Advice on starting? Am I over thinking it?
Hey all, I've been reading both smallmsp and msp subreddits and I think I have everything ready but thought I'd toss it out here for any tips or anything. A friend of mine who owns a fire alarm company had asked I help maintain her machines. Realized MSP is really what I've been workin towards building my business. She also has customers looking for similar and is going to send me the work now knowing this is something I can offer. So I'm gearing up to give this a go and again was just curious if I am over thinking or have a solid plan.
Tech Stack:
Started out with using level.io as I was using TacticalRMM locally for some family but after reading the hate towards it and for good reason I looked around. I so far really do like their offering. I used their new machine setup they offer and was able to customize it and ran it on a new machine they just bought. I have created some power scripts to disable the USB as that was a request and also to set a custom background I generated for them. I also preinstalled some of the software they use like adobe and drop box. I didn't dig to deep into if I could have the account setup automatically but again overall I'm happy with level.io except I think having to use Tags to organize customers seems a little odd but I get it.
I was looking at using ESETs MSP offering for MDR / Antivirus. They have a 25 endpoint minimum at around $4 per device. I'm thinking of just paying for this up front as the cost seems doable. I've already met and spoke with one of their people and the ESET Protect Complete seems to check a few boxes that I can offer.
Backups I've looked at NovaBACKUP. I don't have any pricing on them yet but something like acronis with a 500 monthly minimum is currently not in the cards. I would like to offer backup as a service so if you have any additional suggestions of platforms I'd love to hear them.
Email, this one I seem to see a lot of back and forth on. I've seen people say pax8 and then it seems there was a shift from pax8 to sherweb for reselling Microsoft and office 365 licensing. I've also requested to join the Proton MSP as I've been using their email for a while now and think its a good service. If theres an argument against this I'm all ears as well.
One thing I've not 100% decided with was either using Atlassian free tier with Jira and confluence. They have a service desk that seems to be decent for ticketing. I'm familiar with Jira from the past 7 years of using it at my current employer. However I have recently heard of IT Flow and this actually seems to also cover Ticketing, CRM, and Billing all under one roof which makes it pretty attractive option as well. Though after kickin the tires the fact you setup products/services but you can't put them easily into an invoice just seems kind of dumb.
Lastly I did look at some RMM+PSA options, Syncro which seems to offer a plan of $160 and combines a few of the above as well and its unlimited endpoints. A bonus they seem to have a live chat agent which could help as a selling point to smaller businesses. I also see SuperOps offers similar it seems for $10 cheaper a month
Insurance pretty simple I got a decent quote from Ergo / NEXT insurance for General Liability and E&O. Anyone use these guys and have anything negative to say about them?
Contracts, is anyone using a template or just doing the AI thing to generate something? Lawyer friends? This is the only other part I'm really wanting to make sure is correct.
Overall my thinking is to offer a core package of $100 per endpoint. I believe this might be low but I'm starting out and this seemed to be a good starting point especially with small businesses. Then a premium package that bundles in ESET and Backups at $150. Do you find it easier to offer packages or a base packages and then additional items piece meal?
Again I feel its a decent start off but again I feel I might be over thinking it. However I'd rather always error on the side of caution.