you have a clear idea of the content of a managed IT services company business plan, let's look at some of the tools you can use to create yours.

What tool should I use to write my managed IT services company's business plan?

In this section, we will be reviewing the two main solutions for creating a managed IT services company business plan:

• Using specialized online business plan software,
• Outsourcing the plan to the business plan writer.

Using an online business plan software for your managed IT services company's business plan

Using online business planning software is the most efficient and modern way to create a managed IT services company business plan.

There are several advantages to using specialized software:

• You can easily create your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you without errors
• You are guided through the writing process by detailed instructions and examples for each part of the plan
• You can access a library of dozens of complete business plan samples and templates for inspiration
• You get a professional business plan, formatted and ready to be sent to your bank or investors
• You can easily track your actual financial performance against your financial forecast
• You can create scenarios to stress test your forecast's main assumptions
• You can easily update your forecast as time goes by to maintain visibility on future cash flows
• You have a friendly support team on standby to assist you when you are stuck

If you're interested in using this type of solution, you can try The Business Plan Shop for free by signing up here .

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Hiring a business plan writer to write your managed IT services company's business plan

Outsourcing your managed IT services company business plan to a business plan writer can also be a viable option.

Business plan writers are experienced in writing business plans and adept at creating financial forecasts without errors. Furthermore, hiring a consultant can save you time and allow you to focus on the day-to-day operations of your business.

However, hiring business plan writers is expensive as you are paying for the software used by the consultant, plus their time, and their profit margin of course.

From experience, you need to budget at least £1.5k ($2.0k) excluding tax for a complete business plan, more if you need to make changes after the initial version (which happens frequently after the initial meetings with lenders or investors).

You also need to be careful when seeking investment. Investors want their money to be used to grow the business, not spent on consulting fees. Therefore, the amount you spend on business plan writing services (and other consulting services such as legal services) needs to be negligible relative to the amount raised.

The other drawback is that you usually don't own the business plan itself: you just get the output, while the actual document is saved in the consultant's business plan software - which makes it difficult to maintain the document up to date without hiring the consultant on a retainer.

For these reasons, outsourcing the managed IT services company business plan to a business plan writer should be considered carefully, weighing both the advantages and disadvantages of hiring outside help.

Ultimately, it may be the right decision for some businesses, while others may find it beneficial to write their business plan using online software.

Why not create your managed IT services company's business plan using Word or Excel?

I must advise against using Microsoft Excel and Word (or their Google, Apple, or open-source equivalents) to write your managed IT services company business plan. Let me explain why.

Firstly, creating an accurate and error-free financial forecast on Excel (or any spreadsheet) is highly technical and requires a strong grasp of accounting principles and financial modelling skills. It is, therefore, unlikely that anyone will fully trust your numbers unless you have both a degree in finance and accounting and significant financial modelling experience, like us at The Business Plan Shop.

Secondly, relying on spreadsheets is inefficient. While it may have been the only option in the past, technology has advanced significantly, and software can now perform these tasks much faster and with greater accuracy. With the rise of AI, software can even help us detect mistakes in forecasts and analyze the numbers for better decision-making.

And with the rise of AI, software is also becoming smarter at helping us detect mistakes in our forecasts and helping us analyse the numbers to make better decisions.

Moreover, software makes it easier to compare actuals versus forecasts and maintain up-to-date forecasts to keep visibility on future cash flows, as we discussed earlier in this guide. This task is cumbersome when using spreadsheets.

Now, let's talk about the written part of your managed IT services company business plan. While it may be less error-prone, using software can bring tremendous gains in productivity. Word processors, for example, lack instructions and examples for each part of your business plan. They also won't automatically update your numbers when changes occur in your forecast, and they don't handle formatting for you.

Overall, while Word or Excel may seem viable for some entrepreneurs to create a business plan, it's by far becoming an antiquated way of doing things.

• Having an up-to-date business plan is key to maintaining visibility on your future cash flows.
• A business plan has 2 parts: a financial forecast highlighting the expected growth, profitability and cash generation of the business; and a written part which provides the context needed to interpret and assess the quality of the forecast.
• Using business plan software is the modern way of writing and maintaining business plans.

We hope that this guide helped you to better understand how to write the business plan for a managed IT services company. If you still have questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

Also on The Business Plan Shop

• How to write a 5 years business plan
• Business plan myths

Know someone who owns or wants to start a managed IT services company? Share this article with them!

Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd

Guillaume Le Brouster is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier.

Guillaume has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade and has first-hand experience of starting, running, and growing a successful business.

Prior to being a business owner, Guillaume worked in investment banking and private equity, where he spent most of his time creating complex financial forecasts, writing business plans, and analysing financial statements to make financing and investment decisions.

Guillaume holds a Master's Degree in Finance from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business & Management from Paris Dauphine University.

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Managed Service Provider Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Managed Service Provider Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your Managed Service Provider business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their Managed Service Provider businesses.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your Managed Service Provider business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

Guardian Managed Solutions is a startup managed service provider located in Boston, Massachusetts. The company is founded by Pax Houghton, who has experience in comprehensive IT solutions, along with the expertise of business acumen and team management. Pax Houghton has determined he can confidently start and effectively grow Guardian Managed Solutions company to be relevant to the IT industry and highly-profitable. He believes his experience of strategic growth, marketing skills, financial capabilities, and wide and deep knowledge of IT solutions and practices will provide everything needed for long-term growth and profitability.

Guardian Managed Solutions will provide a comprehensive array of services for a wide variety of clients. Guardian Managed Solutions will be the one-stop solution for all IT needs, providing services and products to each client while supporting the strategic goals of the company. Guardian Managed Solutions will be the ultimate choice in Boston for clients to ensure that every need of the customer is fully and completely met.

Product Offering

The following are the services that Guardian Managed Solutions will provide:

• Comprehensive IT services for businesses of all size
• Client support and empowerment to reach solutions
• Proactive, secure, and cost-effective technology solutions
• Solutions that enable clients to focus on their core business objectives
• Network infrastructure design and management
• Cybersecurity solutions and monitoring
• Cloud services and migration
• Data backup and disaster recovery
• IT consulting and strategic planning
• Day to day project and client management

Customer Focus

Guardian Managed Solutions will target all businesses who require IT support and infrastructure. Guardian Management Solutions will also target companies that need design and installation of IT structures. Guardian Management Solutions will target clients who require large service contract packages and high-level IT protection behaviors for their infrastructure.

Management Team

Guardian Managed Solutions will be owned and operated by Vijay Sinek. He recruited his former associate, Jay Hawkins, from their former place of employment to be the Director of Operations for Guardian Managed Solutions.

Vijay Sinek graduated from Cambridge University, U.K. with a bachelor’s degree in technology solution-finding. He earned a full scholarship to attend Cambridge University and completed his degree within three years of enrollment. Vijay is a Upcoming Entrepreneur, as highlighted in the Young Entrepreneur magazine and has been elected to the Young Americans to Watch roll.

Vijay Sinek has been a professional in the IT solutions sector for over ten years. As such, he has extensive knowledge of current and new systems that are being introduced into large and small businesses across the globe. Former clients have already committed to follow Vijay to his new enterprise and are eagerly awaiting the opening of the company.

Jay Hawkins, a former associate in Vijay’s prior business, will be the managing director in Guardian Managed Solutions and will oversee staff positions that work directly with IT systems. He graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in International Business.

Tabby Townsend is the office manager for Guardian Managed Solutions. She has been a professional office manager for over ten years and has worked with Vijay in his prior position. Her call to the industry began when she experienced a security breach on her own computer twenty years ago.

Success Factors

Guardian Managed Solutions will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

• Friendly, knowledgeable, and highly-qualified team at Guardian Managed Solutions
• Comprehensive menu of services encompassing a total package of solutions
• Managed IT support and helpdesk services
• Guardian Managed Solutions offers the best pricing in town. Their pricing structure is the most cost effective compared to the competition.

Financial Highlights

Guardian Managed Solutions is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch Guardian Managed Solutions. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the office space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the print ads and marketing costs. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Office space build-out: $20,000
• Office equipment, supplies, and materials: $10,000
• Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $150,000
• Marketing costs: $10,000
• Working capital: $10,000

The following graph outlines the financial projections for Guardian Managed Solutions.

Company Overview

Who is guardian managed solutions.

Guardian Managed Solutions is a newly established, full-service IT solutions provider in Boston, Massachusetts. Guardian Managed Solutions will be the most reliable, cost-effective, and efficient choice for all businesses in Boston and the surrounding communities. Guardian Managed Solutions will provide a comprehensive menu of IT solutions and services for any company to utilize. Their full-service approach includes a comprehensive set of IT support.

  Guardian Managed Solutions will be able to manage multiple large, medium and small companies. The team of professionals are highly qualified and experienced in IT services and the attention and care required to build effective systems. Guardian Managed Solutions removes all headaches and issues of the IT sector and ensures all issues are taken care of expeditiously while delivering the best customer service.

