Every business owner in the world struggles with answering the following question: How do I leverage my time to effectively grow my business without having to work a 80- to 90-hour work week?
In the entrepreneurship world people see working long hours as a badge of honour; but it’s not practical for any business and certainly not for an MSP. The issue for an MSP is that they working with small business clients who have significant IT needs while not having enough staff to expand their own business.
For MSP business owners, this translates to working extremely long hours. However, it doesn’t have to be this way! If you implement effect practices early and often, your time-management skills will grow and develop.
The end result is you’ll be able to effectively manage the finite time that we all have available and it starts with consciously taking the following tips into consideration for your business.
Have Priorities
According to Dr. Donald Wetmore of The Productivity Institute, about 20 percent of the average person’s workday is spent dealing with important tasks while the reamining 80 percent is spent on items that have little to no value at all.
As an MSP owner, you can easily find yourself juggling several administrative tasks that are a direct result of operating a business. Things like office management, taxes, insurance, scheduling, sales, and planning. These are in addition to the ever expanding managed service and IT industries that you need to stay on top of too.
All of this is a reminder that you need to prioritize the most crucial tasks first. The tasks that will grow the business and support clients.
What those top priorities are will vary from business to business. One way to really manage and identify them is by creating time blocks. These time blocks are created specifically for you to set aside an allotted time to a certain task. Whether that’s planning, reviewing, invoicing, sales and quoting, or dealing with technical problems, a block system like this can help in moving a business forward.
Hire Where You Can
Another way to reduce your own workload is through delegation. As an MSP, you do have extra avenues that you can consider. For example, you can collaborate with other MSPs where they handle some of the workload. This is particularly helpful if you take on larger projects than what your current team can handle.
The other alternative is by looking at hiring staff members so you can delegate other tasks to them. The idea is to delegate the smaller tasks, which will free you to focus on advanced tech work, relationship management, and business management.
The other side of the equation is pricing. Your employees will want to be paid, so it’s important that you are charging what you’re actually worth to your clients. Many MSPs fall into the trap of undercharging clients for the value of their work. This is especially true if the client is a small business. If you’re setting your standards for pricing and it’s on par with the value you provide, people will look past the price tag and be willing to pay more if it means they’ll be able to grow along with you.
Get Into Automation
The last tip is pick a strong remote monitoring and management system (RMM). A professional services automation system (PSA) also works. Either one of these systems provides a tool that will automate the simple and repetitive IT or client management tasks.
This is helpful because this frees up more time for more meaningful management activities like business strategy, solving advanced tech issues, client relationship management and more.
Implement These Sooner Rather Than Later
These are very simple solutions but they make a world of difference if you can implement them. Even if your MSP has been around longer and you haven’t implemented this, you can still begin implementing these tips into your business now.
By taking small steps every single day to improve how you handle your time, you’re only growing your business and ensuring the growth is sustainable for you and your team.
About MSP Corp
MSP Corp understands you’ve worked hard to build your business and you want to protect it. With a mission to be a world-class business partner for MSP owners across Canada, we actively seek to acquire and partner with owners looking to secure the value of the business they have built and provide a seamless exit process that ensures business continuity and employee and client stability.
Contact us today to learn more about selling your business and maximizing its value.