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  • MSP Pricing: The Complete Guide to Raising Your Rates

    If you only read one thing about MSP pricing, make it this post. I’ve covered price increases a couple of times before, and I’ve talked about how to build your agreement pricing in the first place. This post pulls all of that together into one place, the why, the when, the how much, and the piece most MSPs still get wrong: what to do about your tools.

    One caveat before anything else. Everything in this post assumes your underlying pricing is sound to begin with. If your baseline hourly rate or your agreement pricing formula is out of whack, a price increase just moves a bad number to a slightly less bad number. I’ve got a full video on how I build out agreement pricing, and it’s worth watching before you touch any of what follows.

    Why You Need to Raise Prices

    Nothing in your world gets cheaper. Your staff wants raises. Your tools cost more. Your insurance goes up. If you’re not raising your rates on a regular basis, you’re giving yourself a pay cut every year. After a couple of years of that, you’ll feel it on the bottom line.

    This is also just a normal part of running a business. It’s not something to feel guilty about or apologize for. Every business you interact with raises prices over time. MSPs are no different, and clients generally understand that, even if the conversation can feel uncomfortable.

    When You Can Raise Rates

    The answer depends almost entirely on your contract.

    If you have a month-to-month arrangement (or no contract at all) you can raise rates pretty much whenever you want. Typically with 30 days notice. That doesn’t mean you should do it constantly or without a plan, but you have flexibility.

    If you have a multi-year contract, hopefully it includes an escalator clause, something that lets you raise rates annually tied to cost of living or a set percentage. There’s usually a specific date built in, January 1st, the start of your fiscal year, whatever it happens to be. That’s your trigger point. If it’s not in your contract, get it in there the next time you are doing updates. A multi-year contract should account for price increases along the way especially those tied to cost of living / general inflation.

    If you need a bigger increase than your escalator allows, that’s usually a conversation for contract renewal time, not something you force mid-term. You could try, but I’d be prepared for a contentious conversation. That said, if the client has changed in size and added more people you should be able to account for that. Again, that should all be in your contract (both your MSA and SOW) language.

    One more thing worth building into your process: if a client runs a formal budgeting cycle, work within it. If they set their budget every October for the following year, get your pricing conversation in front of them before that happens. You’ll get a lot more goodwill working with their timeline than springing a number on them after their budget’s already locked. I’ve talked to several MSPs that lost clients by trying to raise prices out-of-band when they knew the budget cycle.

    How Much to Raise Rates

    This depends on where your rates currently sit relative to market.

    Market rate for most MSPs falls somewhere in the $150 to $225+ per hour range. This is somewhat dependent on your region and positioning. If you’re well under that, you may need a bigger correction than a single annual bump. Rather than jumping straight to market rate in one move, which can spook clients, consider a graduated plan. Move from, say, $95 to $115 at the start of one period, then $115 to $130 a few months later, working your way toward $150 or wherever your real target is over the course of a year or so.

    My observation is that in the US the absolute floor for your hourly rate should be $150/hr. Your hourly rate informs all of your other labor related pricing, so this is important. If you’re not at least at $150 it’s time to start moving in that direction. . . pronto.

    If you’re already close to market, this gets simpler. Take a look at cost of living for the year and adjust by roughly that amount, plus or minus a percent or two. Plenty of MSPs run their entire pricing strategy this way and do just fine.

    Will You Lose Clients?

    Short answer: probably not, and if you do, it’s usually not really about the money. The key here is that you MUST be doing good work for them.

    Do the math on what a typical increase actually costs a client. A 5% increase on a $150/hour rate, for a client spending $1,000 to $2,000 a month, works out to maybe $50 to $100 extra. That’s not enough to break a relationship on its own, presuming you’re doing good work for them, taking care of their needs, and managing their risk the way an MSP should. If $50 or $100 is enough to cause real friction, that’s usually a sign of something else going on. Either in their business or in how they feel about the relationship, not really about the rate itself.

    If you need a larger correction because your rates are far under market, you might lose a client or two. That’s a reasonable trade. Your competitors are pricing near market already, so a well-served client comparing your new rate to what they’d pay elsewhere isn’t likely to find a better deal by leaving. Losing an underpriced, high-friction client usually frees up time you can spend more profitably elsewhere.

    For more on this, including a full breakdown of what actually happens when MSPs raise prices, with real numbers from an MSP that had never raised rates before:

    How to Actually Deliver the Increase

    How you communicate a price increase matters as much as the increase itself.

    For small increases, a few percent, an email alongside an invoice is usually enough. Let the client know the date and the new rate, and move on. For increases in the 5 to 15% range, a more direct one-off email or a short conversation is worth the extra effort. For anything above 15%, especially if you haven’t raised rates recently, have an actual conversation. The goal is making sure a client’s frustration (if there is any) comes from the number itself and not from how they found out about it.