Guardian Managed Solutions History

Guardian Managed Solutions is owned and operated by Vijay Sinek, a former graduate of Cambridge University, U.K. Vijay has been experienced in the IT solutions sector for over ten years and has extensive knowledge of current and new systems. His expertise includes large and small systems for a wide variety of businesses. He has gained the trust and commitment of several businesses to contract with the new company when it opens based on his past expertise and commitment to managed services at the highest level.

Since incorporation, Guardian Managed Solutions has achieved the following milestones:

• Registered Guardian Managed Solutions, LLC to transact business in the state of Massachusetts.
• Has a contract in place for a 10,000 square foot office at one of the midtown buildings
• Reached out to numerous contacts to include Guardian Managed Solutions.
• Began recruiting a staff of three and office personnel to work at Guardian Managed Solutions.

Guardian Managed Solutions Services

The following will be the services Guardian Managed Solutions will provide:

• Day to day client management

Industry Analysis

The managed service provider industry is expected to grow over the next five years to over $394 billion.

The growth will be driven by the economic demand that is becoming more and more reliant on IT infrastructure to keep their operations up and running. The growth will also be fueled by software and technology-driven instrumentation that will offer components to service not yet known in the industry. The growth may be driven by larger and higher demand, depending on the efficacy of current systems and the need for change within a decade.

Costs will likely be reduced as systems become more affordable and accessible. IT systems will be a standard feature in small businesses by the end of 2025 and will require little upkeep; this will lower the costs and apply better solutions across the board. Costs will also likely be reduced by a steady stream of young solution providers eager to capitalize on the IT industry by introducing new concepts and commercialization methods.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

Guardian Managed Solutions will target clients in Boston, Massachusetts. Guardian Managed Solutions will target all businesses who require IT support and infrastructure. Guardian Management Solutions will also target companies that need design and installation of IT structures. Guardian Management Solutions will target clients who require large service contract packages and high-level IT protection behaviors for their infrastructure.

Customer Segmentation

Guardian Managed Solutions will primarily target the following customer profiles:

• Companies within Boston, Massachusetts
• Businesses who require IT support
• Companies who require IT infrastructure rebuilds
• Companies that need design and installation of IT structures
• Clients who require large service contract packages
• Clients who require high-level IT protection behaviors for their infrastructure

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

Guardian Managed Solutions will face competition from other companies with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Tech Solutions & Service

Started by Terri Tracson, Tech Solutions & Service is focused on small enterprises with complex IT needs. This might include a medical device company heavily invested in 3D printing, a security company hosting high-net worth individual securities, or a middle-range growth company requiring specific sets of IT solutions for military-grade needs.

Terri Tracson, a graduate of University of California, Los Angeles, started Tech Solutions & Service after being employed in the industry for ten years. She found that this industry had gaps in service and gaps in solutions to provide the absolute best IT possible. With that, she built an extensive list of clients and opened her own business. Tech Solutions & Service has one focus: providing secure and cost-effective technology solutions that enable all businesses to focus on their core business objectives.

Essential Tech Design

Essential Tech Design was founded in 2022 by Jess and Troy Halston. The two brothers attended Brown University and determined at the same time that the degree they sought was in IT system design. After graduation, the brothers set up Essential Tech Design in silent partnership with their father, Jackson Halston. The focus for Essential Tech Design is one of detailed and customized technology design for businesses with little to no housing space for complex systems. Essential Tech Design offers full package solutions that include complex housing for security systems and small systems for organizations that require specific industrial designs and security protocols alongside.

Healthcare IT Solutions

Healthcare IT Solutions was started in 2020 by Norton Small, a graduate of Boston University in Massachusetts. He holds a master’s degree in IT service and solutions and his company, Healthcare IT Solutions, is designed to meet the needs of clinicians and hospital staff throughout the US. The company owns proprietary IT systems that address every privacy and practical need within healthcare systems and offers a full setup and service package for new clients who buy into long-term contracts.

Healthcare IT Solutions has built systems for over one hundred companies and is known for the creativity of complex solutions found within healthcare management systems. The owner, Norton Small, is known for his interest in cutting edge technology for tomorrow’s IT solutions and invests heavily in startups and other ventures that support new technology and off-the-grid testing processes.

Competitive Advantage

Guardian Managed Solutions will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

Guardian Managed Solutions will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

• Highly-qualified team of skilled employees who are able to provide a comprehensive set of services and solutions.
• Data backup and disaster recovery services for the US government.
• Unbeatable pricing for clients; they will offer the lowest pricing in the city.

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for Guardian Managed Solutions is as follows:

Word of Mouth/Referrals

Guardian Managed Solutions has built up an extensive list of contacts over the years by providing exceptional service and expertise to former clients. The contacts and clients will follow the company to their new destination to help spread the word of Guardian Managed Solutions.

Professional Associations and Networking

Vijay Sinek will attend all networking associations and trade events within industry sectors. He will also work toward becoming an officer or leading member of each group to grow the recognition of the company he owns.

Website/SEO Marketing

Guardian Managed Solutions will fully utilize their website and engage in SEO marketing to targeted client groups. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all the services that Guardian Managed Solutions provides. The website will also list their contact information and list their past and present IT solutions. The website will engage in SEO marketing tactics so that anytime someone types in the Google or Bing search engine “IT solutions company” or “IT solutions near me,” Guardian Managed Solutions will be listed at the top of the search results.

The pricing of Guardian Managed Solutions will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive excellent value when purchasing their services.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for Guardian Managed Solutions. Operation Functions:

• Vijay Sinek will be the owner and president of the company. He will oversee all staff and manage client relations. Vijay has spent the past year recruiting the following staff:
• Jay Hawkins, a former associate in Vijay’s prior business, will be the managing director in Guardian Managed Solutions. He will oversee staff positions that work directly with IT systems.
• Tabby Townsend will be the office manager who will direct the office administration, client files, and accounts payable.

Milestones:

Guardian Managed Solutions will have the following milestones completed in the next six months.

• 5/1/202X – Finalize contract to lease office space
• 5/15/202X – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts for the Guardian Managed Solutions
• 6/1/202X – Finalize contracts for Guardian Managed Solutions clients
• 6/15/202X – Begin networking at industry events
• 6/22/202X – Begin moving into Guardian Managed Solutions office
• 7/1/202X – Guardian Managed Solutions opens its doors for business

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for Guardian Managed Solutions are the fees they will charge to clients for their services.

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required in order to staff Guardian Managed Solutions. The expenses will be the payroll cost, rent, utilities, office supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

Key assumptions.

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

• Number of clients Per Month: 20
• Average XX per Month: $85,000
• Office Lease per Year: $100,000

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, managed service provider business plan faqs, what is a managed service provider business plan.

A managed service provider business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your managed service provider business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections. You can easily complete your Managed Service Provider business plan using our Managed Service Provider Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of Managed Service Provider Businesses?

There are a number of different kinds of managed service provider businesses, some examples include: Lower-level Managed Service Provider, Mid-level Managed Service Provider, and High-level Managed Service Provider.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Managed Service Provider Business Plan?

Managed Service Provider businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a Managed Service Provider Business?

Starting a managed service provider business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster. 1. Develop A Managed Service Provider Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed managed service provider business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast. 2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your managed service provider business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your managed service provider business is in compliance with local laws. 3. Register Your Managed Service Provider Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your managed service provider business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your managed service provider business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 7. Acquire Necessary Managed Service Provider Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your managed service provider business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your managed service provider business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

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How to Create an MSP Business Plan

Some MSPs will tell you that you should not waste even a minute of your time creating a business plan while your business is only a project. Other, more mature managed IT providers will tell you that, unless you have to secure funding from a partner or investor, an MSP business plan is - you guessed it - a waste of time.

The simple truth is that a business plan is an instrument. In this article we will define the core purposes of an MSP business plan and explain when it might be helpful for a start-up or already-established managed IT provider.

What Is an MSP Business Plan?

A business plan is a written document containing a detailed overview of the future or existing business, including mission, strategic and operational goals, marketing analysis, financial estimations, and technical considerations. Its purpose is to prove that the idea behind the business is well thought out and that the business will be profitable.

Further reading How to Build a Successful MSP Business

MSP Business Plan Purpose

As noted above, the details and the depth of an MSP business plan depend on its aim and the people involved. There can be several different purposes of business planning:

• Give investors enough data to make an informed decision. For example, if you have enough knowledge and a well-formulated and calculated business plan, you can count on some form of private investment to gather the capital to begin a business.
• Create a roadmap. A step-by-step roadmap, with operational and strategic goals, and a mission statement will help you to focus your business on what really matters – KPIs, MRR growth, verticals , and a thought-through offering. This will help you and your team to understand the nature of the business better and, in the end, achieve better, more focused, results.

Don't forget, however, that a business plan can be changed during the lifetime of your MSP. It should not be carved in stone; if the nature of your market or your goals change, change your plans accordingly. Below, you will find the basic points that should be included in any MSP business plan. Bear in mind that we do not discuss financial estimation and analysis, due to the specifics and the complexity of the topic.

