Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” That statement couldn’t be further from the truth—but there is an opportunity that MSPs are missing in the Wi-Fi market. If you think about the Wi-Fi market today, it’s an incredibly well-known and mature solution category, where most vendors offer highly similar products that provide a very similar set of capabilities.

One of the common pieces of advice I hear given to managed service providers (MSPs) is to “go narrow”—find a niche and become a specialist. This is generally sound advice. Specialization typically means your MSP faces less competition and becomes much easier to find in an otherwise crowded marketplace. But finding an area to specialize in is easier said than done. So how do you find a great niche for your MSP?

If tech support had a motto, it’d be reminiscent of Rule #4 of the Auvik Way: Even when it’s not your fault, it’s your problem. But sometimes, there are problems so bad you wouldn’t want to deal with them. We’ve rounded up 17 examples from the r/techsupportgore subreddit that are sure to send a palm to your face and a shiver down your spine: Plugging in your USB receiver with a hammer for that flush mounted look. from r/techsupportgore Good luck getting that one out.

To grow your MSP’s revenue and business performance, the best sales tool isn’t a selling platform or a ninja-rockstar-unicorn sales hire. It’s documenting and optimizing your sales process. Just like your favorite sports team follows a game plan to win, your sales team needs a playbook to close more business.

“What have you done for me lately?” It’s an honest question that doesn’t always have an easy answer. Fact is, you’re doing a lot of proactive work behind-the-scenes to prevent network disruptions and unnecessary downtime. But if you’re not heroically putting out fires in front of your clients, they might think they’re paying you for nothing.

“Oh, they’ll never pay for that.” It’s a phrase Leigh Wood, the Director of Node IT Solutions, hears a lot from his fellow MSPs. It’s easy to understand why. When you’re used to hearing price push-back on every contract, selling something beyond your basic managed services agreement seems impossible.

There seems to be a smart version of everything these days. From coffee machines to aquarium thermometers, if you can think of a device that can benefit from an internet connection, it probably already exists. It’s not really a surprise. The IoT market is on the brink of explosion, as Intel projects 200 billion IoT devices will be added to our networks by 2020, up from 15 billion in 2015. And they’re not all for personal use.

All over the internet, there are ominous rumblings that “768K Day” is on its way—and it’s likely going to happen before May is over. And while some ISPs think this BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) milestone is being overhyped like Y2K and Cisco assures us the sky isn’t falling, that doesn’t mean we’ll all be left unscathed. If you’re an MSP who hasn’t heard about 768K Day yet, brace yourself—you could be in for a serious connectivity headache.

One of the most common complaints I hear from managed services providers is how hard it is to recruit staff. In the past month, I’ve had three MSPs ask me: With the high cost of tech talent, how can I afford to fill technical and managerial roles? When’s the right time to employ an extra tech? Why am I struggling to grow my team?

Interfaces, commonly known as ports, are a vital component of any network. Need to connect two pieces of equipment? It could be as easy as plugging in cables—but then you’re using out of the box configurations that don’t follow best practices and are inherently insecure.