A lot in the world has changed since you drafted your 2020 business plan late last year.  

The security landscape for SMBs and MSPs has changed dramatically over the past several years.

If you have not heard about cybersecurity online, in print, or on the news in the last 10 years, exactly how safe are your customers? Cybersecurity has become a serious topic for businesses and consumers. And unfortunately, cyber threats are set aside in favor of other initiatives and become a bigger problem in the long run.

In a COVID-19 world there is a lot to think about and focus on.  The most important thing to always keep in mind is the safety of our family and friends, but for better or worse we still have to think about being business owners.  Clients need to be able to work from home and MSPs need to make sure we can pay the bills and stay on track with processes.  Economic, emotional, and social instability like this is something that nefarious groups can easily exploit.  We have already seen an upshift in hacking, ransomware, and malware attacks on everyone those people can reach, and it is likely to get worse.  What do we do to make sure we are protected?

In today’s IT environments productivity is necessary, uptime is essential, and security is critical. The latest hardware and software provide layers of protection in hopes of preventing cyber attacks. The newest technology causes most IT providers to forget the weakest link: the end user.

I worked as a vCIO for an established MSP in my area. I had the traditional vCIO responsibilities: onboarding new clients, detailing service plans, generating proposals, planning meetings, discussing budgets, consulting, and so on. It was about 6 months into the role when I shifted exclusively to a Health Care vCIO and relied on HIPAA as my compliance backbone.

Many MSPs aren’t cultivating enough COIs (centers of influence) to generate new business. While there are many ways to generate leads, COIs are a keystone of your warm lead generation process. 

Companies often struggle to create and enforce robust cybersecurity strategies, partly because compliance varies among employees. This inconsistency could be caused by the specifics of job roles within the company that might make policies more or less inconvenient to employees based on their position. In addition, different levels of security awareness and technical skills across an organization can create further security challenges.

I think we've all learned a lot over the past month. Think about it. You've probably learned a lot about your customers, vendors, team members, process, business fundamentals, and, most of all, yourself. 

Without a doubt, getting your MSP business through the COVID-19 pandemic is challenging for MSPs. If you can successfully protect your business, you’re going to pull through and come out a stronger business on the other side.