Executive Summary

An executive summary is a short description which overviews the main points of the business you are about to start, including overview of the nature of the business, customer description, challenges you are about to solve ,  services you will offer , team profile, and sources of funding.

Business Description

The business description contains the most general idea and objectives of your business. It should include he mission statement and the vision of the company, strategic goals, core business objectives, and key tracking metrics.

The business description is one of the most underestimated parts of an MSP business plan. Many managed IT providers tend to think that it contains nothing else but general words that mean nothing. However, this part can be a starting point for a strong corporate culture, which, as we know, can be one of the greatest competitive advantages of them all.

Market Analysis

Ultimately, this part of an MSP business plan will show you, your partners or investors that your idea is viable. It should contain as many details as possible about the market you are about to enter, including:

• Your target customer, including considerations of whether or not to target verticals, the size of customers, and the number of customers you will be able to acquire and handle.
• Competition research. Look at the number and the nature of MSPs and break/fix companies working in your area. Are there any big competitors who rule the market? Are there any niches that you can make use of?
• Your positioning. Considerations about the services you are about to offer, the stack and, if possible, the software and hardware tools you will work with. You should either create a positioning which will distinguish you from your competition or be sure that you will offer a similar, yet superior stack.

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ServiceDesk Plus MSP   Resources   What is a Managed Service Provider (MSP)?

Today’s managed service providers (MSPs) are not just helping organizations with the day-to-day functioning of their IT infrastructure but also assisting them in keeping up with the latest tools, trends, and industry best practices. For instance, MSPs not only deal with small issues like printer malfunctions and password resets but also help in securing data from breaches that could harm an organization financially and impact its image among customers.

Managed services is no longer a new concept. It is estimated that over 75 percent of Fortune 1000 companies outsource all or at least some part of their IT infrastructure to an MSP or value-added reseller (VAR).

Having said that, the managed services industry is still developing. A lot of MSPs are struggling to retain their clients, and a lot of VARs and system integrators (SIs) are still skeptical about becoming an MSP.

This guide is designed to steer you in the right direction when it comes to making decisions about IT services and managed services. Whether you're just starting up, have been in business for a while but are still struggling to grow, or want to take your MSP business to the next level, this guide will help you achieve your goals.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how to build the right kind of offers for your clients, the basics of client onboarding, the issues that MSPs face, best practices, and a lot more to help you successfully grow your MSP business.

What are MSPs?

• The difference an MSP makes

Why do customers consider MSPs?

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• Common mistakes growing MSPs make
• The challenges MSPs face
• Best practices for successful MSPs
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• How to stand out in a crowded MSP market
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IT has taken the driver’s seat in most businesses, and the level of focus it takes to manage IT infrastructure sometimes ends up swaying an organization from focusing on their business goals. This is where the concept of a managed services provider (MSP) comes into the picture. They handle the management of technologies along with core IT maintenance functions, such as break/fix and patching.

An MSP is a company that provides managed services to organizations, which usually involves remotely handling their entire IT infrastructure or a part of it as mentioned in the service-level agreement (SLA) between the two parties. Pricing models for MSPs may be tier-based, à la carte, value-based, etc. The subscription-based pricing model makes it easier for organizations that want expert services, the latest tools, and to only pay for the resources they use. Services such as 24x7 monitoring, issue resolution, network security, and IT asset management all come under the scope of MSPs.

Unlike traditional IT service providers, MSPs tend to take 360° responsibility for the services that are outsourced to them instead of just providing on-demand services. They act as IT consultants and provide expert advice when their clients need to make strategic IT decisions. More and more organizations are opting for MSPs in order to reduce their IT risks and be ready for any future technological disruptions .

The difference an MSP makes (Types of service providers)

When it comes to outsourcing, there are two types of service providers:

Break-fix service providers

• Managed service providers (MSPs)

Break-fix service providers are fine for organizations that do not need heavy IT assistance, but those that do will end up paying a lot more than what MSPs charge for the same services if they go with a break-fix service provider.

Managed services are proving to be a boon to all organizations, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). By 2018, about 39 percent of SMBs used managed services in some capacity while the entire MSP market stood at $180.5 billion. This number has only increased, standing at $223 billion in 2020.

Break-fix service providers deal with every issue as a separate case, and charges for on-site visits are their major source of revenue. Therefore, some break-fix service providers may take longer to fix an issue to drive up the number of on-site visits. On top of that, there are a few other issues with such service providers, such as:

• Unpredictable costs.
• Longer response and service time.
• Higher charges for emergency on-site visits.

The benefits of MSPs over traditional/break-fix service providers

Trained, expert IT professionals

Eliminates the need to get any accreditation

No build time involved

Stays up-to-date with the latest technology

Implements industry best practices

Managed services are proving to be a boon to all organizations, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). By 2018, about 39 percent of SMBs used managed services in some capacity while the entire MSP market stood at $180.5 billion . This number has only increased, standing at $223 billion in 2020. SMBs and large enterprises consider MSPs their trusted partners, as they have been interacting with them for all of their IT needs day in and day out.

The most successful MSPs:

Focus on efficiency

An MSP’s job is to ensure that their client’s business is functioning smoothly 24x7. To accomplish this, an MSP will perform routine hardware maintenance tasks to avoid downtime and outages, provide continuous help desk and remote IT support, automate security patches and software updates, and even help with IT consulting.

MSPs also provide expert advice whenever required, as they come with industry experience in putting the right tech in the right areas.

Make data security their priority

MSPs know that a client's data security is a top priority, as an MSP’s entire business depends on clients trusting them with their IT infrastructure and personal data. Any breach in security could potentially damage their client's image and subsequently their own. This is why MSPs go above and beyond to protect their clients’ data with fully managed and layered network security in order to avoid cybersecurity threats, preserve business continuity, and avoid any type of data loss. Apart from that, MSPs also play a huge role in data backup and disaster recovery.

Service delivery being the most important capability, MSPs design networks and data centers that will be resilient in the face of IT infrastructure problems. MSPs’ data centers are much more robust than a standard enterprise IT service provider’s , ensuring that even if there’s trouble in the MSP’s main offices, the flow of services will not stop. This acts as an added layer of security for an MSP’s clients.

Help clients meet their business needs

An MSP’s main objective is to prevent problems and maintain business continuity. To meet that goal, MSPs find, implement, and manage a solution that fits their client's business needs.

They help their clients with budgeting (understanding current expenditure in order to cut costs and allocate resources accordingly), planning (understanding long-term and short-term needs to find technology solutions that scale with their business), and implementing the latest solutions.

Help their clients innovate

In order to scale, every business needs to innovate. And on that path, organizations may need to perform certain time-consuming, stressful, and resource-intensive activities, such as migrating to the cloud or switching to different software.

An MSP can be a boon to an organization for such activities. They help organizations save precious time and resources by taking up IT projects (whether large or small), spending less money by implementing best practices , and providing cost-effective ways to implement new technologies .

So far, we've already established that organizations are drawn towards MSPs. A question arises here:

What is it exactly that organizations are expecting to get out of these services?

Research indicates that the services offered by MSPs are not necessarily the only reasons why organizations consider hiring an MSP. Organizations are looking for a wide range of benefits when they decide to invest in a managed services model. The following are the reasons organizations decide to go with an MSP (based on the research mentioned above):

• Improved security
• Proactive approach to IT problems
• Better uptime
• Gain access to newer technologies
• Cost savings over in-house IT
• Peace of mind
• Free internal staff for strategic work
• Tap into cloud solutions
• Lack of internal IT
• Handle remote office IT

Benefits of MSPs

Cost-effectiveness:.

Outsourcing services to an MSP offers an organization the ability to significantly cut operational expenses thanks to the MSP’s constantly upgraded technology and expertise in the field, helping to control IT costs and saving the organization's resources from menial tasks and processes such as hardware issues and other general break-fix services.

MSPs adhere to an SLA that's shared with the client and includes the client’s precise requirements. An SLA helps ensure timely service delivery and efficient management of hardware and software, in turn boosting the client’s productivity.

Apart from that, subscription-based pricing (discussed in detail in the " Pricing models of managed IT services " chapter) makes an organization’s expenditure on outsourced business processes and functions predictable, which helps in keeping the organization’s budget in check.

Access to expertise

Apart from the latest tech, MSPs also come with well-qualified, trained, and experienced IT professionals who are equipped to handle certain tasks that an organization's resources are not built to handle, neither are they supposed to. This frees up IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives.

Sometimes an organization requires a specific ability once in a blue moon. In such cases, an MSP can help an organization avoid the expense of training internal staff for skills that are rarely required.

Be it day-to-day IT help desk activities, network monitoring , or management of IT assets, MSPs can expertly provide 360-degree management of outsourced business functions and processes.

Focus on core business

As a business grows, certain business functions and processes may become the responsibility of the IT team, swaying them from their original objectives or simply remaining incomplete because they’re beyond the team’s scope or capacity.

