MSPs (managed service providers)

IronCloud has 12 employees and is about to hire a 13th: three business partners, six engineers, an accountant and an office manager. Scott and one partner handle new clients and client success.

we're the gateway into IronCloud

Scott, Sep 25

Clients span agriculture, nonprofits, retail, accounting firms and law offices. They do not specialize in a vertical.

Scott, Sep 25

The largest client has 300 users in Illinois and is handled remotely, all of it.

Scott, Sep 25

Runs a managed service provider for small offices of 5 to 15 employees, with a dental specialty. Started on his own in 2026 with a paying base and has been busy since June.

Sukhjit, Oct 8

New clients come almost entirely from referrals, plus dental Facebook groups and cold LinkedIn outreach.

referrals, referrals, referrals

Sukhjit, Oct 8

Trust Tech has 24 full-time employees: 12 in services, 5 salespeople and the rest in operations, administration, procurement and accounting. Chris's background is engineering.

Chris, Oct 12

About 300 managed business clients. Services cover IT infrastructure, security, and Microsoft 365 licensing and tenant protection. New-build work for a network of YMCAs involves a cabling partner.

Chris, Oct 12

They call the people they work for clients and never customers.

we don't ever refer to the people that we work for as customers, ever

Chris, Oct 12

A new firm in Southeast Michigan with a handful of clients in retail, credit unions and manufacturing, all from personal references and networking. He left a large MSP and is adding contractors, including a commission-based salesperson.

Nathan, Oct 12

Hosts on his own server and firewall in a data center cabinet.

Nathan, Oct 12

They do not handle websites. Clients who ask are sent to large local firms (Stormfront Productions, Find 8, Tree Frog), none of which he trusts.

we don't handle websites

Scott, Sep 25

The firm does not build websites or do marketing and partners with outside people for both. For dental clients the partner is DocSites.

we don't do websites or marketing

Sukhjit, Oct 8

Historically referred web work out and added no margin, because clients already paid the firm for management.

we just referred it out

Bill, Oct 12

Now bringing web development in-house: a couple of developers on 1099 contracts, with a third entity planned. The firm moved its own site from HubSpot to Azure and documented the move so it can be repeated.

Bill, Oct 12

His firm has the technical side and lacks design and consultation. He said they have templates they built, and that they are not artsy.

Bill, Oct 12

Their own site is built by a web company in La Porte, Indiana. The site ties into the firm's own back end (a customer-satisfaction score) and pulls in partner content, so a template shop would not work.

Chris, Oct 12

Web development and large low-voltage cabling are the two things they send to outside partners.

Chris, Oct 12

He would build a client's site himself. So far he has built only his own.

I'd probably build it myself to be honest with you.

Nathan, Oct 12

He does not enjoy building websites and expects to stop once IT work fills his time. If it got to that point he would want someone else to handle it while he still hosts it.

Nathan, Oct 12

He has been through roughly a half dozen to a dozen designers and developers over the years, and many started strong and then disappeared.

a lot of them have flaked out

Scott, Sep 25

The large firms are too expensive for his smaller clients.

I don't want to spend $10,000 or $20,000 to get this website up and going when it's just a 5 or 10 page website.

Scott, Sep 25

A nonprofit client sent changes to its developer and heard back six months later that the developer had been busy. Same-day turnaround on small edits would have been 'fantastic'.

Scott, Sep 25

Dental website vendors tend to take over a client's name servers and DNS, which leaves the client stuck with them.

they will take your name server and all that DNS record stuff. You end up more stuck with them than you want to

Sukhjit, Oct 8

Most web developers have nothing ready to show a prospect. A mockup stands out.

I don't know any other web dev people that kind of do any of that. They kind of have something ready to show.

Sukhjit, Oct 8

Most web developers he has seen are templated and rigid, built on a cPanel-style host or on HubSpot.

they're kind of cookie cutter, most of them

Bill, Oct 12

HubSpot is expensive behind its paywall.

very ridiculously pricey paywalled

Bill, Oct 12

Those panels keep the site's database to themselves, so the client never sees the data, and a website visit cannot start something in the client's own systems.

Bill, Oct 12

Some web developers, and some IT providers, hold a client's DNS and registrar logins and use them as leverage. His rule is that the client owns the domain, DNS and site accounts and gives the vendor access.

No, no. The client should own that fully and provide access to the third parties.

Chris, Oct 12

Developers who ask about colors instead of the client's business are a poor fit.

what's your territory, right? What's your target and what's your ideal client profile look like, right?

Chris, Oct 12

Clients usually find a developer with a web search, and then ask him or a rep whether the person is okay. He says peers find it hard to locate a good developer, and a one-person shop can lose its best person.

it's a lot of Google searches

Chris, Oct 12

He thinks developers stay with templates because it is what they know, not because of a client need.

Chris, Oct 12

He thinks $10,000 corporate website prices are hard to justify when AI cuts the work. Not established: any past experience hiring a web developer; the call did not cover it.