    If the increase is large, 30% or more, consider phasing it in over time rather than delivering it all at once. That’s not required, but it can soften the landing for clients who’d otherwise be caught off guard. The conversation should be more about when to do the price increase versus if you’re going to raise their prices.

    Don’t apologize for the increase. Frame it plainly, as a normal part of doing business.

    This is also a good moment to take a bit of credit. If you’ve added a new tool to your stack, brought on new staff, picked up a certification, or expanded what your team can do, that’s worth mentioning when you explain a rate increase. Clients should understand that the number going up reflects something real on your end, added capability, reduced risk, better coverage, not just a number changing in isolation. You don’t need to write a page about it. A sentence or two is plenty. Don’t be shy about it. You earned it.

    Not all clients should be treated identically when you raise rates. Think in three tiers:

    Your most profitable clients: Clients who rarely call, are fully compliant with your stack, and pay on time. They deserve special handling. These are the clients you’re most at risk of losing over a feeling of being taken for granted. This is a good place for a genuine victory lap. Let them know you’re doing your annual increase and that you’ve chosen not to raise their rate this year, because you value the relationship. It’s a strong goodwill move that costs you very little.

    Your middle-tier clients: Likely the majority of your book, get your standard increase. Rebuild your pricing the same way you built it originally. Adjust your hourly rate, recalculate your service-side pricing, factor in any changes to your cloud and tool costs, and land on a new number.

    Your problem clients: You know, the ones who are noisy, non-compliant, or otherwise costing you more than they’re worth, are where a larger increase makes sense. If they’re only a little underwater, a bigger-than-average bump, say 15% instead of 7%, is reasonable. If they’re significantly unprofitable or genuinely difficult to work with, this is where what I call the “FU price” comes in. A substantial increase that either gets you to real profitability on that account or gives the client a reason to leave. Either outcome works in your favor.

    For a deeper walkthrough of this client-tier approach, along with more on messaging and timing:

    Don’t Forget Your Tools

    Most MSPs treat pricing as an annual event. One conversation, once a year, covering labor rates and agreement pricing. That leaves a gap, because your tool costs don’t move on your schedule. Vendors raise prices whenever they raise prices.

    A simple rule: if a tool’s price goes up late in the year, close to your normal increase date, just roll it into that conversation. If it goes up earlier in the year, use the increase itself as your guide. A vendor price increase of more than 5%, especially if you’re not already comfortably above a 50% margin on that tool, is worth addressing when it happens rather than waiting. Smaller increases can usually wait and get batched in later. You don’t want to be going back to clients over a dollar or two here and there. That reads as nickel and diming, even if you’re technically right to do it. A couple of dollars here and a couple of dollars there multiple times per year is going to irritate your clients, so find natural times to do this.

    That said, if you’re passing through MSRP pricing (think Office 365 licenses) and their prices go up mid-year follow their lead. Communicate this well and move on.

    The same logic applies when you add a brand new tool. Mark it up the way you would anything else in your stack, and use the moment to tell your clients what they’re getting, not just what it costs. Be a bit strategic here. Don’t randomly add a tool in March that costs $5 per endpoint and then not have a plan to roll that pricing into your stack pricing.

    I go into this in more depth on this video:

    Bringing It Together

    Price increases should be a regular activity. They’re an ongoing part of running a healthy MSP. Labor rates adjusted deliberately on a known cycle, tool costs tracked and passed through as they happen, and client relationships handled with a little more nuance than a flat percentage across the board. Get your foundational pricing right first, then build these habits on top of it, and this stops being the uncomfortable conversation it feels like the first time you have it.

  • Newsletter 2.09 – The Power of Low Risk Reps

    As a parent of three adult young men one of the biggest strategies we used with the kids as they grew was to find what I call “low risk reps” where my wife and I would give the kids agency to make decisions as they gained more life experience. The older and dare I say, wiser, they got the bigger decisions they made.

    For example, my middle son is an avid video gamer and his system of choice is his PC. A few years ago, he wanted to build a new computer he asked for help. We talked about what he wanted to do with the computer, how much he wanted to spend, and I sent him off to figure out what parts he wanted to buy. We then talked about the choices he was going to make with his own money to buy new parts. This was a major purchase for a teenager without a job. He was spending a good chunk of his savings on this gaming PC.

    Once the new parts arrived he asked for help with the installation. While I could have just built it for him (I am a nerd after all), I coached him through it. It took longer, but he learned something along the way. He can now do damn near all of his own troubleshooting.

    Fast forward a few years: He just bought his first brand new car and did all the research himself. He asked us for help with the transaction pieces because financing and all the paperwork signing was new to him. We went to the dealer with him and he did something like 99% of the work and conversation but we were there just in case he got in the weeds.

