Nancy Sabino, co-founder and CEO of Katy, Texas-based SabinoCompTech, shares three suggestions she'd apply if she were launching an MSP from scratch today.

1. Standardize as much as possible – Create repeatable processes surrounding those standards. What that means is, have certain kinds of computers that you use, certain servers, routers, switches. Stay within certain families that you can create processes around for installing, for setting up, for upgrading, essentially for every piece of what we do, just to make everything easier. It helps when you're a one-man show. If you're super swamped, this allows you to work a little bit faster because you're working off of muscle memory, following the processes that you've created for your standardized services or hardware. And then as you grow, it helps to already know or have in place certain processes that you can train your team on, which then ensures quality by following the same processes.

2. Focus on a vertical – You can help a lot of your clients with regulations or compliance. Getting to know what rules surround the technology (and) the security that is required of them can help to set you up as an expert. It makes you more valuable as a partner to all your clients. One example: We've attached ourselves to healthcare. We have literally spent hours upon hours doing our research on HIPAA compliance and rules and what they mean for our clients, and being able to translate that to them.

3. Take risks and be bold – There's a lot of times when we know that we should make a move and it can be very scary. Whether it's a new service offering or cutting off a service that does not do very well, putting together your service offering or transitioning to a new RMM tool; there's a lot of changes that can happen when you're stepping into an MSP world. But if you're thinking about making a change, it's for a reason. You definitely have to just trust your gut and take the risks, because 90 percent of the time they definitely pay off. A lot of the time, we take small steps when taking a risk. We'll test it out in a controlled environment and see the reaction that we get and then go from there.

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