Caveat: I'm not a mHelpDesk customer, nor will I ever be (I rolled my own solution, 2 weeks of PHP and Database mashing as an initial opportunity cost and SQL backups regularly as a continued opportunity cost was much cheaper for me than paying any subscription fee).
This whole thing is a communications problem.
1.) Customers see the initial barrier to entry of being able to afford $150 a month as a non-starter. What will occur is they will either roll their own or go to a competitor as a one man show and when they do grow to the point where 5 technician license is a heck of a deal (it is...at that level though) they will have to consider the time and energy lost in jumping ship to mHelpDesk and most likely won't consider it.
2.) mHelpDesk is marketing this as a value, and it is, but only for certain people. 1 or 2 man shops are basically being told "Here have this huge amount of food...it's a deal..also it spoils in 30 minutes so you have to eat it now" then turn around and throws away the rest of the food. It's a waste. Telling one or 2 man shops how big of a value it is per-user doesn't matter if they don't have 5 users to gobble it all up.
There are a few things that many have not considered.
1. We are not the only industry that uses their product, as such, many of the other industries that they are working with perhaps use every bit of their now basic package.
2. Most start-ups fail, which means that MH will likely spend tons of time on servicing small business that may never grow profitable for them or the business itself. This means that not only does this portion of their clientele offer a low profit margin, but they are high risk (meaning tons of money and time can be invested with little reward) and offer very little promise of financial stability in the future.
3. I may be wrong in this assumption, but I would assume that start-ups are probably high maintenance, which again means that the profit they generate is menial. In the least, they offer very little reward.
4. And I am sure that I am not wrong about this, but when it comes to anything tech related, techs are high maintenance as well. Why? Because we have extremely high expectations and pick apart anything that does not meet our expectations. Also, our industry constantly changes, which means so do our needs, which means that MH has to constantly change to meet those needs. Considering that there are probably many other industries using their product that do not require as much, but are willing to pay more due to the size of their business, then it only makes sense to weed us out if we cannot afford their software.
5. In many respects, we are in a dying industry or in the least, it is an industry that changes so much, that most start-ups or even successful businesses do not last long before they are replaced by other shops or techs. Again, this means no sustainable or predictable income.
These are assumptions of course, but my point is this. From a business perspective, it may not make any sense to service smaller businesses or start-ups any more, especially if they have enough bigger businesses to sustain them. It is the same reason why many of us techs are moving from break-fix to MSP or why we raise our prices to weed out cheap, troublesome and unprofitable customers. It is also not much different from a mobile tech or small shop who feels that servicing everyone for a small price is a good way to start a business, even if it is simply to get the experience they need to really start working with the Big Dogs. If you think about it, they have done a tremendous job of creating a great product with huge customer base and because of the size of the customer base, they are able to quickly work through many bugs, implement new features and expand their feature set altogether to meet more needs of their clients. Call the first few years of their business the beta phase if you like, but they now have a solid product and maybe they are stepping up their game, which means they will need more finances. They will also need more time and resources so that they can concentrate on servicing only those who make them the most profits. In the end, focusing only on these groups may very well make them more profitable, just like raising your prices makes you more profitable while doing less.
That said, maybe they will find that not offering a slightly smaller package at $100 to compete with other applications like RepairShopr was a mistake and they will have to add it. Either way, it is a business decision they have to make and trust me, from someone who has taken a lot of risks and experimented a lot with prices, you just never know until you do it. Some times it works, some times it does not and sometimes it completely blows up in your face. The fact is, you will never grow and become successful without making mistakes.
On a personal note, I can say that Vincent is a pretty stand up guy. He is young and perhaps this is his first business, which means his experience is limited. That said, he is doing a pretty good job considering. He has always kept his word, even if he has not always made the best decisions. He has always helped when feasible, even if that means helping a customer move on to another product that may better fit their needs. All in all, I may be moving on to another product myself because I feel that many of my needs have outgrown MH, but I do wish the best of luck for Vincent and his company.
