MSP Business School

In this episode of MSP Business School, Dave Cava shares with us how a vertical focus delivers tremendous payoffs. Centered almost exclusively on the financial sector, Dave and his partner grew Proactive Technologies into a very successful MSP: in the span of just 11.5 years, they were bringing in $10 million annually before a very profitable acquisition in 2019. While many MSPs are hesitant to have such a narrow approach and instead choose to remain generalists, Dave reminds us that being the top expert and “go-to” business in a single, particular field provides an unparalleled advantage. Show Notes

Ross Brouse is the president and COO of Continuous, an IT company specializing in “making IT personal.” As someone who’s always curious about how things work, Ross shares his experience with the delicate balance between being involved in all aspects of your company and trying to control every outcome. He gives us a glimpse at how the DEY (Do Everything Yourself) approach taught him some very valuable lessons about the importance of letting go and trusting your team.  1:36 – We talk with Ross about his path to the MSP world, how quitting a job was the best decision he ever made, and why flexibility matters when it comes to your MSP’s operations and offerings. Ross also shares his journey from film school to IT, and how running an MSP is incredibly similar to making a movie.  6:16 – We discuss the things that make Continuous unique, and how their team managed to shift from the commodity world to the consulting world. Ross also shares how Entrepreneurial Operating Systems changed the way he approaches everything about the company – not just with clients, but internally as well. Ross tells his engineers that they are “80% psychologist and 20% technologists” and that as long as they keep that in mind, they’ll do the right thing.  10:45 – Ross shares a story about how losing $200K on a single salesperson was the wakeup call he needed in order to finally get the company’s sales and marketing on track… and how to avoid that mistake yourself.  20:30 – Ross explains how consistent discipline and owning responsibility for every success and failure at the company helped him break out of the cycle of control and ultimately find growth and success.  23:13 – Ross updates us on how this mindset shift and pivot are going, and leaves us with parting thoughts about growth and change. 

In this episode, MSP Business School’s hosts Brian Doyle, Tim McNeil, and Robb Rogers sit down for a roundtable discussion about three of the trends they’re seeing for MSPs in 2021. Brian, Tim, and Robb offer their insight, advice, and predictions about everything from what an MSP needs to consider before making the shift to becoming an MSSP, to what the future of sales will be in a post-Covid world. 

n this episode, we talk with Tim about the strategies Switchfast employed to keep business growing through the pandemic, focusing on the importance of improving current client relationships. He walks us through the M&A process that contributed heavily to the company’s growth, pointing to the methodical due diligence of Switchfast’s CEO as the number one reason for its success.

After running MSPs for the first half of his career, James Kernan found himself speaking at conferences about his experience growing and selling businesses. Fifteen years later, his consulting firm has become one of the most successful management consulting firms in the country.      

Kevin Clune is passionate about helping Managed Service Providers learn from his own experiences in the industry. As the former Operations and Marketing Director of a US-based Managed Services company (which he helped grow to an eventual acquisition in 2018), Kevin has first-hand experience with the challenges facing MSPs.    Kevin began writing a blog immediately after this exit, focused solely on educating other MSPs and offering resources he wished he’d had when he was starting out. This grew into MSPGrowthHacks.com, a service where Clune and co-founder Paul Green (another ex-MSP Exec) share with other MSPs how they turned their struggling IT Businesses upside down, grew revenue, cultivated profit, and ultimately successfully sold their businesses.    In this episode of MSP Business School, we chat with Kevin about MSP Growth Hacks, their brand new, in-depth, and exhaustive resource MSP Growth Guide (a publication that gathers all resources available to MSPs into one central, easy-to-use pamphlet), and the mindsets that are crucial for all MSPs to adopt.    We dive into out-of-the-box strategies MSPs can employ when growing their networks – including how to leverage relationships you may not traditionally consider – and focus on how to foster a community that shares resources rather than hoard them.    We explore a turning point in Kevin’s career that helped him shape this mindset of abundance in client and vendor relationships and launched him into an exploration of connections with people outside of those he was transacting with, to the benefit of his MSP. We talk about how addressing the pain point for a vendor led to an extended network of new clients and new contracts.    We wrap up with a brief discussion about what we can expect from MSP Growth Hacks in the near future – spoiler alert: we’ve got a very exciting resource to look forward to that is certain to be a game changer. 

Many MSP's hire their first sales rep and expect a windfall...then are surprised when it does not work out.  In our episode today we discuss why your sales rep failed and why that may be your fault. Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/ Hosts Brian Doyle. https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandoyl... Robb Rogers. https://www.linkedin.com/in/robb-roge... Tim McNeil https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmcneil3/ Sponsors vCIOToolbox https://vciotoolbox.com OSR Manage https://osrmanage.com

Craig found inspiration when a client had a phishing attack that caused an employee to purchase $26K on gift cards based on an email.  The problem was obvious and he set out to create training that is easy to use and for end users to consume.

Teresa is a woman who enjoys a good fight.  As a former Marine, she has seen the threats our country faces each day and when she neared retirement she wanted to keep up the good fight and prepared for a career in cybersecurity. In launching PNT Professional Services with her husband, she put her aim on continuing the fight to protect our great nation.  Additionally, they wanted to create an opportunity for service veterans to gain the skills to start a post-military career in cybersecurity. In our conversation today Teresa shares with us the training MSSP's should consider for their staff as they build their security practices.  In fact, Teresa is holding a virtual conference, The RNT Cyber Ethics Conference, bringing some of the top minds together for 20+ sessions over three days (Feb.16-18) for only $50! A woman with many anecdotes around tales of cyber threats we focus in on a story of a modern day cattle heist.  The Wild, Wild West has gone Hi Tech. Join us today for an action packed episode that will put you in a secure state of mind.

Today we turn the tables and have our Co-Host Brian Doyle on the show to talk about the importance of the vCIO Role.  As the CEO and Co-Founder of vCIOToolbox, Brian works with MSP's globally to build strategic account management programs. These programs help the MSP keep the client informed, elevate their perception as a partner, and drive a technology roadmap that creates win/win outcomes for both the client and MSP. In our discussion we talk about how MSP's often focus on client acquisition and service delivery.  Those are two key pillars in all service providers, but often overlook is a strong process of staying engaged with the client post-sale and on-boarding. Brian talks about how MSP value is always equated to MRR, but one of the most overlooked steps for many MSP's is managing and controlling the client relationship.  Too many times, once on-boarded, the primary point of contact for the client is the helpdesk team. Thus the health of the relationship often is being guarded by your most junior employees. We focus the discussion on what steps an MSP can take to grow closer to their client, maximize long-term value of each relationship, and create happier clients.