    He felt empowered to move from a relatively small purchase to a much more major purchase AND he wasn’t asking for our help for all the pieces along the way. He only looked for some help for the parts where the risk was outside his comfort zone.

    Using Low Risk Reps in Your Business

    If you are an owner or manager at an MSP (or heck, anywhere really), look for low risk reps for your team. Does your Service Manager need some practice interviewing new techs? Give them guidance and agree on the process. Then, let them drive the interview and let them report back to you about the conversation and what their thought process is.

    If one of your techs needs to gain experience in something new, set them up for success by assigning work that stretches their capabilities a bit. Just make sure to give them opportunities to ask for help. Don’t let them get too far into the weeds.

    The power of the low risk rep is that you build up their confidence, and by extension, your confidence in them. Find areas where your team can stretch their capabilities without breaking them or the company.

    One thing that you MUST resist is to pull back the things that get handed off if things go sideways. This is your opportunity to help them learn what went wrong and how to fix it. Just yanking things back is a great way to never be able to hand things off in the future. Mistakes happen, let your team learn in ways that don’t crush their confidence or crush your business.

    Recent Content

    I’ve been working on videos that stacked on each other in short series’ on topics. I’m working on a new series on Service Managers now which will be released soon. Here are some of my recent videos and blog posts:

    • Account Management – Leveling up your business review process: Blog Post | Video 1 | Video 2
    • Project Management – Leveling up your project management practice: Video 1 | Video 2
    • Want to Sell Your MSP? Things to Work on Before You Receive an Offer: Video

    I know it’s been a couple of months since my last newsletter. Sorry about that. At any rate, thanks for sticking with me and inviting me into your inbox.

    Adam

  • Are We Skipping the Fundamentals? (What AI Can and Can’t Do For Your MSP)

    I work with some smart people at my day job. One of those folks is Jonathan. He has been asking if businesses are going to skip learning the fundamentals of running a company entirely and just lean on AI tools to tell them what to do. And if that happens, what does it do to those businesses, and what does it do to our industry?

    I want to answer that question directly, because I think it matters more right now than it did two years ago.

    A P&L, a chatbot, and a near miss

    I know an MSP owner who dropped their P&L into an AI tool. The tool gave them a summary. It sounded reasonable. What they didn’t do was look at their cash flow statement or their accounts receivable alongside it.

    They almost ran out of cash. More than once.

    Here’s the part that matters. The AI tool didn’t lie to them. It answered the question it was given. The problem was the owner didn’t know there were other questions worth asking. They didn’t know what they didn’t know, so they had no way to sanity check the output or notice what was missing.

    That’s the risk with leaning on AI to run your business. Not that the tool is bad, but that it can only work with what you point it at. If you don’t understand the fundamentals of finance, sales, operations, and strategy, you won’t know when the tool is missing something important. You’ll just trust it. Without understanding what is missing is how businesses get into trouble.

    Why fundamentals matter more now, not less

    Here’s the flip side of Jonathan’s question, and it’s the part I actually believe most. If you understand the fundamentals, AI makes you more effective, not less. You can ask sharper questions. You can catch it when it misses something. You can use it to process more data faster instead of using it as a replacement for your own judgment.

    Think of it like this. Someone who understands their business is playing the game on easy mode with AI as a tool. Someone who doesn’t understand their business is just handing the controller to someone else and hoping they play it well. AI is NOT a replacement for using your human judgement and understanding what is actually going on inside your business.

    AI is an amplifier of things. It can amplify the smart, but it will absolutely amplify the stupid if you let it.

    So let’s walk through the fundamentals I think every MSP owner needs a base level of understanding on.

    Finance: know your three reports

    You don’t need to be a CPA. You do need to be able to read a P&L, a balance sheet, and a cash flow statement, and understand what each one is telling you. I have a lot of finance related content here on this blog and on my YouTube channel. There’s no shortage of opportunities to learn. Heck, I even teach finance classes over at my day job at Pax8.

    Your P&L tells you what’s happening month to month. Revenue, cost of goods sold, gross margin, and what’s left after expenses. If you don’t understand what’s making you profitable or not from one month to the next, that’s the first place to dig in. I’ve written a lot about why gross margin specifically is the metric I’d point to first if I could only track one thing, and the formulas behind it.

    Your balance sheet is more like a report card. It tells you what your company is actually worth at a point in time, what you own, what you owe.

    Your cash flow statement ties it all to the day to day reality. This is where MSPs get burned. You buy hardware for a client, your distributor wants payment in 30 days, but your client is slow to pay their invoice. All of a sudden you’re covering a gap you didn’t see coming. Watch your cash flow weekly until you trust it. Then you can back off to monthly.

    Sales and marketing: lead generation over closing

    Most MSP owners I talk to can close a deal reasonably well once a prospect is in front of them. The real gap is almost always lead generation.

