EP139 – Ask Stuart #1 –
Where Do I Start When Growing My MSP?
with Ian Luckett and Stuart Warwick

INTRO

In this episode of the IT Experts Podcast, we launched a brand new series and it's called, quite simply, ask Stuart.

Welcome to the IT Experts Podcast, the only podcast to help MSP scale to 1,000,000, and if already there get to 5 and go fast at the end of the day, isn't it all about building a business that works for you rather than you for it. I hope you enjoy the show.

IAN

So good morning, good. Good evening. Welcome to the IT Experts podcast. We're absolutely buzzing today. We are just launching a new mini series apart IT Experts podcast called ask Stuart. So who else could I possibly think of with the name called Stuart, to invite to the show? Welcome Stuart Warwick!

STUART

Hello, Ian. Hello, everybody. Good to be here.

IAN

Excellent. And the purpose of this series is to pretty much just punch on the end of the nose. What is the question? What is the answer? What do people need to do? And more importantly, why they need to do it. So, Stuart, Are you ready? For the first question, we're only going to do one question in each podcast, by the way. So, but the first question is -

STUART

Can I answer that? Yes. I am, yes.

IAN

Yes, you.

STUART

Yeah, I'm absolutely buzzing for this because we get so many questions all the time and it's those little voices in your head that are saying, well, how do I do this and how do I do that, and when should I do that and when should I do that. So coming up with it was such a simple yet genius idea for us to do this, our Ask Stuart series because we'd be delighted to get people thinking differently, taking some action regardless of.

IAN

Where they are in the journey or whatever they're doing.

STUART

Absolutely.

IAN

I'll finish off the hot ones for you. Right. OK. Come on, let's crack on with this. So the first question, this episode is all about, I don't know where to start when wanting to grow my business?

STUART

Yeah, it's the big question, isn't it. And even if you don't actually say it out loud it's in your head. How do I grow my business? How do I get my MSP to scan? How do I get it to, you know, turn into the asset that works for me rather than me for it because, you know most MSP's are lifestyle businesses, and that's great because, you know, even, you know, neurosurgeons are generally lifestyle businesses because they are not scalable. They are the product and the and the skill set within their business so they're selling their time, but you know, if you really want to grow the business and turn it into a proper business asset where it's a profit machine, that's the big question, it's the Holy Grail, isn't?

IAN

It absolutely is. So you know, why dopeople find it so hard to get started with this question what's kind of getting in the way? Right.

STUART

Because it's such a big question. Where do I start if I want to grow, do I do sales? Do I do marketing? Do I hire more people? But bottom line is, it's scary. It's really scary to invest yourself into something that might not work, and the fear of failure is the reason why us human beings, hardly, you know, restrict ourselves from doing many things and actually reaching our potential, you know, fear of failing fear of coming last fear of not being picked, fear of going bust, fear of not letting our family down, letting ourselves down, letting our parents down, and it's fear.

But once we understand kind of what the steps are, we can do anything, whether it's running a marathon, losing weight, climbing Everest if we've got somebody there to show us what to do, step by step by step, that's the key.

Speaker 1

And it's really funny. Isn't it cause? Because, you know, we obviously talk to a lo of people in the channel and, and they're already busy being busy. They want to grow their business. There's this real tug of war going on in the heads, isn't that want to grow a business? But I'm actually really busy doing what I'm doing already and this is kind of one of the things that we're going to cover through today, isn't it? But that's just like a bit of fog that just sits over everybody's heads, and until that moves, the business ain't moving, is it?

STUART

Yeah, completely it. It stays exactly where it is and not knowing where to get started means that we end up just doing what we're comfortable with and what we know. And you know cliches again. About, you know, being stuck in your comfort zone. But when we talk about growing, most MSP's are in what we call the survive space, which is actually OK once you get going. It's that sort of sub 250K-300K where you can run it yourself, do most of the work you've got one or two techs. It's all within reach of your control and the step around. Where do I start to scale to take it to the next level? That's the key piece, and many have tried but not been able to do it. They've tried to, you know, to lead generation, you know, techniques they've done LinkedIn, they've done Facebook, they've done. You know leads, they've done exhibitions, didn't work, they've hired some people, they've hired the wrong people, it didn't work. So you said, well, what does work? Because I've tried it all. So therefore you kind of become resigned to it doesn't work mediocrity, and you just cope with what you've got and actually coping can be OK, but it's still a lifestyle business built around you.

IAN

OK, so let's cut to the chase on this one on this one. We've got five things. That you can do to help you workout, where do I start when I want to grow my MSP business.

STUART

Well, Ian, let's just make the assumption that you know that you want to grow it. And so let's say let's make the assumption. Do you know what it would be amazing that in the next two years I can get to 500K turnover or a million whatever it is you know you want to scale it you want to grow the turnover, obviously you want it to be more profitable, so let's make that assumption that you do want to grow it.

