Today we’d like to introduce you to Joseph Markley.
Hi Joseph, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Just after college I started working for a manged service provider in Kansas City. This gave me a good experience to see lots of different systems and how different companys use many different IT needs. I worked with this MSP for 2 years until we lost our biggest client about 80% of our income. Some of the employees jumped ship and found work elseware. I stayed as I really liked it and was still living at home at the time so I could afford it. The owner with a family of his own decided to split the company and take a full time job. In the split he offered me a couple clients as my own if I wanted. I thought that was very caring of him. I accepted and started taking care of two clients myself. I already knew their systems and setups only now I was “the guy”. Night Sky Tech KC was born. I did this for several months when I decided I wanted to have something more full time and that would provide better. So I took a full time job at and industrial devlopment company doing IT for their networks. This gave me a chance to learn more and have hands on experience with more advanced tech. When they were expanding they decided they needed Cybersecurity and I had the option to learn and pivot in house so I did. I continued to work for a few more large companies around KC learning more and advanced IT all while also still takeing care of clients on the side. I eventually got to the point where I had more clients and they needed more time that it was risking cutting into my full time job. I had a decision to make and like many small bussiness owners it is a terrifing one. But with the support of my wife and a few clients that were ready for some big projects I left my full time position and run Night Sky Tech KC now. IT has been a long time and I have seen and touched many different types and degrees of tech. From on prem servers, web design, incident response, network builds, AI security cameras, Cell boosters, etc. I’ve gotten to work with so much over the years. The part that I enjoy the most though is working with the clients I have a relationship with. I love to hear when my solutions are able to help and people are happy they choose me to take care of their IT needs. I even have some clients I am happy to take a call from at 9pm on a Friday.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I wouldn’t say its been a smooth road. Growing a business is hard, and one that is based around providing services is difficult to grow. Clients can be difficult to pickup and then some when you get them are not what you had expected. IT can be a weird space as many people are tech savy. I lost a client once just becuase they said their son is going to college for IT and could help them. Fair enough but IT is very specialiesed and just because someone is in IT dosen’t mean they can do all IT. Some of the more difficult moments are when you want to provide a good solution for a client, but what they want may just not be possible or possible in their budget. I want to help my clients get the best solutions for them without braking the bank but there at times where you just have to say that they may not be able to what they want without spending a lot more than they hoped for. Putting a cell booster on a building is already expensive, puuting a cell booster on a small tower on the property and running it to your building get way more expensive.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We do everything IT related. We can build enterprise grade networks, cybersecurity, incident response, remote monitoring, Security cameras, IT training, domain name managment, web services, etc. We can do just about it all from managing an office 365 tenant to adding a case fan for a computer. I would say that we really do try and put cutomers first, Many of my clients call or text me directly. I recenlty had a client who operates as a surgery center. Their internet went down after they just opend. A plow truck had snagged the line and ripped the fiber off the building as it wasn’t burried yet and too cold to burry. They said we need internet up asap. I worked with them to get starlink hardware local and ran it up on the roof in a temporary setup so they had internet until a more perminent solution could be found. They had internet within 2 and a half hours. That was a fun one and they were very happy. I’ll include the picture for that one.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nightskytechkc.com/
