MSP Success

After coaching thousands of leaders and their teams, I’ve come to a blunt conclusion: most people are not very effective. When I say most, I mean at least 90%. And when I say effective, I mean consistently executing—day in and day out. You’ve heard me say many times that success should only have two steps: Knowing what to do Doing it If it were really that simple in practice, a lot more people would be successful at a lot more things.

Last month, I shared three strategies for getting more out of your peer group experience. This month, I want to round out that conversation with a few more lessons I’ve learned both as a peer member myself and from years of watching members work through challenges, make difficult decisions and transform their businesses. I’ve witnessed countless success stories inside peer communities, and while every business and every owner is different, some patterns show up repeatedly.

I’ve found that most people are not very good at assessing risk. They either dramatically underestimate it or blow it out of proportion. Two big areas where this shows up are investing and career decisions. Today, I want to focus on the investment side. I spoke with someone who called me for advice after making a large investment with big upside. Unfortunately, it went to zero. When I asked what percentage of their net worth they put in, the answer was: all of it.

I’ve found that most people are not very good at assessing risk. They either dramatically underestimate it or blow it out of proportion. Two big areas where this shows up are investing and career decisions. Today, I want to focus on the investment side. I spoke with someone who called me for advice after making a large investment with big upside. Unfortunately, it went to zero. When I asked what percentage of their net worth they put in, the answer was: all of it.

Most MSP owners think about exit strategy the way they think about retirement: something to figure out later, when the timing feels right. But when “later” arrives, the business often isn’t prepared. The financials are messy, systems aren’t documented and the entire operation runs through the owner’s phone. You can’t exit. Exit readiness isn’t a finish line you cross when you’re ready to sell. Instead, it’s a daily discipline that makes your business stronger right now.

I recently attended the NIST/OCR Safeguarding Health Information cybersecurity conference at the NIST headquarters outside Washington, DC. The conference was jointly sponsored by NIST and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the HIPAA enforcement agency. When I signed up, I anticipated learning about the new HIPAA Security Rule. That has now been put off until July 2027.

Every October, Cybersecurity Awareness Month serves as a reminder that knowing and doing are two very different things. Clients are hearing more about breaches, ransomware and AI-powered threats than ever before, but a set of persistent beliefs keeps many small businesses from taking their security posture seriously. We asked MSP owners to share what they wish their clients would stop saying. Here’s what they told us. 1. “We’re too small.

After coaching thousands of leaders and their teams, I’ve come to a blunt conclusion: most people are not very effective. When I say most, I mean at least 90%. And when I say effective, I mean consistently executing—day in and day out. You’ve heard me say many times that success should only have two steps: Knowing what to do Doing it If it were really that simple in practice, a lot more people would be successful at a lot more things.

Joining a peer group is easy. Getting the most value out of it is sometimes the difficult part. Being a member of a peer group doesn’t guarantee results unless you actively participate. This means attending meetings, supporting other group members, and sharing your struggles and successes. To help you get the most of your peer group, we asked MSP owners what advice they’d give to someone just getting started. Here’s what they’ve learned from their experiences. 1.

John Kistler founded J&B Technologies in 1993. Since then, he has navigated economic cycles and technology shifts without losing sight of what built his business: keeping in touch with his clients and providing them with quality service. Today, J&B Tech operates with a team of 10 and has maintained an average of 7.6% year-over-year revenue growth for the past three years.