The first step, and it's not necessarily in this order, but the first one is know your numbers. Again, it's an eye rolling moment. Of course. We need to know our numbers. But so many MSP's don't actually understand the financial numbers. They are just looking at what's in the bank account encounter all the time, don’t we?

IAN

Yep, Yep, exactly a natural fact. I'm going to jump in there. I was talking to one of our clients this morning and he was saying I now get after three times of filling out his headline numbers, which we run every 16 weeks with our class. But after doing it for three times, he's now got data to understand the real health of his business. And it was it, it's those moments when you do your accounts and everyone goes Yorker. I know I'm earning this much. I've got this money, but do it again in six months time or three months time, or how, how muc, however long you want to track it, cause it's when you've got the analysis of the activities in between that then pull those levers that help you understand those numbers and those light bulbs moment only come out when you're consistent, you're doing your account, you're reporting the right information, you know what's going in the quality you're going in, and then you're going to get quality coming out, aren't you?

STUART

And you know, most people understand what's coming in and what's in the bank account, but they don't understand in terms of being able to scale, can they actually invest in the next thing they need to do? You know whether it's changing MS-PSA, whether it's investing in PSA for the first time, hiring a new technician, investing in some sales and marketing activities, working with a coach or a mentor, it's like so as a result, you stay frozen in well, I can't afford to cause I'm too scared to cause it might not work. Yeah, and it therefore it will cost me money and it's waste of money. And that's usually borne out of experience because you've done something in the past and it hasn't worked. So therefore you stay frozen in this mediocrity space of not moving forward and scared of going back. But you know, if you don't do something, you. Are going to go down.

IAN

Exactly, exactly.

STUART

So understand your numbers and understand, get your head round being able to forecast, but I think we should leave forecasting for another day because.

IAN

That's a whole another podcast.

STUART

Yes, whole another podcast and oher thing is, time. Understand your numbers and understand where your time is being spent. And again, it's another eye rolling. Ohh, tell me something I didn't know. And frankly, Ian, you and I know as does most people listening to this, is that life is not rocket science like growing a business running is not rocket science, but doing it is hard if you don't know how. Well, you haven't done it before. Well, you have done it and it's not worked. Therefore you become scared of doing it. So how do I get more productive and how do I find more time in my day to be able to focus on the things I need to do and again, step back and get to know where you're currently spending your time. Just like we spoke about a moment ago, step back and understand your numbers. What do you spend your time doing? What do you not spend your time doing? What's working for you, therefore, and what do you do more or less of really simple questions, really hard to do it in person, because if we're coming from that mind. That of fear, or if I invest in that new person, it might not work and therefore it's a waste of money. You're not going to do it, so you're going to end up spending your time being busy still doing what that technician could have done if you'd hired them. So coming back to comfort zone as well for how do I find my time? Well, I have to slow down and decide how I'm going to spend my time differently, that's comfort zone. That's fear, again.

IAN

But the thing you've just said there is decide.

STUART

Yeah.

IAN

You got to decide this is what you want to do. And if it's the right thing for you to do at this time, then you need to make some changes and you need to make some decisions to say I need to do things differently. You know, you always do what, Well, he's done. He was get. We've always got only terrible English in that phrase, actually, yeah, but that. But that's what it says.

STUART

And we hear at time again everybody we've ever worked with goes, Oh my God, you're right. I can stop doing that or I can do that now because I've decided and that's your word, as you said, we I have decided I'm going to do it.

IAN

Exactly.

STUART

And the point is you, we are in control of everything that we decide to do day in, day out. And if we decide to do nothing, then that's OK. Nothing will happen. You know, when it comes to thinking, OK, what next, So we understand the numbers. We've got an understanding of how wewant toa spend our time now. Most people listening to this have got a small team of some sort. It doesn't matter whether that team's 20, 15, 10 or 5 people or just you and two technicians is involve them because if you start becoming excited and really focused about doing stuff differently and they're looking on going. Why is he doing that differently? That's really weird. Is there a problem? You're not involving them? Therefore they are going to second guess what they think you're doing. Why you're doing it and make stuff up, so you have to connect your team to the journey, because if you don't, they can't help you and most people as human beings we like working with others. We like to lift people up. We like to help others. OK, you're probably thinking, you know what? I've got a few staff here that don't seem to want to help anybody. But themselves really. And you're right that they may well do, but actually the majority in my experience are working with hundreds and hundreds of employees in different sort of things I've done over the years is when you connect people to the journey to the story and you engage them and lift their energy around the role that they can play in it, they get excited. 99% of people will connect with the journey and follow you wherever you are going or they'll decide, do you know what I donwant tonna go in that direction. I'm going to go in a different direction.

So the third thing is, however big or small your team is involve them. Connect them to the wire. You're doing what you're doing. And where you're going and where you're headed and what it means for them. You know the what's. In it for me.

IAN

Brilliant.