    Three things matter here. Get out and build your network in person, don’t hide behind email and LinkedIn messages. Ask for referrals directly, ideally specific enough that a name pops into someone’s head immediately. And get in front of your target clients regularly, whether that’s a networking group built around your niche or a chamber of commerce meetup.

    I wrote a full breakdown of what I’d do differently on lead generation if I were starting over, and a separate piece on why owner led sales should stick around longer than most owners think.

    Operations: think in ratios, not raw numbers

    Raw ticket counts don’t tell you much as you grow. What matters is ratios. Tickets per endpoint, time per ticket, tickets per user. These numbers tell you whether you’re getting more or less efficient as you add clients, and whether a particular client is more demanding than your average.

    Once you have those ratios in hand, you can actually make good decisions about hiring, about pricing, about which clients need attention. Without them you’re guessing.

    Strategy: AI can help you think, it can’t think for you

    This is the one AI genuinely can’t do for you. It can help you process information once you’ve told it where you want to take the business. It can ask you clarifying questions. But if you ask it cold, “I run a business, what should I do,” you’re going to get generic output. Feed it real direction and real data, and let it help you stress test the strategy. That’s a very different use of the tool than outsourcing the thinking entirely.

    You should set the vision and work with AI to help craft a path towards that vision.

    The honest version of my own story

    I was bad at most of this early on. I was a good tech, I could talk to people, but I didn’t understand the financial side of my own business, and it cost my family some hard years because of it. I’m not saying this to be dramatic, I’m saying it because I think it’s a pretty normal starting point for a lot of MSP owners, and it’s fixable. Learning the business side of things is a bigger challenge than being a tech. That’s why this blog and my YouTube channel exist.

    Where this leaves you

    AI tools are only going to get more capable and more embedded in how MSPs operate. That’s not something to fight. But the businesses that get the most out of these tools will be the ones who understand their own fundamentals well enough to ask good questions and catch bad answers.

    You don’t need to become a CPA or a sales trainer overnight. You need to be able to read your own numbers, understand where your leads come from, track the ratios that actually matter, and have a point of view on where you’re taking the business. Everything else, including AI, works better once that foundation is in place.

  • Starting an MSP from Scratch

    I create content about starting an MSP from scratch on the regular. This one goes deeper. If I launched tomorrow with zero clients and zero revenue, these are the eight moves I’d actually make. Not theory. Practitioner stuff based on years of watching what works and what doesn’t.

    Why Most MSPs Struggle Early

    Most MSPs that hit financial trouble early didn’t fail because they were bad at technology. They failed because they priced themselves into a hole on day one and never recovered. Or they spent time and money on the wrong things. Or they got busy with tech work and didn’t take time to run the actual business. This was me way back in the early 2000’s when I was trying to run my own shop. Get busy, forget to prospect, wonder where the work was, repeat…

    The difference between an MSP that scales and one that plateaus usually isn’t talent. It’s structure. And structure starts on day one.

    If I was starting an MSP this is what I would do

    Move 1: Get my pricing put together

    Every MSP owner underprices at the start. The question is whether you underprice by a little or by a lot.

    I generally base all of my service pricing off of an hourly rate (this includes Managed Services, we’ll get there in a moment). If you’re in the US your hourly rate should be at least in the $150 (or higher) range. I’m probably starting closer to $175 for basic hourly stuff if I were starting again. Let me say this again: $150 is the absolute FLOOR for what you should be charging in the US.

    I’d use that rate for break-fix / time and materials work, I’d use that as the basis for project work, and I’d also base my managed services rate on that as well. Since I’d be starting from scratch I’d assume about 0.75 hours of work per endpoint/user. So, if my hourly rate was $175 in my market I’d charge $131.25 for the service side of things in my fully managed offering.

    Then I’d look at the stack. Tools like the xDR solution, email security, DNS filtering, your RMM, and the other tools that every machine gets. I’m marking my stack up 100 percent which generates a 50% margin. This part is straightforward.

    I’d add that marked up number from the stack to the $131.25 together and see how that lands. Then I’d round it up to the nearest reasonable amount, and that becomes my pricing.

    For example: If stack costs are $12 per endpoint I’d charge $24. Then I’d add that to the service ($24 + $131.25) which is $155.25. I’d round it up to $160 and move on. We’ll come back to pricing a little later in this post.

    Price higher than feels comfortable. I mean it. When your gut tells you you’re being aggressive, that’s the right signal. You can always come down.

    Move 2: Build a website in an afternoon

    The second move is building a website, and I’m doing it in an afternoon. It just needs to answer three questions:

    1. Who do I help?
    2. How do I help them?
    3. Who am I?

    If you answer those three questions and make it SUPER OBVIOUS AND EASY for visitors to reach out to you that’s pretty much it for this v1.0 of your website.

