Why the most successful MSP leaders rarely grow alone

Many MSPs start the same way: the owner handles most, if not all, of the technical work while getting the business up and running. That approach may get you off the ground, but it’s not how you scale. Long-term growth requires building a business that can succeed without relying on you for every decision or task.

Here’s what three MSPs who have been in your shoes have to say about the importance of delegation, building a strong team  and stepping out of the daily grind.

Delegate the daily tasks

Delegation is an essential skill for leaders to learn. Handling everyday operations yourself will hinder growth, so it’s critical to know how to hand tasks off to your team.

“If I kept doing the tech, I would never grow,” says Matt Rose, CXO and Co-Founder of Tech Rage IT. “If you try to do it yourself, you’ll just never get as far ahead as you want to be.”

But that doesn’t mean learning how to delegate is easy. “It’s a hard lesson to learn because [the business] is your baby. You don’t want to give it to anybody. You want to make sure you’re doing it right and you feel like you’re losing control,” says Corey Kirkendoll, President and CEO of 5K Technical Services. “But that’s where you’ve got to learn to delegate; you have some great employees sitting there wanting to work, but you’re doing all the work yourself and paying them. That’s where you have to get out of your own way and trust.”

Part of that is accepting that your employees will make mistakes and move slower than you as they learn. “I can be a bit of a perfectionist. I had to let go of that; if it takes someone 15 minutes to do a ticket I could do in 10, I need to be okay with that because I’m not doing it at all now,” says Rose. “You have to learn how to be okay with some balls dropping.”

“If you don’t let people make mistakes and you want to argue and push back against mistakes… well, I made a ton of mistakes too. We all do,” says David Javaheri, President and CEO of Direct iT. “You need to tolerate mistakes to a certain level. Don’t put employees who are still learning in a position where a big mistake could happen; put them somewhere little mistakes can happen and let them learn from them.”

While it may be true that no one can do a job better than you can (at least at first), “that is the recipe to do a job right. That’s not a recipe to grow,” says Javaheri. “If you want the growth and you’re okay with a job done 90% right, eventually the person will get it. And it has been proven to me that that person will do a better job than me in the long run because they have less to worry about; they focus on one or two things instead of 20.”

Building a team that sticks around

That’s why building, and keeping, a strong team you can trust is quintessential for growth. “[Our team] is key to our success,” says Rose. “At this point in our growth, neither my wife or I do the day-to-day tech support. It’s not a great use of my time; we wouldn’t be able to grow with it.”

For some MSPs, the team is even the selling point. “When I go out and sell, I’m selling the team and what we can do as a whole,” says Kirkendoll. “It’s not just about me.”

Long-term, competent employees allow you to delegate without worrying about projects falling through. “One high-level person can do the job of five low-level persons. That’s the average in the industry,” says Javaheri. “Once you have the right person taking charge, then you quickly have to start delegating tasks in their specific field to that person—or they leave. People who are good want responsibility and will go somewhere else if you don’t give it to them.”

Building a strong team starts with a strong culture and mission. If you know exactly what your MSP stands for, it becomes infinitely easier to find candidates who resonate with that mission and eliminate those who don’t. “We practice and we preach [our values] in our interview process, our onboarding processes and our house on the daily,” says Kirkendoll. “We believe that you either have the right attitude or you don’t. I can teach you the tech; I can’t teach you the culture.”

Once you’ve added strong members to your team, make sure you keep them by treating them right. “Having longtime employees has allowed me to have longtime clients,” says Javaheri. “You’ve got to put them in a position to win and be proud of where they work. The rest is up to them.”

Good pay is also an indisputable part of keeping employees aboard. Javaheri pays his team 10-15% above the industry standard. “Employees are one of the hardest things to get,” he says, explaining his reasoning. “They will pay [that money] back by keeping clients happier longer, and [the pay] keeps employees happier longer. It’s a double win for everybody.”

Advice for MSPs trying to break out of the rut

When you’re elbow-deep in tickets, it can be difficult to remove yourself from the day-to-day operations, even if you know it’s best for the business. Here’s how these MSPs recommend breaking out of the rut so you can scale effectively.

“Hire people with [a level of] trust,” says Javaheri. “Do not hire based on who’s asking for a lower salary; I think you should do the opposite, because it’s an investment. If you’re opening an MSP, you should put some money aside and invest in bringing on good people. If they want more salary, dig into it—because usually people that demand more money have more experience and deliver better to you.”

“You’re going to make mistakes on hiring or delegating, but you need to start doing it first. You need to probably bite the bullet, spend some of your profit on hiring somebody, even if it’s fractional. Do something to get moving,” says Rose. “You still want to take your time hiring the person, but if you just hem and haw on the decision, you’ll never get it done. You should make the decision, get a plan and try to move forward on it.”

Joining a peer group can also help, says Kirkendoll. “We joined a peer group to look and see how other MSPs are doing it. The best way to do that is to reach out to your peers, understand those who are growing or doing things that you want to do, and learn from them. Then pull that into your own practice.”

Related: Building SOPs that survive employee turnover