I received all call from a potential new client (medical services company) that was a referral from a client I currently support (also a medical services company). After speaking with the owner, it sounded like what they were looking for was general user support and management of their various cloud and management services, some general user support. They had devices and services already set up and deployed and needed someone keep things patched, updated, occasionally interface with a vendor, etc.
I was quite clear to the owner that I have a 8-4 Monday to Friday job in addition to my business, and servicing aside from quick urgent support requests (15-20 min) would need to take place outside those hours. Owner said response time of within 24 hours to support requests/incidents should be fine and asked me to speak to the current IT person that they want to move on other work within the company
After speaking with the IT person today, what they actually need is 6 AM - 10 PM up to and including weekends, support for approximately 50% of incidents, hours of new device provisioning, shipping out devices after configuration, etc. For that reason, I have to walk away from this potential client as I can’t neglect my day job at it’s my stable income.
My question is how to respond to this client such that I keep the door open if they still want to hire me minus the on call support component. Am I better off just completely walking away with a friendly “Thanks for the opportunity to discuss your business means. Unfortunately, I can’t provide support within the hours you’d need.”
Thanks for any and all advice.