Ready to launch. Need pricing feedback

[Chadhardy]

First off I want to thank everyone for the answers to my previous posts. It has really got me thinking clearer about the future of my business. I'm excited and before I try to talk myself out of taking the next step (which sometimes I suffer from paralysis by analysis) I wanted to get some feedback on my thoughts.

I contacted a small business that I have good relations with (and I'm sure they will start using me once I launch my services) about how much they are paying my competitor for their monthly MSP plan.
$5 - Managed Anti-Virus
$25 - Workstation Monitoring and Remote Support (I believe it's unlimited remote)
$50 - Online Backup (not sure the space allocated, but this client probably backs up about 50MB)
--Total $80 per month--

If they have to come out they charge her $89.99/hr (discounted from their $125/hr) plus they charged her $106 for trip fee (there and back - it's about 20 miles or so each way)

So, I started looking at inexpensive options to provide similar services to get me going and this is what I'm thinking about. I'm assuming I have 50 paying clients so I broke down each service's amounts as a per workstation amount.

Monitoring & AV from Kabuto (they're supposed to start offering AV in January) - $2.50 per workstation (+$10/mo for service)
Remote Access from Instant Housecall - $.78 ($39/mo for 50 unattended installations)
Online Backup from iDrive - $5 per workstation (using their personal plan which includes 1TB at $60 per year without the discount)

So basically out of pocket I could provide a System Monitoring service with 1TB of Online Backup and Remote Support for $8.28.

I think this would be great for my micro/small businesses that just have 1 or 2 computers and for residential clients if they're interested (they would be pay with credit card on a subscription basis so no time is spent tracking down payments)

For my businesses with server the pricing would be similar, but I would use iDrive's business plan which would cost a little more and come with less space.

The reason I'm wanting to add in the backup is because most small business people I speak with still aren't backing up their data (just had one in my shop today). I think if I could sell them on the Remote Support w/ Online Backup that would be just what they're looking for. The monitoring would just be a bonus (not management per say, but I would at least be alerted if there was an issue with a hard drive, BSOD, etc.)

I know there are quite a few threads on pricing and from what I've seen $20-$30 seems to be the norm without the backup component. So what do you think would be a good price when adding in online backup?

My initial thoughts are:
Workstation without Backup - $25 /mo
Workstation with Personal Backup (micro/small biz/residential) - $50 /mo
Server without Backup - $50
Server with Business Backup - $75

My normal on-site labor rate is $125. If the client is on a monthly plan I would reduce that down to $85.

These are just some quick numbers and I would be very interested in feedback before I start marketing this.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

 

[Markverhyden]

And Happy New Year back.

I think you workstation pricing is with the industry "standard" so to speak. But you make it clear about the backup size limits. You should also make sure they understand the limitations of cloud backups. Perform real life tests of data restore on your systems to get a benchmark. One problem people have is they think that a cloud data restore will happen just as quickly as if they were downloading some large file. Which is not the case. Obviously they will be throttling to control costs and provide a consistent customer experience. I did a test on my free account, 5GB max, 4.41GB and it took some 2.75 hours for the upload. I'm going to do the restore in the next day or two. I'm sure the paid versions will be faster but not even close to what they expect based on their ISP speeds.

For the server. Have you defined what your server skills are? It's one thing to back up regular data files. Apps is a different thing. Quickbooks, Access, Exchange, etc all have special requirements. Your proposed pricing seems very low. I usually see people advertising over $100 just for the monitoring. Backing adds to that. It's hard to get real world pricing as you may know. But one customer I converted to OS X told me what they were paying. $300/month for 2 workstations and one server. The server was just a basic file server. As best I could tell there was no real time management of the machines, like NAble, MAX Focus, etc. It did include remote access to fix issues using TV. So, basically, they were paying $300/month for cloud backup of around 200GB.

Another thing you should add to the mix. An option for onsite imaging of each machine. That way it's easier to deal with machine failures since you will have full images to work with.

Your discount for your hourly looks good as well for contracted customers.

 

[Chadhardy]

Well I just found out about Comodo One which with their free RMM and AV that would eliminate my need for Kabuto and Instant Housecall thus my only output of money would be for the the backup solution.

So I could take the Workstation without backup down to $20 and the Server without backup down to $45 (or $5 less than whatever amount I decide on).