    What I would do is to sit down with Claude and Claude Design. I’d work with Claude first to get the content down. A quick prompt or two to help put together the overall content and verbiage, and then jump over to Claude Design to get it looking good enough. I’d also want to do some sort of blog to help with SEO, but that’s a long game so a blog post once a week or every other week is fine to start. You won’t rank for anything in month one. By month eight or nine, posts start showing up in search. Also, at this stage, do NOT spend money on ads.

    Move 3: Network relentlessly

    My personal network is my first sales engine. I’m calling friends, emailing former colleagues, reaching out to people I know in other industries. Making sure everybody and their brother knows I’m open for business and looking for clients. These conversations teach you what problems are actually out there before you ever pitch anything. This is also where your first clients usually come from.

    I’m also going to find some networking groups. Local chambers of commerce or other networking groups like BNI or local groups in your vicinity are solid places to start. The key here is to make sure that the group(s) you join have clients that you want to do business represented. I talk a LOT more about this in this blog post if you want to dig in here. If you have a specific vertical you want to work with don’t forget about finding vertical aligned meet-ups and conferences. Those can be a goldmine for finding leads.

    There’s a book that I like as a concept called “Never Eat Alone” which is sort of what I’d be doing here. As often as possible, I’d want to have a lunch, coffee, or even go for a walk with someone that I can build a relationship with.

    Move 4: Start landing clients

    It’s time to start generating revenue. Early on, most dollars are good dollars. Go after whoever will sign. Build confidence. Get references. Figure out what works in a sales conversation. The goal is to get to three to five clients quickly so you can move to the next phase. That said, one piece of advice is to have a no a**holes rule where you stay away from jerks as much as possible. In order for me to take on a jerk client there’d have to be a lot of upside in terms of revenue or growth.

    Move 5: Automate the noise

    Once you’ve got a few clients, automate the noise. Tools like Pia and Immy.bot handle would be on my list. Basic stuff gets routed and prioritized without you touching it with an auto dispatch tool, and auto provisioning and configuring computers would save a ton of time. You’re not trying to build a fully staffed network operations center. You’re trying to avoid handling every single incoming ticket yourself. For the first six to twelve months you’re doing most of the technical work personally. That’s fine and expected. But automation keeps you from burning out on the volume. If your margin allows it, layer in a virtual assistant to keep tickets moving forward. Cheap labor guided by automation and clear direction beats you drowning in Tier One work every time.

    Move 6: Hiring a tech

    When it’s time to grow the team, my first technicnal hire is a Tier Two, not a Tier One. A Tier Two can handle pretty much all of the normal tickets and projects. They don’t need a ton of hand holding, and won’t ask you a ton of questions. They make you more productive. Your job as the owner is to shift your focus towards sales and account management. You know, more strategic stuff. You’re not meant to be a technician forever. Hiring a Tier Two is what actually frees you up to sell, and selling is what grows the business.

    Move 7: Start defining your Target Client Profile

    Once you’ve got a few solid clients and some runway, its time start defining your Target Client Profile. Healthcare, legal, accounting, manufacturing, whatever makes sense for you and your background. Something with recurring problems you can get really good at solving. This focus makes you predictable, repeatable, and eventually much more valuable than a generalist doing everything. But early on you can’t afford to be picky. Starting to focus is smart, but you’re still taking on most new clients. Revenue first, vertical second.

    Move 8: Watch your margins

    After signing a few clients it’s time to audit your pricing and profitability. Make sure they’re actually making you money. Review the time spent on your accounts. Look at your margins. If you underpriced to land them, you’ve got roughly a six-month window to adjust before that pricing becomes your permanent baseline. Then you’re stuck servicing unprofitable accounts while trying to win better-priced new ones. Raise your prices. Not drastically. But enough to hit your margin targets. Most MSPs regret not doing this earlier. Don’t be most MSPs.

    Price first. Build fast. Network hard. Land clients. Automate the work. Hire smart. Niche down. Protect your margins.

    Eight moves. None of them are complicated. All of them matter.

    The difference between an MSP that scales and one that stays stuck usually isn’t what you do. It’s what you do first, and what you refuse to compromise on when things get busy.

    If you want to go deeper on pricing specifically, I’ve got a full video on that over on my YouTube Channel. And if you’re already past the startup phase but feel like your margins aren’t where they should be, the audit in step eight is where I’d start.

  • Time Tracking: Why Your Business Can’t Run Without It

    If you run an MSP, you’ve probably heard it before: You need to track time. Most people recognize that tracking time is important. That said, it’s a pain (or certainly can be). I get it (I’m not a fan of logging time myself). Time tracking feels like busywork. It feels something extra to do along with fixing the issues your clients have. I totally get it, but not tracking time leaves you flying blind.

