Can we still administer our own systems, or does everything go through you?

They are your systems. You get administrative credentials, and if you want to change something yourself on a Saturday night, you can. We are not going to pretend otherwise or make you ask permission to get into your own network.

The one thing we ask is that you tell us what you changed. Not for approval, for documentation. Most of the genuinely painful troubleshooting we do at technically capable clients traces back to an undocumented change, where something starts behaving oddly three weeks later and we are chasing a ghost nobody remembers creating.

We would much rather work with an owner who does things themselves and tells us than one who feels locked out of their own business.