MSP Business School

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.

Jesse Hill is the President of Tier 3 IT Solutions a MSP located in Edmonton, Alberta.  Jesse chats with us about running a business he grew up in and the lessons he has learned since taking over the business. We start with Jesse's story about an acquisition they made and the challenges they faced during the transition and in their approach to the merging cultures.  He discusses things that they did not evaluate during this acquisition that impacted the bottom line. Jesse then moves to a story of an event that helped shape Tier 3 Solutions.  He attended a conference that helped him see that they truly did not have a defined sales process and how this led to an overhaul of their sales division.  We discuss how you can't shortcut the process and steps they took to get sales in line and improve the close rates. Jesse then shares steps they are focused on for 2021 that will help them grow and develop as an organization in 2021.  Tier 3 is planning improvements to keep the team engaged as they continue to work remotely.  He also talks about how they work to continually improve the relationship with the team and help them feel closer to the decision making process.

Abe Garver and Focus Investment Banking are Merger and Acquisition specialists focusing on the small to mid-market Managed Service Providers with transaction sizes between $5M and $50M.

Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/ Guest Guy Walton. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cybervirture/ CAMO 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 

Velta Technologies is a firm that specializes in providing security services for the industrial space.  Based out of St. Charles, Mo. their practice focuses on the security needs of the manufacturing, utility, and maritime verticals. Craig serves as a Cyber Security Engineer for the organization and in this episode he shares with us an area not often travelled by many MSP's, but can be an area of opportunity, Operational Technology Networks or OT. With the growth of IoT devices coupled with aging production machines this area can often be overlooking in its importance and access within each business and become a huge target for the hacking community.  Craig starts the discussion describing what is the first step in security the OT, a Cyber Security Assessment for exposure risks and technology gaps. He then shares with us about how electrical utilities have many compliance regulations for its power generation system and need to be NERC compliant (North American Electrical Reliability Corporation). These regulations map to the areas of critical infrastructure supporting municipal areas. A big area of concern for the plant side of these industrial businesses is the people side of technology.  Craig shares what the biggest threat is to the  industrial plant networks,  rogue assets connecting to the OT network.  When technicians com in to service the plant, they often connect to the network and their asset now becomes a point of vulnerability on the network. At the end of the day it all comes back to common sense, similar to the traditional IT network.  Ensure you have controls to support the network security and limit access and the risk will be reduced.