How to be the master of your own MSP destiny

Martin Haak of Infinite Edge is one of Benchmark 365’s oldest Partners and great success stories. Recently he was interviewed by Auvik for their Frankly MSP podcast.

It’s a great 15 minute listen on how a small or one-man MSP can be successful and have the kind of business and life they want.

If you are considering making a change in your MSP business so you can grow and be more profitable this is a worthwhile listen. Martin walks through how he was able to build the kind of business he wanted – an MSP that avoided the woes of hiring support staff yet allowed him to both grow the business and take the time he wanted to focus on growth and – as important – spend time with his family.

By embracing Benchmark 365’s outsourced customer support model – Martin was able to achieve those goals while growing 50% to 60% in the first year alone. But we will let him tell you his own story around that.

What I would like to highlight for you is some of the key lessons he learned about embracing and using an outsourced support model successfully. Here’s his top three tips:

Martin’s advice is to fully commit to outsourcing if you want to make it work. If you want to have a business that can run without you being involved 24/7 – you have to do some work upfront to get there.

1. When moving to an outsourced model you have to be willing to give it 6 to 18 months to start really humming in your business. Many give it a try and then give up really quickly because things aren’t working out staight away. You need to think of it as adding a team member. Except its actually putting on an entire team overnight – so you have to do the work to make it synch with your business.
2. Outsourcing really highlights the gaps in your documentation and processes. That makes it a real challenge for the new outsourced team. So be prepared to fill in the gaps and make those documents as detailed as possible. Its worth it!
3. Over communicate when giving instructions – explain it a little bit more as it saves a lot of back and forth. There can also be language and a cultural barriers when working with an offshore team. So it’s important to be aware of that and to be patient.
4. Finally try and involve them as much as you can in your own culture. Make them a true part of your team. Like anyone they want to be inspired to do good work and make your business a success.

The “1 Thing” segment at the beginning of the podcast, where Auvik talks with Dom Price of Atlassian about the importance and power of focus is a great lead in to the conversation with Martin. If you want to be the master of your own destiny you can’t do it all yourself.