    The Real Cost of Not Tracking

    When you’re not tracking time, you’re operating in the dark. You think you know what’s happening in your business. You probably don’t.

    This stems from a call I had with an MSP that swore that they didn’t need to worry about tracking time. They were fairly profitable at the time of our conversation, and they were certain that everything was great. I asked them what they would need to do if they ever had a problem with profitability. What was their plan if things went pear shaped?

    Without time tracking, you have no idea where anyone’s day actually went. Was it client work? Firefighting? Meetings that could’ve been emails? It’s natural to just assume you’re just too busy. The truth is usually messier: You (and likely your team) is being pulled in ten directions by whatever lands in the inbox first.

    A service manager can’t see where their team’s capacity is really going. One client might be eating thirty, forty, or fifty percent of your service delivery time, but if you’re not tracking, you won’t know it. You just know your team seems stressed and you keep thinking you need to hire more people. Maybe you do. But you won’t know until you know what reality looks like.

    And a technician working under these conditions doesn’t realize how much time one problem client consumes. They just know they’re exhausted at the end of the day and they can’t figure out why.

    This is the tyranny of the urgent. Without visibility, everything feels equally important. Everything feels like it needs to happen right now. And so nothing gets planned. Nothing gets prioritized. You’re all just reacting.

    Why Visibility Actually Matters

    Time tracking brings visibility to what’s really happening in your business. Visibility changes everything.

    When your team tracks time, you see which clients demand disproportionate attention. You understand what’s actually happening with your gross margin on a per-client basis. You can spot the client that looked profitable on paper but is bleeding you dry because they’re constantly calling in with issues.

    Visibility allows you to see the problematic line of business app or hardware that needs to be replaced. You see where your team’s capacity is actually going. You know whether you genuinely need more headcount or whether you need to have a conversation with a client about their utilization. You know whether a project is going sideways because of scope creep or because you underestimated the work.

    For overworked people visibility is actually relief. Let’s be honest, most MSP owners, service managers, and techs are overworked. It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true. When you finally see the shape of the problem, you stop wondering. You stop guessing where time goes. You can actually do something about it.

    Time Tracking Is Part of the Work

    Here’s the mental shift that you MUST make: time tracking isn’t separate from doing the work. It’s part of the work.

    • A ticket gets created. Time gets logged against it. That’s not two things. That’s one thing.
    • A project kicks off. Your team tracks their time on it.
    • An account manager makes a client call. They log it. This isn’t adding a separate step to your process.

    It’s just documenting what’s already happening.

    When you frame it this way, time tracking stops feeling like busywork. It’s not. It’s visibility. It’s the only way you actually know what’s going on.

    Oh, you should also include updating documentation into this conversation as well. Creating and updating documentation is just part of the job that should be completed right along with the technical work. It’s all part of the same process, not separate.

    What Should You Track?

    Keep this simple. You don’t need a complicated system. You need consistency.

    Track billable work against specific clients. Track internal projects. Track admin work. Track meetings. Include the client name. Include the category, was this break-fix, managed services, a project, account management? Include the time spent.

    That’s it. You don’t need to overthink this. Most PSAs and ticketing systems have time tracking built in. Use it. If you’re doing project work, track it. If your account manager or salesperson is investing time in a client relationship, log it.

    The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is building the habit and creating consistency.

    What About Utilization?

    Utilization is closely tied to time entry, so it’s worth a quick paragraph or two here even though we’re not really talking about utilization exactly. Generally speaking, you want your staff to be about 75% utilized (spending time on client facing stuff) for the year.

    The problem is that if you aim at 75% daily you will end up closer to 70% by year end once you account for PTO and holidays and that sort of thing. This means you should aim at 80-85% billable utilization on a daily basis.

    The thing with your techs is, they might not make the connection of what 80-85% utilized means. So, tell them that they should be billing about 6.5 hours per day. Tell them in the units they can easily pay attention to, and then hold them accountable to hit the numbers.

    The Payoff

    When your team actually tracks time, you gain insight from the visibility. This removes the guesses and assumptions about where the time goes.

    You spot problems early. You know when a client relationship is becoming unprofitable. You know when your team is stretched too thin. You know when you need to raise prices or push back on scope.

    You have real conversations with your service manager about utilization and capacity instead of guessing. You can tell your team “we’re targeting six and a half billable hours per day” because you actually have data to back it up. You’re not pulling numbers out of thin air.

    Visibility is powerful for your team too. They’re not wondering why they’re so tired. They can see it. They can point to the client that’s consuming their day. They can understand whether the problem is too much work or poorly distributed work.

    Start Where You Are

    You don’t need to overhaul your entire operation tomorrow. But if you’re not tracking time right now (or it’s sporadic), that’s your next move. Set expectations and train your team. Get consistent with it. See what you learn.