STUART

The fourth thing that we spoke about, Ian, was don't be an island. We don't know what we don't know until we know it. So this industry is such an amazing industry. There is such a resource set of resources out there to help you, not just Google and ChatGPT, but just dig into the channel you've got the Tech Tribe, you've got Paul Green, you've got Richard Tubb, you've got all the vendors and all the information there, you got detecon, you've got content, you know that you could spend your life at events learning all those guys.

But ultimately it's what you do with it. So get yourself out of your own head out of your own office and connect with people who can inspire you, help you, and help you work out exactly what your plan needs to look like for you. Because while scaling and growing is a generic term that every business owner wants what your plans going tolook like it's very unique and specific to you because it's about you and where you wanna build your business. And what it needs to look like. So get out of your own way. Connect with others, learn from others, and let others lift you up along the way so that you can deliver your own plan.

IAN

And remember that you're in one of the most amazing business sectors that I've ever worked in where everyone will help everybody out. There's always enough to go around, so there's no such thing as a stupid question. Wherever you go, and whatever you do, there's people. Everywhere, just there to support you, yeah.

STUART

Yeah, the willingness to help and say, well, this is how I did it when I did it. If you went to ask anybody in the channel, they would ask, they would give you their opinion of what they did and when.

And the final key thing to this about when you know your numbers, when you've understood where you want to spend your time, you've involved your team, you've got out of your own way. And connected with others to inspire you is to test and measure your progress. Just keep it simple. How many clients do you want to add month or month? How much revenue do you need each month or profit? Do you want to add how much time do you want to have with your family or going to the gym or doing your hobbies? Do you want to work three days a week for day? What's your measure of success? And you can have hundreds of them. But I suggest you just have one or two. That allow you to have real clarity and confidence about what success looks like for you so that you can feel you're making progress. And sometimes the best way to do this is to get yourself an accountability buddy.

IAN

Yeah

STUART

Whether it's your partner in life, you know your wife, your husband, whatever, whether it's a fellow MSP that you've met in the tech tribe or a COMPTIA. And have a regular catch up and say what? What do I you know and commit. So what am I going to do this? Month and then meet the next month at the pub and go. You said you were going to do this. Did you do it? OK, why didn't you do it? Find somebody to hold you accountable to.

IAN

Brilliant. Nice answer. Thanks for that. You know, as usual with most of our podcast load of whole load of information. Let's just have. Real quick summary, kind of what's the numbers from the top, what are what are the things people need to do in summary on this particular question, which was all about, I don't where where to start when I want to grow my MSP?

STUART

Recognise that doing nothing is out of a place of fear. So be brave. You know, over the years I've always had a theme with clients is like be brave. What does brave look like for you this year? Then it's very simply what we touched on was know your numbers. Know where you're spending your time and where you should be spending your time. Involve your team in the process and the journey. Build a plan, get inspired by others. Don't be an island. Don't hide away in your own office, just working on your own, trying to work it all out or all alone. And finally, measure success. Hold yourself accountable to your measure of success, to your stretcher zone, outside of your comfort zone, and probably the best way to do that is to get yourself an accountability buddy or partner. Whoever that might be.

Speaker 1

Brilliant. OK? Right before we wrap up and close this one out, which has been an epic maiden voyage, I think we'll...

STUART

Yeah, it's been magic.

IAN

Call it as.

STUART

You can speak for hours.

IAN

As the first episode for those who know Stuart and I, you know, we give a lot back to the community what we want to do with all of the community and also the channel what we want to do with this podcast is we want you to ask us any questions that you've got. So in the show notes for this episode, there is a link where you can submit your question. Just put your name, your details in there. Ask us the question. We'll do a podcast on it and we'll shout you out if you want to be shouted out if you don't be shouted out, we won't, but we will answer your question for you live on the podcast as well, but the second link in this episode is and it would be remiss of us to just give you some information and go well, OK, well, how do I kind of do that? Talk to the listener, Stuart, about tho create more time formula why they need to download it, what they get, what it is and what they'll be able to do after they've gone through the information in that PDF.

STUART

Yeah, they create more time formula that we came up with some years ago because the biggest barrier to most people is I'm too busy. I'm too busy. How do I find more time? And so it was very simple. We sat down. We worked out exactly what you, the steps you needed to take and called it the create more time formula and it is exactly that, a very simple formula. That will help you very quickly workout how you can create more time to focus on the right things down. With it, it's a 2 minute read, but the simplicity of it is amazing.

IAN

And if you, like me, print it out, leave it on your desk, tick off every time you do something like that and let us know how you get on, drop us an e-mail, drop us a message on LinkedIn and let us know how this has impacted you so that is it for number one of the ask Stuart. Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Warwick

STUART

You're very welcome, looking forward to next one.

IAN

Absolutely. See you later, now have a great day.

OUTRO

So I hope you enjoyed the show. If you did, I'd love it if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to learn more about how to take your MSP to a million, or if you're already there, go faster then come and join Stuart Warwick and myself in the Scale of Confidence. Facebook group. Link’s on the Show Notes. You go and enjoy the rest of your day and. I look forward to connecting with you soon.