Don’t Be Scared of Budget Discussions
Do you ever feel bad presenting a budget to your client and find yourself thinking “What are they going to say?” or “It’s too much, they’ll never accept it”? It doesn’t have to be that way. When done right, budget discussions shouldn’t feel like a tense negotiation between you and your client. If you start […]
Setting the Right vCIO Objectives
We all know that compensation is a driver of behaviour. Choosing the right objectives to give bonuses to vCIOs is critical to get the behaviour you are looking for. The wrong objectives could have unforeseen effects and break what you are trying to achieve. I’m a strong believer that the vCIO’s #1 priority is to […]
Ditch the QBRs
Ditch the quarterly business reviews! I have never been a fan of the term “quarterly business review” (QBR) for a bunch of reasons. For one, I don’t think you can do a proper business review in a single meeting. The term QBR implies you will review the service that was delivered, analyze metrics, identify problems […]
Your Standards Are Your DNA
Your standards are your DNA as an MSP. If someone was to log onto to one of your client’s network, they should almost be able to know you are managing them just by going through how everything is configured. The standards by which you setup your clients are your DNA. These should be unique to […]
How to Address Ticking Timebombs Clients
We all have clients that just won’t approve any projects and their infrastructure just keeps getting older and older. It’s so bad that it becomes a bit of a running joke in MSPs. This client is now a ticking timebomb and a real risk for our MSP. We find ourselves asking “How did we get […]
Strategic Planning Is All About Timing!
There is nothing I hate more than spending time preparing a great roadmap and budget that addresses all the business objectives as well as gaps in the client’s infrastructure, having a great meeting where the client is completely onboard with the plan, and then hearing: “this is great, but budgets got approved last month and […]
Hire Great People With Your vCIO Role
How to find great people with your vCIO role. Every MSP I speak to is struggling with recruiting right now. This is probably true for almost every business in most industries. Yet, with our MSP, we’ve done quite well at hiring recently and the vCIO position has helped tremendously. Over the years, we’ve noticed that […]