Capabilities such as updating and patching systems, backing up data, and generating reports on how well IT infrastructure is functioning can be outsourced to MSPs, shifting the focus of IT departments back to uplifting their business via innovation and revenue-generating activities.

Scalability

Businesses need to scale up or down as demand fluctuates. When a business expands, unexpected hurdles may arise. To deal with this internally, a business will need to add or remove a substantial amount of resources. Organizations aren’t typically ready to make these adjustments when it comes to IT requirements.

This is where an MSP’s ability to rapidly accommodate IT changes helps a business stay productive and avoid downtime. MSPs can provide the necessary amount of services and support as and when required and handle any IT issues that arise on the way.

MSPs proactively identify opportunities for improvement to support their clients' business objectives.

Minimizing risks

Millions of businesses fall victim to hacking due to poor network security. Many SMBs go out of business every year because of security breaches, as customers lose trust and shift to competitors. With the exception of huge conglomerates, implementing a separate IT team just to ensure data security can burn a big hole in a business’s pocket.

MSPs can offer proactive security solutions to help avoid security breaches. Their services include constant monitoring of servers and websites, performing data backups, and immediately alerting the organization upon noticing any suspicious activity.

Staying technologically compliant is imperative for organizations to stay in business. There are rules and regulations set by certain governing bodies that organizations need to follow. For less established organizations, handling compliance on their own can be a nightmare.

MSPs are likely familiar with the compliance regulations that organizations are required to follow and can easily point out the areas that require work and help find solutions. An MSP will notify its clients of the expiration dates of their software licenses periodically, keep clients' payment information secure, and ensure that its clients’ security practices are compliant with the current rules and regulations.

Highly responsive: 24x7 availability

When an organization has a global business presence, working hours shift from 9-5 to 24x7, and so does the need to have a system in place to deal with all sorts of IT issues. MSPs offer 24/7 support, 365 days a year. With SLAs in place, MSPs ensure service continuity and remain highly responsive whenever required.

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Managed Service Provider Business Plan Template & Guidebook

If you're an aspiring entrepreneur looking to start a managed service provider (MSP) business, then the #1 Managed Service Provider Business Plan Template & Guidebook is your go-to resource for setting up a successful and lucrative enterprise. This comprehensive guidebook provides all of the information and tools necessary to put together a comprehensive business plan from start to finish, outlining the key elements required for making your MSP business profitable and successful. With detailed considerations for sales strategies, marketing initiatives, financial plans, and more, this template and guidebook will help you develop and implement an effective strategy for success.

Get worry-free services and support to launch your business starting at $0 plus state fees.

How to Write a Managed Service Provider Business Plan in 7 Steps:

1. describe the purpose of your managed service provider business..

The first step to writing your business plan is to describe the purpose of your managed service provider business. This includes describing why you are starting this type of business, and what problems it will solve for customers. This is a quick way to get your mind thinking about the customers’ problems. It also helps you identify what makes your business different from others in its industry.

It also helps to include a vision statement so that readers can understand what type of company you want to build.

Here is an example of a purpose mission statement for a managed service provider business:

Our mission at XYZ Managed Service Provider is to provide cost-effective, tailored IT services and solutions to our clients, enabling them to achieve their organizational goals by expediting their operational efficiency and maximizing the return on their IT investments.

2. Products & Services Offered by Your Managed Service Provider Business.

The next step is to outline your products and services for your managed service provider business. 

When you think about the products and services that you offer, it's helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

• What is my business?
• What are the products and/or services that I offer?
• Why am I offering these particular products and/or services?
• How do I differentiate myself from competitors with similar offerings?
• How will I market my products and services?

You may want to do a comparison of your business plan against those of other competitors in the area, or even with online reviews. This way, you can find out what people like about them and what they don’t like, so that you can either improve upon their offerings or avoid doing so altogether.

3. Build a Creative Marketing Stratgey.

If you don't have a marketing plan for your managed service provider business, it's time to write one. Your marketing plan should be part of your business plan and be a roadmap to your goals. 

A good marketing plan for your managed service provider business includes the following elements:

Target market

• Who is your target market?
• What do these customers have in common?
• How many of them are there?
• How can you best reach them with your message or product?

Customer base 

• Who are your current customers? 
• Where did they come from (i.e., referrals)?
• How can their experience with your managed service provider business help make them repeat customers, consumers, visitors, subscribers, or advocates for other people in their network or industry who might also benefit from using this service, product, or brand?

Product or service description

• How does it work, what features does it have, and what are its benefits?
• Can anyone use this product or service regardless of age or gender?
• Can anyone visually see themselves using this product or service?
• How will they feel when they do so? If so, how long will the feeling last after purchasing (or trying) the product/service for the first time?

Competitive analysis

• Which companies are competing with yours today (and why)? 
• Which ones may enter into competition with yours tomorrow if they find out about it now through word-of-mouth advertising; social media networks; friends' recommendations; etc.)
• What specific advantages does each competitor offer over yours currently?

Marketing channels

• Which marketing channel do you intend to leverage to attract new customers?
• What is your estimated marketing budget needed?
• What is the projected cost to acquire a new customer?
• How many of your customers do you instead will return?

Form an LLC in your state!

4. Write Your Operational Plan.

Next, you'll need to build your operational plan. This section describes the type of business you'll be running, and includes the steps involved in your operations. 

In it, you should list:

• The equipment and facilities needed
• Who will be involved in the business (employees, contractors)
• Financial requirements for each step
• Milestones & KPIs
• Location of your business
• Zoning & permits required for the business

What equipment, supplies, or permits are needed to run a managed service provider business?

• Computer hardware, software and networking equipment
• Backup and recovery systems
• Access control systems (e.g. authentication and authorization)
• Security systems (e.g. firewalls, antivirus, etc.)
• Support tools (e.g. monitoring, ticketing, etc.)
• Management tools (e.g. asset management, reporting, etc.)
• Licenses for operating systems, applications and other technology products
• Business permits or licenses as required by your local jurisdiction

5. Management & Organization of Your Managed Service Provider Business.

The second part of your managed service provider business plan is to develop a management and organization section.

This section will cover all of the following:

• How many employees you need in order to run your managed service provider business. This should include the roles they will play (for example, one person may be responsible for managing administrative duties while another might be in charge of customer service).
• The structure of your management team. The higher-ups like yourself should be able to delegate tasks through lower-level managers who are directly responsible for their given department (inventory and sales, etc.).
• How you’re going to make sure that everyone on board is doing their job well. You’ll want check-ins with employees regularly so they have time to ask questions or voice concerns if needed; this also gives you time to offer support where necessary while staying informed on how things are going within individual departments too!

6. Managed Service Provider Business Startup Expenses & Captial Needed.

This section should be broken down by month and year. If you are still in the planning stage of your business, it may be helpful to estimate how much money will be needed each month until you reach profitability.

Typically, expenses for your business can be broken into a few basic categories:

Startup Costs

Startup costs are typically the first expenses you will incur when beginning an enterprise. These include legal fees, accounting expenses, and other costs associated with getting your business off the ground. The amount of money needed to start a managed service provider business varies based on many different variables, but below are a few different types of startup costs for a managed service provider business.

Running & Operating Costs

Running costs refer to ongoing expenses related directly with operating your business over time like electricity bills or salaries paid out each month. These types of expenses will vary greatly depending on multiple variables such as location, team size, utility costs, etc.

Marketing & Sales Expenses

You should include any costs associated with marketing and sales, such as advertising and promotions, website design or maintenance. Also, consider any additional expenses that may be incurred if you decide to launch a new product or service line. For example, if your managed service provider business has an existing website that needs an upgrade in order to sell more products or services, then this should be listed here.

7. Financial Plan & Projections

A financial plan is an important part of any business plan, as it outlines how the business will generate revenue and profit, and how it will use that profit to grow and sustain itself. To devise a financial plan for your managed service provider business, you will need to consider a number of factors, including your start-up costs, operating costs, projected revenue, and expenses. 

Here are some steps you can follow to devise a financial plan for your managed service provider business plan:

• Determine your start-up costs: This will include the cost of purchasing or leasing the space where you will operate your business, as well as the cost of buying or leasing any equipment or supplies that you need to start the business.
• Estimate your operating costs: Operating costs will include utilities, such as electricity, gas, and water, as well as labor costs for employees, if any, and the cost of purchasing any materials or supplies that you will need to run your business.
• Project your revenue: To project your revenue, you will need to consider the number of customers you expect to have and the average amount they will spend on each visit. You can use this information to estimate how much money you will make from selling your products or services.
• Estimate your expenses: In addition to your operating costs, you will need to consider other expenses, such as insurance, marketing, and maintenance. You will also need to set aside money for taxes and other fees.
• Create a budget: Once you have estimated your start-up costs, operating costs, revenue, and expenses, you can use this information to create a budget for your business. This will help you to see how much money you will need to start the business, and how much profit you can expect to make.
• Develop a plan for using your profit: Finally, you will need to decide how you will use your profit to grow and sustain your business. This might include investing in new equipment, expanding the business, or saving for a rainy day.