    The businesses that run well aren’t the ones with the fanciest systems. They’re the ones that can actually see what’s happening. Time tracking is how you get there.

  • vCAIO Is Getting a Lot of Buzz. Here’s What MSPs Are Getting Wrong About It.

    vCAIO is showing up more and more in my conversations with MSPs. Peer Group meetings, AI Community Group meetings, LinkedIn posts, conference hallway tracks. And like a lot of buzzwords in this space, it sounds compelling on the surface. But before you go build a vCAIO offering and start pitching it to clients, it’s worth asking a simple question: do you actually know what that looks like in practice?

    I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Let’s talk about vCAIO and ongoing AI related business today.

    The Problem With How MSPs Are Approaching This

    The most common thing I’m hearing from MSP owners is some version of: “How do I generate MRR from AI?” I get it. MRR is the lifeblood of a Managed Services business. Of course you want to turn AI into a recurring revenue line.

    The problem is that most MSPs are trying to build the pricing model before they’ve proven the value. They want to figure out the per-user fee, the monthly retainer structure, the invoice line item, before they’ve actually delivered a successful AI project for a single client. That’s backwards.

    You don’t get to charge for ongoing AI advisory work because you put it on a price sheet. You get to charge for it because you earned that conversation by delivering real results.

    What vCAIO Actually Requires

    Here’s the thing about vCAIO, or vCTO, or any of these fractional technology leadership offerings. They’re not really about technology. They’re about positioning yourself (and your company) as a technology leader for your clients.

    The MSPs that can pull this off are the ones their clients already see as business advisors, not IT vendors. If your clients call you when something breaks, that’s a very different relationship than if your clients call you when they’re thinking through a new business process or a growth initiative. Both relationships are valid. But only one of them leads naturally to a vCAIO conversation.

    This is why so many MSPs struggle with the idea. They’ve built their client relationships on being the tech people. Their clients like them, and trust them to fix the broken stuff. But when an AI opportunity comes up, those clients either DIY it, hire a consultant, or ask you to enable a tool and get out of the way. That’s not a failure of the client. That’s a reflection of how the relationship was built and maintained.

    Starting With the Right Conversation

    If you want to position yourself for AI advisory work, it starts in the sales and discovery process, well before a client signs a contract.

    The old version of discovery sounds like: what’s your tech stack, what’s your budget, what problems are you having with your current provider? That gets you the contract. It doesn’t get you the advisor relationship.

    The new version sounds different. How do you make money? What does your team spend most of their time on? What happens when a key process breaks down? What keeps you up at night? These questions signal that you care about their business, not just their infrastructure. Over time, that’s what earns you a seat at the table when the bigger strategic conversations happen.

    If you’re trying to shift the thinking of your existing clients, asking these questions and probing into their use of AI in your SBR meetings (you’re having those, right?) is what I’d do if I were in your shoes.

    The other thing you need to understand before recommending any AI solution is the process the client currently has in place. AI doesn’t fix broken processes. It automates them, faster and at scale. If you skip the process discovery work and jump straight to recommending a tool, you’re either going to burn a lot of hours on something that doesn’t work, or you’re going to get lucky. Getting lucky is not a repeatable business model.

    An Order of Operations for AI Projects

    Once you’ve done the discovery work and you understand the business, you’ll likely find two types of AI opportunities:

    1. Cost-saving projects
    2. Revenue-generating projects.

    Cost-saving projects are things like automating a manual workflow, reducing time spent on repetitive tasks, or cutting down on administrative overhead. Revenue-generating projects are things like helping a client’s sales team close faster, improving the customer experience in ways that drive retention, or building a process that opens up a new revenue stream.

    I’d recommend that you lead with a cost-saving project as your proof of concept. It’s lower risk for the client and lower stakes for you. You get to test your process, demonstrate competence, and build trust before you go after the bigger opportunity. Don’t burn your best revenue-generation opportunity on an unproven engagement.

    Once you’ve delivered real results on the cost-save side and the client has seen what you’re capable of, the revenue-generating conversation becomes much easier to have. That’s the one that actually justifies ongoing advisory fees. It’s much easier to take a victory lap with your client for a project that is literally putting more money in their pockets.

    Cost-saving projects are harder to convert to ongoing revenue. When you save a client money, they tend to think of it as a one-time win. Revenue-generating projects are a different story. When you help a client make money, they’re far more willing to keep paying because they’re seeing a return every month. Neither type of project is off the table. Just understand the difference and plan accordingly.

    What the Ongoing Revenue Actually Looks Like

    Let’s talk pricing for a minute, because this is where the vCAIO conversation usually falls apart.

    There’s no established per-user or per-endpoint model for AI advisory work. Not yet, anyway. The MSPs pulling this off are doing one of two things. Either they’re pricing based on outcomes, tying their ongoing fee to maintaining and optimizing a result they’ve already delivered. Or they’re doing a simple strategic retainer, reserving a set number of hours each month for technology planning and advisory work. Both models are honest. Both are things clients can understand and justify.

