8 signs your MSP isn’t vacation-ready yet 

The idea of stepping away from your MSP for a week sounds great in theory. But, for many MSPs, the thought of being completely unplugged creates anxiety. That isn’t how an owner should feel about leaving for vacation.

Some MSP owners can confidently step away from their business for a well-deserved relaxation time. We asked them what makes that possible, and what gives them peace of mind while they’re away. Here are the signs you need to know your business isn’t vacation-ready.

1. You’re still solving problems for your team

If your technicians and managers come to you every time things get hard, you haven’t built a self-sufficient team. A vacation-ready MSP has people who work through problems, both on their own and as a team. Building that ability within your team means stepping back long before you step away.

“100% of all operations run without my direct involvement. I make sure I’m not always needed by not solving problems for my people. I support them, question them, but I do not solve it.” — Gary Tonniges Jr., CEO and founder of TriQuest Technologies

2. Your culture requires you to keep people in line

If morale, accountability and results take a vacation the moment you do, it may be time to question whether you’ve truly built a culture of success. A healthy MSP doesn’t rely on the owner’s presence to stay focused, motivated, and productive. Instead, accountability and performance are woven into the fabric of the organization. When your team is capable, engaged and self-motivated, the business continues to thrive even when you’re away.

“Build a culture of success in all parts of the business and fill it with worthy, high-skilled people. The team is self-motivated and doesn’t need you around to keep them in line and the team leaders don’t need you to constantly help solve people issues.” — Matthew Militano, Owner of Centra Networks

3. You don’t have the right leaders in the right places

Having trusted go-to people in different areas across your business is the best way to set your team up for success. Relying on a single go-to person isn’t enough. A self-sufficient business has department-level leaders who each own their lane, understand the decision-making framework and don’t need to escalate everything upward to get things done.

“It takes years and years to establish this type of trust. You have to treat employees respectfully and pay them well. Tools come and go. It’s the people that matter.” — Tonniges

“There are ‘go-to’ persons in our business, not just one and it is typically management for the department. The managers are well versed and supported by us. They achieve good results with our overarching mantra: ‘Is it good for the business and is it going to give a positive outcome to the client?’” — Militano

4. Clients can reach you directly

If you are the go-to person clients reach out to, your business hasn’t established the best support structure. There are many ways MSPs establish relationships with clients, and the common thread is communication. Whether you give your clients your personal phone number or have an internal structure, clients should always know who to call if they need assistance. That person just doesn’t have to be you.

“No client has my cell phone. I don’t respond when contacted directly. When I’m gone, I don’t even put an out-of-office message up.” — Tonniges

“We are lucky that there are three directors, so we share workloads when one is away. The owners and directors still hold relationships with our key clients, and when we go, we advise them of our travel plans and who to call in our absence. We find clients are very understanding as long as you communicate with them.” — Militano

5. Your escalation process and decision-making framework aren’t documented

Without a documented escalation path and a clear decision-making framework, every gray-area situation lands on your desk. When you’re away, that leaves your team with two choices: wait for you to return or interrupt your time off to get answers. Neither is a sustainable solution.

“We have defined and shared our escalation matrix with every client as part of the ‘how to best work with us’ portion of onboarding. This ensures that clients know how to get to the right person if something doesn’t happen as needed.” — Militano

6. You can’t unplug

Leadership doesn’t mean you have to be at the center of all the decisions. Build trust with your team, set out clear expectations and encourage them to make decisions. Don’t let the constant thoughts take over. The only way to really let go and relax is through trusting your team and consciously choosing to let go.

“You have to commit to being unplugged. Constant feedback, emergencies, being the center of all decisions is addictive. When you start a business, you have to do it, but unplugging takes a conscious effort to move past and actually want to unplug.” — Tonniges

“Trust is earned and not something that any process or procedure will solve. You have to build trust in your team by establishing a great working culture, fortified by a solid set of SOPs that you see working over time. Once you have people showing you they are good at doing what is needed, take some time away to test what happens.” — Militano

7. You haven’t done a test run

Building a vacation-ready MSP takes time, testing and continuous improvement. Consider taking short breaks or insisting you are only available for major emergencies and see how your team responds. Each time you will see what works and what you need to fix. This builds confidence in not just your team, but in your ability to unplug.

“Determine how long you want to be gone. I highly recommend two weeks. It’s amazing how much you relax in week two. Put it on the calendar and just do it. Don’t check in. Over the years it’ll become normal, people adapt to deal with it. The idea that taking a seven-week vacation is mandatory. Everything else follows from that. Finding the right answer follows asking the right question.” — Tonniges

“Test out how the team operates, satisfy yourself they are good, and resolve things that aren’t. I did that over the course of normal business building and simply started taking longer time away to ensure it was safe to take extended breaks.” — Militano

8. You haven’t asked the right question yet

Most MSP owners ask: “how do I get away for a few days without things falling apart?” That’s the wrong question. It focuses on short-term workarounds and special circumstances. Instead, think about long-term success that is sustainable even without you in the room. The correct question is “how do I build a business that can run without me?”

“There must be recognition that other things matter more than the business — family, health, mental wellness, spirituality. These things must be tended and nurtured, or the business is irrelevant. In priority, it’s always come second.” — Tonniges

“Culture is king if you want to build a business that doesn’t need you, especially if you want to let go and have quality of life without the stress.” — Militano

Most MSP owners built their business by being indispensable. Rebuilding it to run without them takes intentional work, trust and time. But in the end, creating a business that you trust to work without you means you can take a step back and enjoy the results of your hard work.

Clients take vacations, too. Learn how you can take advantage of summer without losing momentum with 5 ways to make the most of the summer slowdown.