It started on January 24, 1848. Gold was found in a little place called Coloma, spurring a migration of roughly 300,000 people to California. Thus began the Gold Rush of 1848 in which a total of 750,000 pounds of gold was ultimately found. Initially, most gold was found on the ground and in streams by individual prospectors. Later, machinery and large companies were needed to excavate the “motherlode” found deep in the mountains. During the Gold Rush, there were several ways to get rich – some easier than others.

Fast forward to today, and there’s a different kind of Rush happening: let’s call it the VoIP Rush of 2020. The global VoIP market has been around since the mid-1990s, but it’s expected to see double-digit growth in the immediate future. According to Global Market Insights, the VoIP market is estimated to hit a record $55 billion by 2025 – a jump from $20 billion in 2018.

Just like the Gold Rush of 1848, there are a lot of ways for MSPs to profit from the VoIP Rush – in this case, some more effective than others. This raises the question: as an MSP, where can you find the VoIP Rush motherlode?

The Very Small Business: Your Nugget of Gold in the VoIP Rush

In the days of the Gold Rush, prospectors spent their days searching for rocks made of gold. As it turned out, 90% of the rocks that were gold were small – weighing between just an ounce and a pound. But there were millions of them. The remaining 10% of the gold rocks were medium and larger in size, weighing between one and 500 pounds. Only 16,000 rocks larger than 30 pounds made of gold were ever found.

The prospectors who honed in on that 90% and focused their efforts on finding a vast quantity of small gold rocks were far more successful than those whose eyes stayed glued to the 30-pound prize. There’s a lesson in this for MSPs looking to capitalize on the VoIP Rush: to succeed in your endeavors, you’ve got to think small. Very small.

The very small business (VSB) is classified as having fewer than 20 employees, and there are over five million of these businesses in the United States (that’s 90% of U.S. companies). In contrast, larger companies (anywhere from 20 employees and beyond) represent only 10% of all U.S. businesses.

It’s clear that for MSPs looking to strike gold in the VoIP Rush, it’s time to turn your attention to the VSB.

Very Small, But Mighty

To survive the VoIP Rush of 2020, you’ll need to look away from the 10% of businesses that are large, medium, or even what’s considered small (20-99 employees). The sheer volume of VSBs alone sets them apart as a critical segment of the market to focus on, but there are other factors that make VSBs exactly the nuggets of gold MSPs should be targeting.

• VSBs Actually Need VoIP. The struggle of the VSB is that simply because of size, they need to prove they are no less capable than their slightly larger competitors. Technologies such as VoIP enable VSBs to be instantly available to their customers, giving the impression that they’re a larger business than they actually are.

• For Most VSBs, an IT Team Is a Distant Dream. When your operation could be as small as just one person, more than likely there aren’t a whole lot of internal resources available with the knowledge to manage IT and communications. VSBs often don’t even understand their communications technology let alone have the capability to make smart decisions about it and maintain it. As an MSP, you’re poised to step in with a VoIP solution that won’t require the VSB’s internal attention, so they can communicate effectively without the stress of managing their own system.

• VSBs Need the Right Tools, But Also the Right Price. With limited knowledge of business communications, finding the tools that are the best fit for their needs at a price they can afford is in and of itself a massive undertaking for a VSB. MSPs can solve a slew of problems for VSBs by guiding the selection of the best-fit VoIP solution within the constraints of a limited budget.

To Grow With the VoIP Market, Start Prospecting the Smart Way

The five million VSBs in the United States represent a lot of gold nuggets for MSPs looking to capitalize on the VoIP Rush of 2020. While enterprises with more than 500 employees seem like the smart target, there are only 16,000 of them to choose from – consider these the 30-pound gold rocks that many prospectors died trying to find during the Gold Rush.

Are you ready to take advantage of the opportunities found in the VSB market? D3UC’s white-label, cloud-based phone and unified communications service allows you to offer the best solution for a still-growing VoIP market. Get in touch with us today, and start gathering those small, but plentiful, gold nuggets.