Frequently Asked Questions About Managed Service Provider Business Plans:

Why do you need a business plan for a managed service provider business.

A business plan for a managed service provider business is essential for clearly articulating the company’s objectives and strategies, as well as for organizing the internal operations and resources of the business. The plan can also be used to create a budget, outline marketing plans and strategies, and provide detailed information about services offered. Additionally, developing a business plan can help in securing loans and investments from potential investors, as well as attracting potential clients.

Who should you ask for help with your managed service provider business plan?

You should ask a business consultant or a professional with experience in business planning. They can help you with the specific details of your business plan and ensure that it is comprehensive and well-thought out. Additionally, they can provide guidance on the best ways to market, finance, and manage your managed service provider business.

Can you write a managed service provider business plan yourself?

Writing a managed service provider business plan is a complex task that requires extensive knowledge of both business strategy and the specific managed service provider industry. It is highly recommended that a professional consultant be consulted in order to ensure the plan is created correctly and accurately reflects the goals, objectives, and strategies of the provider.

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I'm Nick, co-founder of newfoundr.com, dedicated to helping aspiring entrepreneurs succeed. As a small business owner with over five years of experience, I have garnered valuable knowledge and insights across a diverse range of industries. My passion for entrepreneurship drives me to share my expertise with aspiring entrepreneurs, empowering them to turn their business dreams into reality.

Through meticulous research and firsthand experience, I uncover the essential steps, software, tools, and costs associated with launching and maintaining a successful business. By demystifying the complexities of entrepreneurship, I provide the guidance and support needed for others to embark on their journey with confidence.

From assessing market viability and formulating business plans to selecting the right technology and navigating the financial landscape, I am dedicated to helping fellow entrepreneurs overcome challenges and unlock their full potential. As a steadfast advocate for small business success, my mission is to pave the way for a new generation of innovative and driven entrepreneurs who are ready to make their mark on the world.

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By Peter Barnett

Starting an MSP or managed service provider business can be a very lucrative move. The global MSP market was valued at just over $200 billion  in 2019, and it’s expected to grow to almost $500 billion by 2027. In the North American and European markets, survey respondents said they would be spending 11% of their IT MSP budgets on managed hosting and backup storage, with 10% on support and maintenance. This demonstrates a healthy market with a lot of potential for providers.

But how do you access this market? How do you get started with your MSP business? Take a look at our MSP startup guide and business plan template to learn more.

What Is an MSP?

What is an MSP exactly? A managed service provider is a company that provides ongoing support and management services for its customers’ IT systems. This MSP will take responsibility for specific aspects of their client’s businesses, providing monitoring and support services to these clients. Working proactively, the MSP will prevent any disruption or downtime for the client’s systems and services before they occur.

What Is the Managed Service Business Model?

Steps for starting an msp business, decide on your msp business strategy.

This is the guiding principle by which you will develop and build your managed services business. While you are unlikely to be able to draft a complete business plan at this early stage, you should have an idea of the direction you want to go in with your MSP startup, and you can use this to flesh out your ideas.

What kind of service you will be offering

Will your MSP focus on a specific vertical or industry, or will you be offering a specific platform for your client’s tech stack? Will you be delivering consultation services, or will you operate as a managed security service provider (MSSP)? There are a number of different potential directions for your MSP in business.

How you will market your MSP

There are many factors that determine how much it costs to start an MSP, but with the right approach to marketing, you can recoup these costs quickly. Put together a marketing team with a strong background in sales, as well as experience, knowledge, and expertise in the tech industry.

How you will manage your clients

As your client list grows, you will need to be able to manage these customers in the right way. Which software platforms will you use to achieve this? Will you offer membership tiers, perhaps providing dedicated account managers to higher-level customers?

What kind of SLA requirements you will include

The service level agreement, or SLA, outlines your responsibilities to your clients and the scope of your services. This forms the basis of the relationships you develop with your clients, as the SLA provides ground rules and expectations from both parties. You can add more detail to this SLA later in your preparation, but start by outlining:

• What service parameters you offer — How much uptime can you guarantee? What are your hours of support?
• Your troubleshooting process — How quickly will you respond? How long will it take you to achieve a resolution?
• Contract breach terms — What happens if you cannot achieve what you promise? What are your compensation limits?
• Multi-party expectations — What can the client expect from you? What does your MSP need the client to do?

The Most Common Mistakes Growing MSP Businesses Should Avoid

Define Your MSP Business Model Level

You will need to determine whether you will be offering a low-, medium-, or high-level set of managed services. Which level you decide upon will depend on the scope and size of your MSP business project.

• At a low level, you will be working with small businesses and organizations with up to a few hundred employees. You may decide to offer managed services on a remote basis, drawing upon digital networks to support your clients.
• At a medium level, your duties will increase. You may need to provide installation and upgrades, as well as security patching services. Your clients may include medium or larger-sized businesses.
• At a high level, you will offer boutique, tailored MSP solutions to clients of any size. Typically, this will involve close and personalized levels of support.

Build a Pricing Scheme and Revenue Stream

There are a number of different ways you can choose to set your MSP pricing model to market your services to your clients. You may opt for:

• Pricing per user: You may decide to charge for each of the client’s employees you provide services to.
• Pricing per device: For some managed services, a service charge for each device may be more suitable.
• Pricing per level: Many MSPs offer different levels of support. Decide on the pricing structure for each level.
• Flat rate pricing: The simplest model is to offer a flat rate for your services.
• Pricing on demand: You may opt to allow your clients to pick and choose the services they want, when they want them. In this instance, you’ll need to decide how much to charge for each particular service.

Make Sure Your Software Is Up to Scratch

With your preliminary planning complete, you will now need to make sure that you are ready to start accepting clients. This means having the right software tools at your disposal.

• Customer relationship management (CRM) software — We’ve touched on the importance of this above.
• Remote monitoring and management solutions — Helps you with operating and managing client’s IT infrstructures remotely.
• Enterprise resource management (ERP) software — Ensures you have all the resources you need to fulfill your SLA.
• Helpdesk and support software — Gives you the platform on which to provide high-level support and assistance to clients.

Put Your Team Together

Your hiring strategy is a big part of your success as an MSP. Your clients need to know that you are able to provide an industry-leading outsourced service — one that they would not have the resources or expertise to handle in-house. In other words, you need expert personnel on your side.

Position Yourself as a True MSP

There are many best practices to grow MSP business and advantages of starting up in managed service niche. You’ll have a solid stream of revenue from long-term subscribers, and you can grow your reputation by delivering a top-quality service. However, there are challenges too, which is why you need the right support from the outset.

Managed IT Services Business Plan FAQs

How to start an msp business.

Starting your managed service provider business requires the right plan.

• Start by deciding on your MSP strategy — defining what kind of service you will be offering and how you will market your MSP.
• Next, decide on your MSP service level and define your pricing scheme before putting together your software infrastructure and your team.

How to build a managed services business?

With your business plan set, you need to begin bringing in your first clients. Start small — building an MSP business is all about fostering goodwill among your clients and generating a solid reputation. Focus on client relationships and the quality of your service delivery. It’s better to achieve great results for a few clients than mediocre results for a lot of clients.

How much does it cost to start an MSP business?

There is no definite answer to this question.

What you would have to take into consideration when assessing initial investment is the money you will require to cover the following aspects:

• Technology ( MSP software and hardware)

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Service Business Plan Template

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their service businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a service business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Before we get into how to write a service business plan, here are links to several service business plan templates:

• Beauty Salon Business Plan
• Car Detailing Business Plan
• Car Wash Business Plan
• Catering Business Plan
• Cell Phone Repair Business Plan
• Child Care Business Plan
• Cleaning Services Business Plan
• Computer Repair Business Plan Template
• Construction Business Plan
• Consulting Business Plan
• Day Care Business Plan
• Dog Daycare Business Plan
• Dog Grooming Business Plan
• Financial Advisor Business Plan
• Hair Salon Business Plan
• Indoor Playground Business Plan
• Insurance Business Plan
• Janitorial Business Plan
• Landscaping Business Plan
• Massage Therapy Business Plan
• Nail Salon Business Plan
• Photography Business Plan
• Plumbing Business Plan
• Salon Business Plan
• Spa Business Plan
• Staffing Agency Business Plan
• Tutor Business Plan

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What Is a Service Business Plan?

A service business plan provides a snapshot of your service company as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your goals and your business strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your company plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan

If you’re looking to start a service business or grow your existing business you need a good business plan. A business plan helps you attract investors to satisfy your funding requirements, and plan out the growth of your entire business in order to improve your chances of success. Your service business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

How to Secure Funding for a Services Business

With regards to funding, the main source of funding for a services business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, and angel investors. 

With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your service business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will want to see a professionally written plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding or, like a bank, they will give you a loan.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for a service business.