Still looking for more feedback from everyone

 

[fencepost]

One thing to watch out for with Comodo's RMM and some of the others: acceptable levels of security for working with medical or financial clients. HIPAA and the like are nothing to play with.

 

[acscva]

Why would you drop your rate down so low? I think everything looks good except the labor discount!

 

[cypress]

I tried Comodo and didn't really like it. Just found that the software seemed glitchy with so much crap to configure. I myself will be using Kabuto with monitoring and the managed Anti-virus once it does launch. I think you should at least give that a try especially for the residential and home business clients.

I do think dropping your labor is too much, even then the lowest I would go is to $100 per hour.

 

[Chadhardy]

After experimenting with Comodo a little it was a pain to figure out. Too many steps, options in odd places, etc. Kabuto seems to be the better option at this point in time. Once I grow the client base I can start looking for a real RMM.

Speaking of growing the client base. I'm going to an existing client's office today for some on-site work and I will be talking with them on my new monthly plans. Since I've been down this road before (I've sold MSP services in the past before I stopped for other reasons) I know one of the biggest push backs will be... "We only spent $X with you over the past 6 months why would we pay $X per month? We will just call you when we need you."

Besides the whole line about, "With this new plan we will be proactive in monitoring your systems... blah blah blah" does anyone have any selling points?

My thought is to hammer home the "Unlimited Remote Support" part of the plan which I think will entice them.

So what I will be offering them:
Workstation without Backup - $25 /mo
Server with Business Backup - $75 /mo
I will then give them a discount on my onsite labor - $85 (I know some have said this was too low, but in my area that's more in line with what people pay normally so my discount would put me more in line with their competitive rates.)

The last time I was in there office there were 7 Workstations and 1 Server. All data was stored on the Server.

Let's see what happens.

 

[WindsorComputerRepair]

This is how we sort of do it:
HelpDesk (Tickets):

Tickets are sold in blocks, and they have a 365 day expiry.

• 1-5 Tickets – 60$/ticket + 10% Hourly Discount if needed + 15 minutes free remote support / ticket
  
  
• 6-10 Tickets – 55$/ticket + 10% Hourly Discount if needed + 15 minutes free remote support / ticket
  
  
• 11-20 tickets – 50$/ticket + 10% Hourly Discount + 30 Minutes free remote support
  
• 21-30 tickets – 45$/ticket + 10% Hourly Discount + 30 Hr Free remote support
• 31-50 tickets – 40$/ticket + 10% hourly discount + 45 Hr remote
• 51-99+ tickets – 35$/ticket + 10% hourly discount + 1 Hr remote free
  
• 100+ See prepaid hours; or no change
  

Prepaid Hours:

Prepaid hours are sold in blocks, and they have a 365 day expiry. Can be used for Helpdesk, or on their own.

• 1-5 Hours - 5% Hourly discount + 10% off tickets
• 6-10 Hours - 10% Hourly discount + 10% off tickets
• 11-20 Hours - 15% Hourly discount + 15% off tickets
• 21-30 Hours – 20% Hourly discount + 15% off tickets
• 31-40 Hours – 25% Hourly discount + 20% off tickets
• 41-50 Hours – 30% Hourly discount + 20% off tickets
• 51-99 Hours – 35% Hourly discount + 25% off tickets
• 100+ Hours – 40% Hourly discount + 30% off tickets
  

Retainer:

Retainers are sold per time, and expire at the end of the month.

• 1-5 Hours / Month – 10% Hourly Discount
• 6-10 Hours / Month – 15% Hourly Discount
• 11-15 Hours / Month – 20% Hourly Discount
• 16-20 Hours / Month – 25% Hourly Discount
• 21-30 Hours / Month – 30% Hourly Discount
• 31-50 Hours / Month – 35% Hourly Discount
• 51-99 Hours / Month – 40% Hourly Discount
• 100+ hours / Month – 45% Hourly Discount
  

In addition, if requested for a certain contract period, additional discounts apply:

• 3 Month Duration – No discount, minimum amount
• 6 Month Duration – 5% Discount
• 12 Month Duration – 10% Discount
• 24 Month Duration – 15% Discount
• 36 Month Duration – 20% Discount
  

 

[Chadhardy]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I just got back from a client's office and they signed up! Excited to start down this path. This will be my focus this year! I love recurring revenue!

 

[cypress]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I just got back from a client's office and they signed up! Excited to start down this path. This will be my focus this year! I love recurring revenue!

