A candid founder story from the factory floor to a fast-growing MSP. Host Josh Peterson digs in with guest Ron Opperman on hiring that first tech, switching from reactive IT to proactive managed services, and building a sales engine that actually closes.
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Ron Opperman, Partner at E3 IT Services (Turnersville, NJ), shares how an industrial-engineering start became a 14-person MSP powered by process, practice, and people. He recounts the leap from CAD and plant optimization to break/fix, then to managed services—plus the inflection points that changed everything: the first hire, Profit First discipline, and a mindset shift from “IT vendor” to business solutions partner.
👉 Origin story with lessons: carry over process rigor from engineering—flow, capacity, and standard work—into MSP operations and client onboarding.
👉 Hiring that scales: why bringing on Ryan at 19 unlocked true proactivity, created role clarity, and forced leadership maturity.
👉 Cash & confidence: use Profit First to never miss payroll, offer strategic prepay options, and reinvest in sales/marketing during lean seasons.
👉 Sell like a BSP: evolve the message, increase at-bats, and blend modern outbound with warm peer networks to improve close rates.
👉 Build for resilience: move from home lab to NOC, buy when others retreat (COVID offices), and let systems—not the owner—run tickets and sales.
Natural keywords included: MSP growth strategy, hiring first technician, managed services pricing, prepaid agreements, sales methodology for MSPs.
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🔗 Resources & Links
• Ron Oppermann - E3 IT Services: https://e3itservices.com
• Bering McKinley MSP Consulting: https://beringmckinley.com
⏱️ Chapters
00:00 – From factory floors to IT: Ron’s origin
00:36 – Industrial engineering lessons that transfer to MSPs
01:46 – MoonPie plant story: planning, flow, and scale
03:26 – Company collapse → entrepreneurship at Techad
04:26 – The $65 fix that sparked the IT pivot
05:26 – Early MSP stack: Level Platforms & proactive monitoring
09:25 – Self-training, mentors, and learning in public
13:25 – The first hire (Ryan) and shared staffing model
17:58 – Payroll stress, Profit First, and owner discipline
20:44 – Home lab → office during COVID: buying when others left
23:17 – Growth via peer groups and consistent outbound
25:38 – New sales methodology: from “MSP” to business solutions
32:27 – Prepaid deals to fuel scale and stabilize cash
34:52 – Impact beyond profit: careers, families, community
37:51 – Systems that run without the owner
43:30 – One takeaway for MSPs: plan, risk, execute
45:18 – Where to find Ron
🔍 Primary Keywords
msp growth strategy, managed services sales, hiring first technician, profit first for msps, prepaid msp agreements, msp outbound marketing, business solutions provider, msp scalability
🔍 Secondary Keywords
msp founder story, service desk operations, ticket workflow, msp close rate, peer groups for msps, noc setup, connectwise ecosystem, msp cash flow
#️⃣ Hashtags
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