Will Nobles, CEO of Vector Choice, recently hosted Quantum Leap, a two-day online webinar jam-packed with tips, tricks, and insider knowledge to get your MSP to the next level, all from an MSP who’s been in the trenches just like you.
The live virtual training event gave MSP attendees actionable strategies to shortcut their path to 7 and even 8 figures, including advice on contracts, websites, tech stack, referrals, marketing, operations, M&A, staffing, and more
Here’s some of the key takeaways that Nobles—a proven MSP growth expert—and other industry experts shared with attendees at the event.
Kickstart Your Growth with a Quality Team
Any thriving MSP will tell you that your team is your biggest strength. Nobles’ tips for building a high-quality team include the following:
Hire for your biggest weakness. For startup companies with IT-minded owners, this should be an executive admin—not a tech. The reason for this is that many MSPs know IT like the back of their hand but find organizing schedules and returning emails tedious and difficult. Getting these tasks off your plate will scale your business much faster than splitting the IT load with a tech (who you also have to train).
This rule applies no matter what stage of growth your MSP is at. When you notice a weak spot in your business, whether it’s marketing, sales, or technical work, hire to fill that gap.
Look for Quality over Quantity. “We always want to hire the cheapest or most convenient person, [but that’s not usually the best choice]. Mis-hires cost time, money, and slow your MSP’s growth down,” Nobles says. For this reason, it’s better to be strategic, hiring the right person at the right time. However, this doesn’t mean every tech needs to be a level 3, for example. Only hiring level 3 techs is not only a waste of money, since they’ll be doing work below their pay grade, but also encourages employee turnover; eventually, those technicians will leave to find more challenging work.
Hire Slow, Fire Fast. No one likes firing people—not even the meanest person alive. That said, sometimes it has to be done. “You have to make the hard decision and not drag it out,” says Nobles. If you’re still holding onto a problem employee 90 days later, you’re the problem, not the employee, he explains.
Don’t Take Culture for Granted
Company culture plus employee engagement equals high employee retention, says Sarah Sawyer, COO of Vector Choice. “Our core values and retaining our top talent really drive us [forward] by having a supportive and helpful environment, transparent leadership, encouragement to do your best, very high standards, and genuine care for employees,” she says. Here are some of the things Vector Choice prioritizes.
Revolutionizing the Employee Experience. This idea is inspired by John DiJulius, in his book The Employee Experience Revolution. In it, DiJulius discusses prioritizing employee happiness by increasing morale and retention. “This doesn’t just include happiness internally, but service to clients as well,” says Sawyer. “It’s a circle of evolution that helps sustain and power growth by engaging our employees and clients in the ways we need to provide optimum-level service to our clients.”
Key Components of Employee Retention. Competitive compensation is important, but it’s not the only factor at play. “Money isn’t the full indicator for employee retention, recognition, and reward,” says Sawyer. In addition to salary, Vector Choice rewards outstanding employees with Crewhu rewards, monthly employee awards, and annual vacation giveaways. It’s also essential to provide staff with professional development opportunities and a clear path forward in their career. Other employee benefits include wellness programs, employee engagement programs, and mental health programs.
Open Up Channels for Employee Feedback. Providing avenues for employees to give feedback, such as via quarterly anonymous surveys, is essential to improve the employee experience. After all, if you don’t know what the problems are, you can’t fix them. “A lot of people struggle with anonymous surveys; I do as well, at times,” says Nobles. “That said, it’s helpful for [employees] to speak out. If you can make the change, make the change. If you can’t, bring it up at the next company meeting [and explain why it isn’t possible at that time]. [The feedback] is good to hear. I want people to challenge us, even though I might not like it at times.” The MSP also holds quarterly one-on-ones, 15-minute meetings with Nobles, which allow all their employees to provide feedback directly to the CEO.
The MSP Growth Timeline
Here’s a general look at what actions your MSP should take, relative to its size, to continue growing and scaling.
The Solo Owner Stage: $0–1M. During this stage, the owner is running the show and wearing several hats. Hire an administrator to take some of the day-to-day business tasks off your hands, then hire a tech as you grow to handle service delivery. Your first critical leadership hire should be a service coordinator or dispatcher—not a manager.
Building the Foundation: $1–2M. At this stage, you’re focusing on client retention as well as client acquisition. To this end, hire an account manager to take client management off your hands. To intake more clients and get more leads, hire a marketing admin or marketing assistant; they should be handling marketing busy work for you, not doing the brainpower side of things.
Midmarket Expansion: $2–5M. Now it’s time to start hiring more leadership roles. Bring on a director of operations to create processes and maximize efficiency, and a finance director to ensure your MSP stays profitable. However, Nobles warns to stay away from C-suite titles—and their hefty paychecks—until you actually need them.
Building the Leadership Team: $5–10M. At this stage, you’ll want to add in key C-suite roles: a COO, a (fractional) CFO, and a CTO. Bring on a VP of sales and marketing to drive revenue growth strategies, and an account management lead to manage your account management team.
Enterprise Scale: Beyond $10M. This is when a CTO becomes truly essential to handle high-level technology strategies. Hire a CPO to attract and retain top-quality staff. As you expand geographically, hire regional directors to maintain service consistency across locations.
Want More Insider Secrets?
This is just a snapshot of the industry secrets spilled at the Quantum Leap online event. There’s nine hours of content just waiting for you to listen in, including tips on contract creation, account management, pricing, website marketing mastery, in-depth financial analysis and advice, and more!
