By MAXfocus Guest Blog

If you run a managed services business, you’re presumably keen to build up your revenue and grow your business.

When you think about growing a business, it’s natural to automatically consider ways of bringing more customers on board. However, it’s also possible to grow an MSP business by working on your service offering and aiming to make more from your existing customer base.

With that fact in mind, here are five ideas you may wish to consider:

1. Enhance your automation

Years ago, looking after network infrastructures typically involved using a whole host of different tools, including remote access utilities, antivirus consoles and uptime monitoring software.

Today, various solutions exist that help you centralize control of multiple infrastructures. Choose the right one, and you can have a bird’s-eye view of all the equipment under your jurisdiction from a central dashboard.

But how does this help you grow your MSP business? By freeing up the time you used to spend on all those different tools, leaving you more available for project work and new customers.

2. Add more services

The ultimate goal of every MSP should be to provide everything customers need to run the IT side of their businesses.

If you’ve still got customers using third-party antivirus products or backup solutions, you are missing a revenue opportunity. You should be providing these services yourself as part of the package, or at the very least making some reseller commission. The same applies to every facet of IT provisioning of each of your customers' needs.

3. Move customers away from break/fix

Many MSPs have gradually moved into managed services from a more traditional service provider model. If this applies to you, chances are you’ve still got some customers stubbornly hanging onto the break/fix model.

Try to use real life figures, such as historical invoices, to prove that moving to the MSP model makes financial sense. It may not boost your overall income, but it will boost your guaranteed regular income, which will increase the value of your business.

4. Add mobile device management

If you’re concentrating your MSP offering on PCs and laptops, you’re missing out on a huge growth area.

Find an MDM (mobile device management) solution you are happy with, and take control of all the mobile devices, too. In an age where IT security and privacy is always in the news, this shouldn’t be too much of a “hard sell” to your customers.

5. Consider extending your hours

More and more companies now seem to work outside of traditional 9-to-5 business hours, and many need support around the clock, especially if they have a global presence.

Think about extending your business hours accordingly. This needn’t mean working 24/7; you could outsource to a NOC (network operations center) or use offshore freelancers to provide “out of hours” support.

As you can see, growing your MSP business is something you can do by marketing wisely to your existing customers—perhaps think about them before you start finding new leads to sign up.

Guest blogs such as this one are published monthly and are part of The VAR Guy's annual platinum sponsorship.