This Business and Moment...

Prophet said:
Thanks guys. It's by far the best thing I've ever done.

We're concentrating on providing great service and offering strategic advice, which has proven very popular. We're currently negotiating a deal with a new client who has 400 users over 3 sites so fingers crossed they'll be on-board by October.
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Have often considered setting up an MSP. I think if I didn't get my current role its the route I probably would have gone down :)
 
Prophet said:
Good luck mate. Keep the costs down as much as you can and build on your personal reputation. In the service industry, people buy from people so we've found it incredibly important to focus on the relationships we have and have built. We're winning new business purely on referrals from existing clients.

Where are you based?
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Thank you. We are based in Gloucester, however my house mate lives near Reading during the week so we can cover quite a large area. Hardest part now is the business name and getting a website up. We are both Ltd Company contractors but we want to set up an LLP for the new venture and each put a little money in for the website and setup etc.
 
Phate said:
Have often considered setting up an MSP. I think if I didn't get my current role its the route I probably would have gone down :)
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The main challenge as a single person is getting people to trust you'll have them covered all the time. If you're sick or on holiday you can't always be there for them. Once you get another person on board it's much easier. I was lucky to start with someone, and now there are 'almost' 6 of us it's great.


ChrisD. said:
Thank you. We are based in Gloucester, however my house mate lives near Reading during the week so we can cover quite a large area. Hardest part now is the business name and getting a website up. We are both Ltd Company contractors but we want to set up an LLP for the new venture and each put a little money in for the website and setup etc.
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Don't stress too much about he name. We wrote down what we wanted our business to be in terms of the service we offer and our values and ended up using one word.

With regards to the website. My advice would be to keep it simple and slick. We fell into the trap of getting ours done by 'professionals' and while it's OK it cost a lot. We're getting a new one done soon which is costing a 5th of the price and already beats the other. Simple, fast and professional looking with content which gets our values and services across in a plain English way.
 
Prophet said:
Don't stress too much about he name. We wrote down what we wanted our business to be in terms of the service we offer and our values and ended up using one word.

With regards to the website. My advice would be to keep it simple and slick. We fell into the trap of getting ours done by 'professionals' and while it's OK it cost a lot. We're getting a new one done soon which is costing a 5th of the price and already beats the other. Simple, fast and professional looking with content which gets our values and services across in a plain English way.
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Thanks. I didn't want an overly fancy website, just something simple with what the company offers and what area we cover, plus a list of certifications we hold and an 'info' contact email address. Then some loose spiel about previous clients we have both worked for on individual contracts, such as migration x amount of people from Exchange 2010 to 2016 or something along those lines, couple of simple lines. I have thought about putting a blog on there as I wouldn't mind going for Vexpert perhaps down the line and I know my 'business partner' is interested in doing similar for this Cisco certs. He's also wanting to set up a teaching company, teaching CCNA and CCNP, we may pool it all into to one but we don't want to bite off more than we can chew!

I've already done work for small clients, whose designs and proposals have won praise compared to extremely large organisations such as DXC, Microsoft etc. We want to be fast and agile, not having to be tied down to the corporate nonsense larger organisations bring.
 
ChrisD. said:
Thanks. I didn't want an overly fancy website, just something simple with what the company offers and what area we cover, plus a list of certifications we hold and an 'info' contact email address. Then some loose spiel about previous clients we have both worked for on individual contracts, such as migration x amount of people from Exchange 2010 to 2016 or something along those lines, couple of simple lines. I have thought about putting a blog on there as I wouldn't mind going for Vexpert perhaps down the line and I know my 'business partner' is interested in doing similar for this Cisco certs. He's also wanting to set up a teaching company, teaching CCNA and CCNP, we may pool it all into to one but we don't want to bite off more than we can chew!

I've already done work for small clients, whose designs and proposals have won praise compared to extremely large organisations such as DXC, Microsoft etc. We want to be fast and agile, not having to be tied down to the corporate nonsense larger organisations bring.
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Sounds like you'll do very well. Part of our 'winning formula' is to keep it simple, offer transparent advice with no agenda and always deliver a great service.

Being fast and agile is great. We're taking business from other MSP's who are much larger and well established than us, while matching their prices. We're also finding VOIP system are a great quick win, that bring in return every month with little work.
 
Prophet said:
Sounds like you'll do very well. Part of our 'winning formula' is to keep it simple, offer transparent advice with no agenda and always deliver a great service.

Being fast and agile is great. We're taking business from other MSP's who are much larger and well established than us, while matching their prices. We're also finding VOIP system are a great quick win, that bring in return every month with little work.
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Thank you. I may drop you an email at some point with some questions if that's okay?
 
To add to my VCAP comment above, I'm not actually VCP certified yet. Rewind to March this year and I had just finished a big 6.0 to 6.5 upgrade for a financial services client. Having about 12 years experience with VMware and doing a lot of 6.5 stuff, I decided to sit the VCP 6.5 exam without revision and I passed. :) However, due to VMware requiring you to do a course as well as the foundation exam, I wasn't officially certified. I finished with that client and I've moved into a networking role and had intended doing ICND 2 (I'm working at CCNP sort of level) but I figured why bother, I already have a contract in place, so this evening I've just paid £1800 odd for a virtual classroom based VCP course (VSICM 6.7), so I need to do a little revising for the foundation exam which will get me the VCP certification with an aim to specialise in vSAN/NSX and hopefully get VCAP next year.
 
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Russinating said:
My dad worked in the UAE for 7 years and I visited about 6 times, let me know if you want any pointers or advice on anything :).
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Thanks for the offer, appreciated! I should be ok as a friend from uni moved over to Dubai nearly 3 years ago doing the same role as I'll be doing, also know a few other people out there.
 
Nice job, might have to rename you @randomshenans ;)
Btw the social media links on your website in the team section don't work.

In other news, just signed the contract for my next role starting 3rd September, back in London :)
 
hahaha I have a huge alter ego in this bloody telegram now as the Goat Master, it's comical. We've up to 1200 members in telegram and hoping to hit 2k this week.

I'll fix the social icons :)

Great news about the contract! This the one closer for you?
 
randomshenans said:
hahaha I have a huge alter ego in this bloody telegram now as the Goat Master, it's comical. We've up to 1200 members in telegram and hoping to hit 2k this week.

I'll fix the social icons :)

Great news about the contract! This the one closer for you?
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Goat Master eh? Hmm..... ;)

Yeh I'm really pleased about this one, located in Westminster so a fairly easy commute and the payment terms are much better than my current one in Sweden. Speaking of which, it's my last week here before we fly home for good on Saturday!
 
Only early stages but I had an phone interview this morning for an IT role in Geneva, by the sounds of it they need someone with SCCM skills. The pay seems abit low as its about 89.000 CHF a year and I know the cost of living in Switzerland is HIGH!!!! But its a step in the right direction for me to leaving the UK by the end of the year and I haven't made major changes to my CV or started an Linkedin profile yet. :)
 
I wouldn't do that. Depends on the role, but if I was to take a perm role it'd be at least 120k CHF, I was offered one this year at 134k and Geneva is hella expensive.
 
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