Nathan, Oct 12

Keeps the site updated after launch: a client sends pictures and text to someone and the site is updated.

Scott, Sep 25

A price a five to ten page site can bear.

Scott, Sep 25

DocSites posts its pricing on its site and sticks to it, which he describes as rare.

Sukhjit, Oct 8

A general price range he can quote, and examples of sites built, so a client can decide quickly whether to reach out. He would rather quote high and have the developer come in under.

Sukhjit, Oct 8

Price is the first thing his clients ask.

price is always the first question everybody asks me about

Sukhjit, Oct 8

The client's site lives in the client's own Azure or AWS environment, with a database the client can reach.

Bill, Oct 12

For anything involving AI: no training of any model on client data, encryption at rest and in transit, and monitoring.

Bill, Oct 12

Recurring revenue over one-time projects.

Bill, Oct 12

Understands the firm's business and market, and contributes ideas instead of waiting to be told.

it has to be client first

Chris, Oct 12

Flexible enough to tie the site into the firm's own systems, instead of limiting the work to a template.

Chris, Oct 12

His advice to Adam as a developer: take an interest in the client's trade, and ask the questions the client would not think to ask, such as whether a plumber wants scheduling built in.

Show that you have an interest in the client's business and that you don't have to know everything, obviously, but you do have to do a little bit of homework.

Chris, Oct 12

Yes. Clients without a good site have a relative building it, an attempt of their own, or an old site nobody maintains. He named two current leads, a nonprofit and a photographer who has no time to maintain his site.

Scott, Sep 25

He knows two dentists looking for websites and a recently purchased practice that may want a redo; his wife also wants a site. He asked Adam to send examples, and said a mockup of an existing site would help him show them.

Sukhjit, Oct 8

Yes, clients ask whether a developer they found is trustworthy, and sometimes bring their own developer into the work.

Chris, Oct 12

Yes, but they do not want to pay for it. One prospect wanted a landing page; he went as low as $400 and she still hesitated, and he does not think work at that price is worth his time.

They're always asking about websites. They just don't want to pay the money, though.

Nathan, Oct 12

He introduces both sides by email with a short blurb on each and then steps back. He offered to do that for the two leads the following week.

Typically, what I do with partners is I'll do a warm introduction over email

Scott, Sep 25

His agreement with a voice-over-IP vendor pays about ten percent monthly for a year on referred clients. He suggested starting with a few leads sent your way and settling firm numbers after the first one comes back.

I want to say it's like a 10% per month over a year type of agreement

Scott, Sep 25

He sees no real downside if the arrangement is one-sided, since he wants a small-site option to offer clients. He would revisit terms if he were sending two, three or five a month.

Scott, Sep 25

He takes no referral fee or incentive from vendors, because he does not want the burden, and refers by best fit. If a vendor wants to offer one, it goes to the customer.

We don't take incentives.

Sukhjit, Oct 8

He keeps verbal partnerships with other MSPs by specialty and refers outside his lane instead of taking on work he cannot do well.

I always refer based on what I feel is gonna be a best fit.

Sukhjit, Oct 8

Open to a follow-up and to working together, with no commitment either way.

there may be some ways for us to work together. There may not.

Bill, Oct 12

Shared the LinkedIn address of a cousin who runs an MSP, and asked Adam to connect with him first and mention Bill.

Bill, Oct 12

Idea Adam recorded after the call (2026-10-12): Ramsgate does the design, the mockup and the frontend code with a detailed brief, the MSP wires the backend and hosts, and Adam takes a share of the recurring revenue. Suggested as a pilot on one client site, with the share settled afterward.

Bill, Oct 12

Agreed to ask his cabling partner, and possibly one or two other contacts, whether they would take an introduction from Adam. He will check with them first and then report back.

Chris, Oct 12

Asked to stay in touch and to meet again in a month or two. He will keep Adam in mind if a client needs a website.

Nathan, Oct 12

Suggested joining as many networking groups as possible, and forming an LLC. Raised converting old WordPress sites as an opening.

Nathan, Oct 12

Intro support plan $40 per user per month with security included, $175 an hour beyond it; all-inclusive plan $100 per user per month.

Scott, Sep 25

Projects are fixed bid with the scope laid out first. Same rates regardless of client size, and a 10 percent nonprofit discount offered before it is asked for.

Scott, Sep 25

Around the $1,000 mark for a typical 15 to 20 person office, and $24.99 a month for a one-person cloud-only shop.

Sukhjit, Oct 8

His rough figures for what a firm in his industry is worth per dollar of revenue: hardware and software 5 to 18 cents, project services about 50 cents, managed services at least $1.50. He advised Adam to turn everything into recurring revenue.

Bill, Oct 12

Managed IT priced by user, device and server count, which he expects to land between $3,000 and $7,000 a month. He plans to pay a salesperson 15 percent of the first year of revenue on a lead that signs.

Nathan, Oct 12