The traditional service business plan format includes these 10 key elements:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan in 1 – 2 pages, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your executive summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of services business you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a services business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of services businesses?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the service industry trends. Discuss the type of service business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors and your competitive advantage. Give an overview of your ideal customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team, and offer an overview of your financial plan.

Company Overview

In your company description, you will detail the type of service business you are operating.

In addition to explaining the type of service business you operate, the company analysis section of your service business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales goals you’ve reached, new store openings, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the service business.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching your specific niche of the service market educates you. It helps you gain insights and understand the market in which you are operating. 

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards more eco-friendly services, your company might want to emphasize its environmentally friendly initiatives.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your service business plan:

• How big is the service business (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market? What is your market share?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your service business. You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your service business plan must detail the target market you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments in the service industry:

• Businesses in need of a specific service, such as computer repair or consulting
• People who have a need for a service that is not currently being met
• People who are price conscious and are looking for the best deal on a service
• People who want to support businesses with social responsibility values

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will greatly depend on the type of service business you operate. Some of your clients may want different pricing and product options and would respond to different marketing promotions compared to other target customer segments.

Try to break out your target market in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, including a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most service businesses primarily serve customers living in the same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your existing clients.

Finish Your Service Business Plan in 1 Day!

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With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other businesses that provide similar services.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes businesses that provide an alternative solution to the services that you provide, but not the exact service. Think do-it-yourself and public options for similar services. You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone who needs the specific services will engage your service business.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other service businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be service businesses located very close to your location. 

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What products and services do they offer?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to stand outside your competitors’ locations and ask customers as they leave what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your competitive advantages. For example:

• Will you provide superior services?
• Will you provide services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you make it easier or faster for customers to book your services?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a service business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : in the product section, you should reiterate the type of service business that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific services you will be offering. For example, in addition to a lawn care business, you may offer to trim trees, bushes, and hedges.

Price : Document your business’s pricing strategy including the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your service business. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. Discuss how your location might provide a steady stream of customers. 

Promotions : the final part of your service business marketing strategy is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive new customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods and marketing materials you might consider:

• Advertising in local papers and magazines
• Reaching out to local bloggers and websites 
• Social media advertising
• Local radio advertising
• Pay per click advertising
• Banner ads at local venues

Client Retention

Your service business plan should discuss not just how you will find clients, but how you’ll hold on to them and discourage them from switching to one of your competitors. After all, it should be much less expensive to keep a client than to market and sell services to a new one. Some methods of retaining customers involve creating the perception of switching costs; that is, that they will lose money and time when switching to a new service company. Others involve fine-tuning your customer service skills into a system designed around retention.

Loyalty Program

Creating a loyalty program is a positive way to retain customers. This could involve a punch card system where customers receive a free service after a certain number of visits, or it could involve a points system where customers accumulate points that can be redeemed for discounts or free services. Other loyalty programs offer exclusive deals and privileges to members, such as special access to new services before they are made available to the general public.

Premium Customer Levels

Another related retention strategy is to reward the frequency and/or the amount of money that customers spend with your service business. This is often done by creating different customer levels and providing perks to customers who reach a certain level. The higher the customer level, the more exclusive the perks. Common perks include discounts on services, express service, access to unique services or products, and early notice of promotional deals.

Referral Program

A referral program is a great way to keep customers happy and encourage them to refer their friends and family members. This could involve rewarding customers with a discount or free service for every new customer they refer, or it could involve giving customers a set amount of credit for each referral. Either way, the referral program should be designed to be as simple as possible for customers to participate in.

Customer Testimonials

Finally, customer testimonials can be a powerful retention tool. As potential customers research your service business, they will likely come across your website and online profiles. Seeing positive customer testimonials on your website and across the internet will help convince them that you provide outstanding customer service. You can create a separate page on your website that is dedicated to client testimonials, or you could set up a separate social media profile that features client testimonials and allows customers to provide feedback through a special email address.

Tracking Retention

Simply tracking the numbers and percentages involved in your customer retention can yield valuable information about what you’re doing right or wrong and how successful new initiatives are over time. Statistics to track may include client complaints, the average speed of complaint resolution, the percentage of customers in a given month who were using your services last month, 3 months ago, 6 months ago, a year ago, etc, and so on. When your staff is aware of these statistics and is given targets to work towards, the message that customer service and retention is a priority is heard loud and clear.

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your service business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your service business such as serving customers, procuring supplies, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to serve your 100th client, or when you hope to reach $X in sales. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch in a new city.

Management Team

To demonstrate your service business’s ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company. 

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in the service business. If so, highlight this experience and expertise, but also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in a service business and/or successfully running small businesses.

Financial Plan

Your plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you serve 20 customers per week or 50? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your service business, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50.000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. For example, let’s say a company approached you with a massive $100,000 damage restoration contract that would cost you $50,000 to fulfill. Well, in most cases, you would have to pay that $50,000 now for supplies, equipment rentals, employee salaries, etc. But let’s say the company didn’t pay you for 180 days. During that 180 day period, you could run out of money.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a service business:

• Cost of equipment to perform the service
• Cost of maintaining an adequate amount of supplies
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include any insurance company affiliations or remediation licenses.

Service Business Plan Summary

Writing a business plan for your service business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the service business, your competition, and your potential customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful cleaning services business.  

Service Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my service business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your Service Business Plan.

What is the Goal of a Business Plan's Executive Summary?

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of service you are providing and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a service that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of service locations?

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Service business plan?

OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.   Click here to see how our professional business plan consultants can create your business plan for you.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

Running a managed service provider business right now is really a double-edged sword: on one hand, business owners who don’t rapidly adjust to worldwide changes will be doomed to fail; on the other hand, clients need their services more than ever before.

At the recent MSP Connect Live , Erez Zevulunov, CEO, M.I.T. Consulting, provided a set of managed service provider business plan priorities for those who don’t want to fail in the new year.

Now is the time to rebuild your offering and ride the new wave of IT needs. Here are some ways to do just that.

The new work reality

Remote workers – endless video meetings and working long hours are causing some employees to rethink just how much they like working from home, but for the most part, companies are embracing semi-permanent WFH structures for the foreseeable future

More outsourcing – a major uptick is expected in the MSP sector

Change in productivity – the move to cloud-based applications and increased overall demand for technology tools

Mental health – what real effects does working from home have on the majority of the workforce? We’re still finding out

MSP strengths

They’ve been selling hardware for decades – laptops, mobile devices, on-prem & cloud services.

The necessary technology is already available – though Zoom, Skype, etc. had already been established, everyone wants and even NEEDS them now.

MSPs are very well-positioned to guide companies into the new normal.

MSP weaknesses

Differently-sized orgs: Supporting clients is more difficult with working from home still going strong; so if your team is small, the difficulties are compounded. How are you protecting your business? Not walking into new offices or homes?

Supply chain issues: “I have a client who wanted a WiFi mesh network, but we’re looking at an extended timeframe of November to December for an order in late August,” Zevulunov says.

Not every MSP is 100% in the cloud:  “I know there was more money to be made in the legacy solutions because it was there an tested, but we have to look at what customers are going to want,” he says. If you don’t have the full-cloud offering available today, you’ll miss out next year.

More opportunities to stick out

Proper e-commerce platforms: “We need to provide a simple, pane-to-glass solution going forward. We’re playing against big box stores like Best Buy. If you have this, you’ll be ahead of the game.”

Cloud offerings: Stack up more and more products that would fit your customer base. There are solutions out there that can be a bolt-on that your customers will want in the near future.

Related:  Can MSPs and Integrators Sell Any Software?

Disaster plan refreshes : This is more work, but prior to COVID, when we talked about disaster planning, we talked floods, hurricanes, and hacks. Now, that’s not enough. We’ve got to think about building lockdowns due to breakouts of COVID or a possible future outbreak.

Threats in the unknown future

One out of seven businesses may close by January, so you have to be careful about how you’re operating your business. The more receivables you have, the more risk you have of shutting down.

Funds are also limited, with banks not readily lending as much money.

The “bigger players” are going to start offering major cash incentives to move your clients’ businesses to them. Smaller MSPs need to fight those battles and justify why your clients should stay with you and the value you’ve added to them.

A quick MSP operations checklist for the next few months

• rebuild your offerings
• pay attention to marketing, making sure you are in front of your clients’ eyes
• call your clients ! ask them questions and reassure them you can help with anything going forward
• buy up the companies looking to get out
• hire a coach or mentor

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Tagged with: MSPs

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Plan a Managed Service offer

• 11 contributors

This article introduces the requirements for publishing a Managed Service offer to the commercial marketplace using Partner Center.

Managed Services are Azure Marketplace offers that enable cross-tenant and multitenant management with Azure Lighthouse. To learn more, see What is Azure Lighthouse? When a customer purchases a Managed Service offer, they're able to delegate one or more subscription or resource group. You can then work on those resources by using Azure Lighthouse .

Eligibility requirements

To publish a Managed Service offer, you must have a Solutions Partner designation for Infrastructure (Azure). This demonstrates your expertise to customers. For more information, see Solution Partner designations . Offers must meet all applicable commercial marketplace certification policies to be published on Azure Marketplace.

