I barely ever need IT help - I just want someone I can call when I do. Why would I need an MSP?

If your systems rarely give you trouble, that's genuinely good - but it's worth separating the two things an MSP provides. The visible part is support: someone answers when a thing breaks. The invisible part is everything that must happen when nothing feels broken: security updates applied promptly, backups running AND verified, endpoint security current, accounts of departed employees actually disabled. None of that announces itself when it silently stops working. Businesses discover a backup died eighteen months ago only on the day they need it.

There's also the availability problem with pure on-call arrangements: the independent tech you call twice a year has no obligation to be available the week your server dies, no monitoring history to diagnose from, and no documentation of your environment. You're effectively starting from zero, during an emergency, with whoever picks up.

The fit for low-need businesses isn't the full enterprise plan - it's a right-sized monthly arrangement that covers the invisibles (monitoring, patching, backup verification, security basics) and includes a real help desk for the rare call. It costs closer to a phone bill than a salary, and it means your two calls a year are answered by people who already know your systems - instead of hoping someone's free.