Congrats!!

 

[Markverhyden]

Congratulations!!!

 

[ComputerPro]

Is Kabuto an actual RMM? I was under the impression that it generates support balloons that shows your name and phone number etc. I never thought of it as an RMM but I could be wrong as I didn't dig too deeply. We do use their TechSuite product which is great!
We use Continuum. No minimums so great for just starting out. Only negative is the 3 month on-boarding fees. After that it's just the number of agents X agent price. It's a full fledged RMM with a NOC which if used correctly is a very convenient time saver.
Congrats on your sale too!

 

[fencepost]

Kabuto has added some level of monitoring (reporting back to your dashboard) for I believe $0.50/month/machine, and is going to be adding managed antivirus this month for $2/month/machine.

They've also been asked about remote scripting and other options and are planning on that, but I don't know if they have a timeframe. For residential I'd say it absolutely sounds like something worth investigating, and possibly also for businesses without some of the regulatory security requirements. I'd be more than a little cautious before putting it into something like a doctor's office or any customer in financial services.

I also glanced briefly at Comodo last fall, but didn't even get as far as a dashboard once I asked about HIPAA. At the time the answer was that it was in planning for this spring.

 

[Chadhardy]

Kabuto is more of a RM (Remote Monitoring) instead of RMM. It does have the basic monitoring of hard drive, anti-virus, etc. but it doesn't assist in installing updates, etc. For now, for what I'm trying to accomplish I think it will work, but give me about a month to really test it out and I will let you know.

I'm still experimenting with Instant Housecall as well. Trying to decide between that and ScreenConnect.

I've spoken with more of my clients today and I think I will have at least 3 more using my MSP services over the next week.

 

[Chadhardy]

Back with an update...

I installed Instant Housecall on my first client's workstations and server. So far I'm a little hesitant about purchasing IH because of 2 issues I've ran into:
1.) On several computers I've connected to I was unable to get the "Auto PC Repair" (D7) to run. Waited several minutes in some cases just to see if it was a speed issue, but it never popped up. I even tested it on another computer in my office and it never popped up.

2.) I had an employee of that new client call and ask me to log in and check on something. I wasn't at my office so I stopped at the library to use their wi-fi. It took IH about 10 minutes to open up and let me log into the tech control panel. I was never able to get my full list of computers and log into one. Fortunately it wasn't an emergency situation, but since it was the first time I was doing this for a new client it looked badly on me.

I'm still considering MSPAnywhere especially since I just found out that for $49 per month I can have 300 unattended computers where as that would cost me much more with other services.

Also with MSPAnywhere I can create alerts that would accomplish what I'm looking for such as hard drive space usage, memory, offline, etc. If I went this route it would mean I don't have to use Kabuto for the monitoring.

The downside to not using Kabuto is not having access to their upcoming Managed AV (which is supposed to come out this month).

What other options do I have for MAV if I don't use one built into an existing service?

 

[ComputerPro]

I'm not trying to sound like a salesman for these products lol just giving my thoughts. Continuum RMM uses Logmein which is one of the best remote tools. We also use ScreenConnect which used to have an awesome price structure due to the fact that it is self hosted. It runs very fast and is super easy to use especially for persistent connections. They were purchased by Connectwise and I think their pricing changed so I'm not sure if the prices are great anymore. There are quite a few nowadays though. Join.me, Teamviewer as well as all the new ones popping up. We used to use Instant Housecall and had no issues at all with them other than the price at the time when compared to ScreenConnect. Sometimes the way remote tools work within the remote software (copying to temp etc) I find its usually easier (and more stable) to just copy your tools folder over to the cust machine and run locally from there.
Back in the early 2000's we use to use Reverse VNC? or something like that by Joel Bomgar which he eventually created an appliance under his name. Brings back memories and reminds me how long we've been doing remote support lol.

 

[Ken's PC Repair]

Back with an update...

I installed Instant Housecall on my first client's workstations and server. So far I'm a little hesitant about purchasing IH because of 2 issues I've ran into:
1.) On several computers I've connected to I was unable to get the "Auto PC Repair" (D7) to run. Waited several minutes in some cases just to see if it was a speed issue, but it never popped up. I even tested it on another computer in my office and it never popped up.

I also see this on occasion. It will usually run if i launch it 2-3 times.