Customer leads

The commercial marketplace will collect leads with customer information so you can access them in the Referrals workspace in Partner Center. Leads will include information such as customer details along with the offer name, ID, and online store where the customer found your offer.

You can also choose to connect your CRM system to your offer. The commercial marketplace supports Dynamics 365, Marketo, and Salesforce, along with the option to use an Azure table or configure an HTTPS endpoint using Power Automate. For detailed guidance, see Customer leads from your commercial marketplace offer .

You can add or modify a CRM connection at any time during or after offer creation. For detailed guidance, see Customer leads from your commercial marketplace offer .

Legal contracts

In the Properties page of Partner Center, you'll be asked to provide terms and conditions for the use of your offer. You can either enter your terms directly in Partner Center or provide the URL where they can be found. Customers will be required to accept these terms and conditions before purchasing your offer.

Offer listing details

When you create your Managed Service offer in Partner Center, you'll enter text, images, documents, and other offer details. This is what customers will see when they discover your offer on Azure Marketplace. See the following example:

Call-out descriptions

• Short description
• Legal contracts and privacy policy
• Description
• Screenshots/videos
• Useful links

Here's an example of how the offer listing appears in the Azure portal:

If your offer is in a language other than English, the offer listing can be in that language, but the description must begin or end with the English phrase "This service is available in <language of your offer content>". You can also provide supporting documents in a language that's different from the one used in the offer listing details.

To help create your offer more easily, prepare some of these items ahead of time. The following items are required unless otherwise noted.

Name : this will appear as the title of your offer listing in the commercial marketplace. The name can be trademarked. It can't contain emojis (unless they're the trademark and copyright symbols) and must be limited to 200 characters.

Search results summary : describe the purpose or goal of your offer in 100 characters or less. This summary is used in the commercial marketplace listing search results. It shouldn't be identical to the title. Consider including your top SEO keywords.

Short description : provide a short description of your offer (up to 256 characters). It'll be displayed on your offer listing in the Azure portal.

Description : describe your offer in 5,000 characters or less. This description will be displayed in the commercial marketplace listing. Consider including a value proposition, key benefit, category or industry associations, and any necessary disclosures.

Here are some tips for writing your description:

• The type of user who benefits from the offer.
• What customer needs or issues the offer addresses.
• Remember that the first few sentences might be displayed in search results.
• Use industry-specific vocabulary.

You can use HTML tags to format your description. For information about HTML formatting, see HTML tags supported in the commercial marketplace offer descriptions .

Privacy policy link : provide an URL to the privacy policy, hosted on your site. You're responsible for ensuring your offer complies with privacy laws and regulations, and for providing a valid privacy policy.

Useful links (optional): upload supplemental online documents about your offer.

Contact information : provide name, email address, and phone number of two people in your company (you can be one of them): a support contact and an engineering contact. We'll use this information to communicate with you about your offer. This information isn't shown to customers but might be provided to Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners

Support URLs (optional): if you have support websites for Azure Global Customers and/or Azure Government customers, provide those URLs.

Marketplace media – logos : provide a PNG file for the large-size logo of your offer. Partner Center will use it to create medium and small logos. You can optionally replace these logos with a different image later.

• The large logo (from 216x216 to 350x350 px) appears on your offer listing on Azure Marketplace.
• The medium logo (90x90 px) is shown when a new resource is created.
• The small logo (48x48 px) is used in Azure Marketplace search results.

Follow these guidelines for your logos:

• Make sure the image isn't stretched.
• The Azure design has a simple color palette. Limit the number of primary and secondary colors on your logo.
• The Azure portal colors are white and black. Don't use these as the background of your logo. We recommend simple primary colors that make your logo prominent.
• If you use a transparent background, make sure that the logo and text aren't white, black, or blue.
• The look and feel of your logo should be flat. Avoid gradients. Don't place text on the logo, not even your company or brand name.

Marketplace media – screenshots (optional): Add up to five images that demonstrate how your offer works. All images must be 1280x720 pixels in size and in .PNG format.

Marketplace media – videos (optional): upload up to five videos that demonstrate your offer. The videos must be hosted on YouTube or Vimeo and have a thumbnail (1280x720 PNG file).

Preview audience

A preview audience can access your offer before it's published on Azure Marketplace in order to test it. On the Preview audience page of Partner Center, you can define a limited preview audience.

A preview audience differs from a private plan. A private plan is one you make available only to a specific audience you choose. This enables you to negotiate a custom plan with specific customers.

You can send invites to Microsoft Account (MSA) or Microsoft Entra ID email addresses. Add up to 10 email addresses manually or import up to 20 with a .csv file. If your offer is already live, you can still define a preview audience for testing any changes or updates to your offer.

Plans and pricing

Managed Service offers require at least one plan. A plan defines the solution scope, limits, and the associated pricing, if applicable. You can create multiple plans for your offer to give your customers different technical and pricing options. For general guidance about plans, including private plans, see Plans and pricing for commercial marketplace offers .

Managed Services support only one pricing model: Bring your own license (BYOL) . This means that you'll bill your customers directly, and Microsoft won't charge you any fees.

• Create a Managed Service offer
• Offer listing best practices

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Fact Sheet: Vice President Harris Announces Historic Advancements in Long-Term Care to Support the Care   Economy

Actions are the latest in a series of steps the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to improve safety, provide support for care workers and family caregivers, and to expand access to affordable, high-quality care

Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect and to have access to quality care. That’s why, today, Vice President Harris is announcing two landmark final rules that fulfill the President’s commitment to safety in care, improving access to long-term care and the quality of caregiving jobs. Ensuring that all Americans, including older Americans and people with disabilities, have access to care – including home-based care – that is safe, reliable, and of high quality is an important part of the President’s agenda and a part of the President’s broader commitment to care. Today’s announcements deliver on the President’s promise in the State of the Union to crack down on nursing homes that endanger resident safety as well as his historic Executive Order on Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers , which included the most comprehensive set of executive actions any President has taken to improve care for millions of seniors and people with disabilities while supporting care workers and family caregivers.

Cracking Down on Inadequate Nursing Home Care

Medicare and Medicaid pay billions of dollars per year to ensure that 1.2 million Americans that receive care in nursing homes are cared for, yet too many nursing homes chronically understaff their facilities, leading to sub-standard or unsafe care. When facilities are understaffed, residents may go without basic necessities like baths, trips to the bathroom, and meals – and it is less safe when residents have a medical emergency. Understaffing can also have a disproportionate impact on women and people of color who make up a large proportion of the nursing home workforce because, without sufficient support, these dedicated workers can’t provide the care they know the residents deserve. In his 2022 State of the Union address, President Biden pledged that he would “protect seniors’ lives and life savings by cracking down on nursing homes that commit fraud, endanger patient safety, or prescribe drugs they don’t need.”

The Nursing Home Minimum Staffing Rule finalized today will require all nursing homes that receive federal funding through Medicare and Medicaid to have 3.48 hours per resident per day of total staffing, including a defined number from both registered nurses (0.55 hours per resident per day) and nurse aides (2.45 per resident per day). This means a facility with 100 residents would need at least two or three RNs and at least ten or eleven nurse aides as well as two additional nurse staff (which could be registered nurses, licensed professional nurses, or nurse aides) per shift to meet the minimum staffing standards. Many facilities would need to staff at a higher level based on their residents’ needs. It will also require facilities to have a registered nurse onsite 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to provide skilled nursing care, which will further improve nursing home safety. Adequate staffing is proven to be one of the measures most strongly associated with safety and good care outcomes.

To make sure nursing homes have the time they need to hire necessary staff, the requirements of this rule will be introduced in phases, with longer timeframes for rural communities. Limited, temporary exemptions will be available for both the 24/7 registered nurse requirement and the underlying staffing standards for nursing homes in workforce shortage areas that demonstrate a good faith effort to hire.

Strong transparency measures will ensure nursing home residents and their families are aware when a nursing home is using an exemption.

This rule will not only benefit residents and their families, it will also ensure that workers aren’t stretched too thin by having inadequate staff on site, which is currently a common reason for worker burnout and turnover. Workers who are on the frontlines interacting with residents and understanding their needs will also be given a voice in developing staffing plans for nursing homes. The Biden-Harris Administration also continues to invest in expanding the pipeline of nursing workers and other care workers, who are so essential to our economy, including through funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Improving Access to Home Care and the Quality of Home Care Jobs

Over seven million seniors and people with disabilities, alongside their families, rely on home and community-based services to provide for long-term care needs in their own homes and communities. This critical care is provided by a dedicated home care workforce, made up disproportionately by women of color, that often struggles to make ends meet due to low wages and few benefits. At the same time, home care is still very inaccessible for many Medicaid enrollees, with more than threequarters of home care providers not accepting new clients, leaving hundreds of thousands of older Americans and Americans with disabilities on waiting lists or struggling to afford the care they need.

