Tekie Geek has provided business continuity solutions since the company began in 2013, focusing on its market, small businesses in the Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, New York City, Long Island and New Jersey area.
Mike Bloomfield, Tekie Geek’s President Geek, says the primary goal of any business continuity solution is preventing downtime and letting clients know that if disaster strikes you can keep them up and running. “I built our offering by partnering with the best in the industry — we exclusively offer Datto solutions to our clients,” Bloomfield says. “With our business continuity solutions, our clients can sleep well at night knowing that their infrastructure is protected from the dangers out there.”
Challenges and Objections from Prospects
Bloomfield says the biggest challenge Tekie Geek faced when implementing business continuity solutions — and continues to be the biggest challenge today — is educating clients about their importance.
“It’s not backup. It’s business continuity. It’s our job to make sure we educate businesses on the differences,” says Bloomfield. “With business continuity being far more expensive than backup, it’s always a tough sell, and it falls on our shoulders to show the value of business continuity over the cost of cheaper backup solutions that exist. We do our best to help them understand that we are preventing downtime, rather than just preventing data loss.” One tool that Tekie Geek uses to illustrate the capabilities of a business continuity solution is a disaster demo, which gives real-world context to the solution’s value.
He points out that selling business continuity is easier with the right prospect, “a smart client that truly appreciates their business and understand the importance of their business data.” Bloomfield comments that although business continuity solutions should be implemented everywhere, cost is a barrier for some small businesses, especially those with fewer than 10 employees.
The Benefits of Providing Business Continuity Solutions that Work
Providing effective business continuity solutions has helped Tekie Geek grow. “With a truly bulletproof solution that has saved businesses from downtime in the real world, we have helped turn our clients into our biggest cheerleaders,” says Bloomfield. “There is nothing like a referral from a client that saw first-hand what we were able to do for their business when disaster struck, and the business continuity and disaster recovery plan went off without a hitch.”
Advice for MSPs New to Providing Business Continuity Solutions
Bloomfield says the most important thing for managed services providers to remember is that when disaster strikes, you are responsible for that business’ data and you need to guarantee it will be there. This isn’t a place to cut corners — Bloomfield says he sees some MSPs trying to save costs by implementing their own business continuity solutions and back ends, but that strategy can backfire. He says it’s smarter to partner with an industry leader with a reliable solution. “It costs more, but I know I have our clients’ backs,” Bloomfield explains. “We are trying to get our clients to spend more for a top-of-the-line solution. We should be willing to do the same.”
“If you are going to offer business continuity solutions, make sure they truly work. There will be nothing worse for your business than selling a business continuity solution and, in the event of a disaster, you are unable to provide what you promised,” he says. 
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