Cell Phone

Yes, this is an obvious point: you need a cell phone to run your MSP business. There are a few tips, however, that might save you some hassle.

1. Get a VoIP Number

You don’t want to give out your personal cell number, you don’t want two phones and ideally you don’t want to be tied to one device (i.e. a dual-SIM phone), you don’t want to be tied to a landline, forwarding is helpful but also not ideal. . . so get a VoIP number through Skype or Google Voice etc. that you can answer wherever you want: your cell phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, or standard cordless phone (via a VOiP adapter.)

You also get features that are not only great for business but that you can configure from within the VoIP app, like:

1. Forwarding messages to email.
2. Call screening.
3. Email alerts for missed calls.
4. Voicemail via email.
5. Call recording.

You’ll also be able to view all of your business calls and texts in a separate app, not mixed into your personal calls, but on the same devices.

Finally, you’ll easily be able to give other people access to the number, if need be.

2. Get a Hotspot

This is also a no-brainer, but you need a mobile hotspot. Yeah it’s a few bucks more per month, but you can’t hop on random Wi-Fi or risk being suddenly disconnected. Depending on your location, it also might be faster than Wi-Fi at your client’s office.

You don’t need to go whole-hog and get every device a cellular connection, but at least get one you can share from your phone.

3. Go Big

Apps can be a few hundred megabytes each and iOS, for example, is over 2GB by itself. Besides needing space for your media, you’ll need storage for:

1. the random apps you need to demo
2. generic utilities (wifi scanner, multi-factor authenticator, etc)
3. proprietary utilities (for certain routers, printers, etc)
4. business management (banking, time keeping, point-of-sale, etc)
5. your go-to retailers for quick orders

Finally, have you tried to remote into a big high resolution monitor from your phone? It’ll happen at some point, so let’s just say err on the side of larger screen too.

4. Prepare for the Inevitable

Between email, social media, RMM, multi-factor authentication prompts, and utilities in general, your phone is probably going to become the hub of your business. That means you need to both protect it and prepare for its eventual demise.

First, keep it password protected, make sure it locks after it hasn’t been unused for a minute or two, and have some plan in place to remotely wipe the device.

Second, budget for repairs and, more likely, replacement. You won’t have forever to shop around if it goes kaput , so you’ll probably end up walking into a store. That means set aside what you need to buy a new phone on the spot.

Third, make sure you have a backup you can quickly restore so you don’t have to reconfigure everything.