The “Ensuring Access to Medicaid Services” final rule, finalized today, will help improve access to home care services as well as improve the quality caregiving jobs through its new provisions for home care. Specifically, the rule will ensure adequate compensation for home care workers by requiring that at least 80 percent of Medicaid payments for home care services go to workers’ wages. This policy would also allow states to take into account the unique experiences that small home care providers and providers in rural areas face while ensuring their employees receive their fair share of Medicaid payments and continued training as well as the delivery of quality care. Higher wages will likely reduce turnover, leading to higher quality of care for older adults and people with disabilities across the nation, as studies have shown. States will also be required to be more transparent in how much they pay for home care services and how they set those rates, increasing the accountability for home care providers. Finally, states will have to create a home care rate-setting advisory group made up of beneficiaries, home care workers and other key stakeholders to advise and consult on provider payment rates and direct compensation for direct care workers.

Strong Record on Improving Access to Care and Supporting Caregivers

Today’s new final rules are in addition to an already impressive track record on delivering on the President’s Executive Order on Care. Over the last year, the Biden-Harris Administration has:

• Increased pay for care workers, including by proposing a rule to gradually increase pay for Head Start teachers by about $10,000, to reach parity with the salaries of public preschool teachers.
• Cut child care costs for low-income families by finalizing a rule that will reduce or eliminate copayments for more than 100,000 working families, and lowering the cost of care for lower earning service members, thereby reducing the cost of child care for nearly two-thirds of children receiving care on military bases. Military families earning $45,000 would see a 34% decrease in the amount they pay for child care.
• Supported family caregivers by making it easier for family caregivers to access Medicare beneficiary information and provide more support as they prepare for their loved ones to be discharged from the hospital. The Administration has also expanded access to mental health services for tens of thousands of family caregivers who are helping veterans.

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Managed Pollinator Protection Plan

The importance and value of pollinators.

Pollinators, such as honey bees, native bees, other insects, and mammals, are vital to the production of fruits, vegetables, and nuts in the United States. Honeybee pollination alone adds more than $15 billion in value to the country's crops. Worldwide, pollinators contribute to the production of more than 35% of the world's crops. Pollinators play a key part of agriculture and food systems sustainability in the United States and contribute greatly to the economy of the country's agricultural sector. A strong pollinator community overall helps ensure a better environment.

The Decline of Pollinators and Its Causes in the United States

U.S. beekeepers began reporting widespread losses of the honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) in 2006. The Bee Informed Partnership (BIP), a collaboration group consisting of researchers and universities from all across the country, started monitoring yearly colony losses beginning in 2006. According to their results, total colony losses have been higher than the acceptable every year since 2006. In 2012, the United States Department of Agriculture issued its Report on the National Stakeholders Conference on Honey Bee Health . The report identified multiple stressors that contribute to pollinator loss, including parasites and pathogens, poor nutrition due to the loss of forage lands, and exposure to pesticides.

Communication Strategies for Reducing Pesticide Risk for Managed Pollinators in Michigan

As part of the national strategy to reduce the losses of honey bees and other pollinators, Michigan has developed a managed pollinator protection (MP3), Communication Strategies for Reducing Pesticide Risk for Managed Pollinators in Michigan . It's designed to improve and protect the health of pollinators in Michigan by mitigating the risk of pesticide exposure, while recognizing that pesticides are important tools for crop, property, and human health protection.

In February 2016, Michigan began developing its MP3 by bringing together a diverse group of commodity partners and stakeholders .

In August-October 2016, beekeepers, beekeeping organizations, growers, private and commercial pesticide applicators, pesticide registrants, Michigan State University (including Extension), United States Department of Agriculture, and others attended listening sessions. They heard about and discussed pesticides and risks to managed pollinators, communication between beekeepers and applicators, pollinator habitat, education, regulation and management, recommendations to include in the MP3, and areas for possible research.

Listening session attendees were asked to provide their input on development of Michigan's MP3.  In addition to the seven listening sessions, targeted regional meetings, online communication/social media, and newsletters provided a variety of opportunities to for provide input.

Communication Strategies for Reducing Pesticide Risk for Managed Pollinators in Michigan is a non-regulatory document that provides guidance and flexibility to growers, pesticide users, beekeepers, and other stakeholders.

Michigan's MP3 will be tailored to fit conditions in our state that affect pollinators and will encourage best management practices that apply to our beekeepers, growers, and pesticide applicators. There will be periodic reviews of the MP3's efficacy and an outlet to amend it as necessary.

If you have questions about Michigan's MP3, Communication Strategies for Reducing Pesticide Risk for Managed Pollinators in Michigan , please contact us .

What's Next?

Our next steps are to partner with key stakeholders to:

• Develop Best Management Practices for specific crops or crop-groups or treatment types that will inform pesticide users and beekeepers about reducing risk to managed pollinators.
• Follow a 10-point action plan to provide outreach and education about reducing pesticide risk to managed pollinators, as listed in Michigan's MP3.

Managed Pollinator Protection Plan Updates

Addressing the Decline of Pollinators

National strategy to promote the health of honey bees and other pollinators.

The Pollinator Health Task Force identified three primary goals for federal departments and agencies, in collaboration with public and private partners:

• Reduce honey bee colony losses during winter (overwintering mortality) to no more that 15% within 10 years.
• Increase the Eastern population of the monarch butterfly to 225 million butterflies occurring in an area of approximately 15 acres in its overwintering grounds in Mexico through domestic/international actions and public-private partnerships by 2020.
• Restore or enhance 7 million acres of land for pollinators over the next five years through federal actions and public-private partnerships.

EPA's Role in the National Strategy: Risk Management Measures

In addition to its development and implementation of toxicity testing guidelines for honey bees; reevaluation of the risk, and development of a new use policies for, certain neonicotinoid pesticides; and conducting risk assessments on new active ingredients and on selected registered active ingredients; EPA will implement these risk management measures:

• Work with state and tribal partners to develop MP3s aimed at mitigating pesticide exposure.
• Improve pesticide labeling and restriction of pesticides that are acutely toxic to bees when applied to foliage.
• Reduce the exposure of bees to pesticide dusts generated during the planting of pesticide-treated seed.
• Expedite review of new Varroa mite control pesticides.
• Encourage and enhance pollinator protection and habitat activities.
• Evaluate and mitigate pesticide impacts on monarch butterflies.

Michigan's Role in the National Strategy

Michigan followed the Final Guidance for the Development and Implementation of Managed Pollinator Protection Plans as the foundation for developing its MP3, Communication Strategies for Reducing Pesticide Risk for Managed Pollinators in Michigan . The guidance identifies critical and recommended elements:

• Direct discussion between beekeepers, growers, pesticide applicators, and other stakeholders.
• Input from a representative cross-section of stakeholders as a plan is developed and before it is finalized.
• Means for growers or pesticide applicators to know if there are managed pollinators within certain distances of application sites and provide timely contact to the beekeeper prior to an application.
• Mitigating risks while managing pests.
• Using a variety of best management practices.
• A clear, defined plan for public outreach to stakeholders and the general public.
• Mechanisms to measure the efficacy and effectiveness of the Managed Pollinator Protection Plan to reduce exposure to bees through enhanced communication and collaboration among stakeholders.
• Periodic reviews no longer than three years apart with amendments submitted to EPA for acceptance.

Other Pollinator Protection Resources

Key federal and state agency documents.

• 2012: The United States Department of Agriculture issues Report on the National Stakeholders Conference on Honey Bee Health . The report identified multiple stressors that contribute to pollinator loss, including parasites and pathogens, poor nutrition due to the loss of forage lands, and exposure to pesticides.
• 2013: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) partners with Canada and California to develop a framework for quantifying the risk of pesticide exposure to bees.
• 2013: EPA develops new label language for certain neonicotinoid pesticides identified as particularly hazardous to bees.
• 2013: EPA announces its intention to amend the labels of pesticides that are applied to foliage and which are acutely toxic to bees upon contact.
• 2014: President Obama issues the Presidential Memorandum - Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators. The memorandum recognized the serious, ongoing loss of honey bees and other pollinators and its potential impact on food production systems, agriculture, and the environment. It establishes the Pollinator Health Task Force, with the directive to develop a national pollinator health strategy to increase and improve pollinator habitat.
• 2015: EPA proposes to ban the use of pesticides, including neonicotinoids, when crops are in bloom and bees are under contract for pollination services.
• 2015: The State FIFRA Issues Research and Evaluation Group provides its Final Guidance for the Development and Implementation of Managed Pollinator Protection Plans to states and tribes for use in developing successful plans.
• 2016: EPA releases the first of four reports on neonicotinoid pesticides potentially harmful to pollinators; the first report assesses imidacloprid, and the next reports (to be released for public comment in December 2016) will assess clothianidin, thiamethoxam, and dinotefuran.

Pesticide Risk Communication Tools

Other pollinator links of interest.

MSU Extension - Gardening in Michigan - Pollinators & Pollination

Michigan Pollinator Initiative

Managed Pollinator Protection Plan (MP3) Resources