    What doesn’t work is inventing a monthly AI fee before you’ve proven anything. Clients aren’t going to pay ongoing fees for something that hasn’t delivered results. And they shouldn’t.

    One thing to understand is that the resources required to do this work for your clients are expensive. Often, this is an owner or highly compensated person within the organization. It’s unlikely that a Tier 2 tech making $65k per year can do this with any real regularity. Higher dollar resources = higher rates. You MUST anchor your AI / Business Consulting rate at something much higher than your standard hourly fee. As you build out your AI / MIP practice you will need to ensure you aren’t leaving margin on the table.

    The Bottom Line

    vCAIO isn’t a product you build. It’s a position you earn. It comes from showing up as a business advisor, understanding your clients’ processes, and delivering results that actually move the needle for their business.

    If that’s not where you are yet with your clients, that’s okay. Start with the discovery conversation. Ask better questions. Build your understanding of their processes before you recommend any tool. Deliver a project that proves you know what you’re doing.

    The MRR conversation follows. But only after the work is done.

    If you want more thinking like this on MSP business strategy, sign up for my newsletter below. I send it when I have something worth saying.

  • MSP Accounts Receivable: Fix the Process Before You Have a Problem

    If you’ve ever looked at your P&L and thought “we’re doing well” but then looked at your bank account and thought “where the heck is all the cash?” you’re not alone. Accounts receivable is one of the most common pain points I hear from MSP owners, and the gap between revenue on paper and cash in the bank can be brutal. It seems like many MSPs don’t manage their cash well. Either they don’t have cash in the bank, they don’t control the cash in the bank, or they have a ton of extra cash because they don’t know what’s going to happen.

    Here’s the thing: this is almost always a process problem. If you allow your clients to send you checks, chasing invoices manually, sending one-off emails, or relying on the same person who has a relationship with the client to also be the one demanding payment, you’ve already put yourself at a disadvantage.

    Thankfully, your Accounts Receivable (AR) process is fixable. But you have to build the system before you have a problem, not after.

    Why MSPs End Up at the Back of the Line

    One of the most common things I see is that clients put the MSP’s invoice at the back of the list to get paid. Why?

    Your clients have finite cash, and they prioritize vendors who have consequences for non-payment. The cable company gets paid because everyone knows what happens if they don’t. Your MSP gets deprioritized because clients have learned, often through experience, that you’ll wait.

    MSPs tend to be too friendly, too flexible, and too reluctant to enforce their own contracts. The relationship feels personal, so enforcement feels personal too. But your MSA is a business document. The moment you start treating it like one, your AR situation starts to improve.

    The goal isn’t to become adversarial with your clients. The goal is to build a system where enforcement is just policy, not a confrontation.

    The Levers, In Order of Impact

    Make Auto-Pay the Default

    This is the single biggest lever you have, and it’s not close. ACH or credit card auto-pay should be a requirement in your MSA for all new clients, not a preference or a nice-to-have. When a client signs with you, setting up auto-pay is part of onboarding. Full stop.

    For existing clients, run a migration campaign. Frame it as “this is how we do things now” rather than a reaction to a specific problem. Most clients will comply without pushback, especially if you give them a reasonable runway.

    The invoicing cadence that works well: invoice on the 10th of the month for the following month (you’re billing ahead), due on the 1st, and for auto-pay clients you pull on the 1st. Predictable for you, predictable for them.

    When auto-pay is the norm, AR problems largely disappear. That’s the point. You may run into a prospect that won’t do auto payment during the sales process. You can choose to take on this client that wants to pay via check, but that should be the exception. Not the rule.

    Shorten Your Terms

    Net 30 is a holdover from a different era. Net 10 or due on receipt is increasingly standard for MSP recurring services, and there’s no reason you can’t move in that direction. At a minimum, lock in shorter terms for every new contract going forward. Don’t wait for an AR crisis to make this change.

    Enforce the Late Fees You Already Have

    Most MSAs already include a late fee clause, typically around 1.5% per month. If yours does, use it. The first time a client sees that fee on an invoice is usually the last time they pay late. If your MSA doesn’t include a late fee clause, add it at the next renewal.

    The clause is worthless if you never enforce it. That’s the pattern I see most often: MSPs have the language, but they waive the fee to keep the peace. Every time you do that, you’re training the client that the terms aren’t real.

    Automate the Follow-Up

    Don’t rely on a person to chase invoices manually. It’s awkward, it’s inconsistent, and it will fall through the cracks. Tools like Gradient MSP, Wise-Sync, or even QuickBooks’ built-in reminders can send escalating notices automatically at day 5, day 15, day 30, and beyond.

    When the reminder comes from a system, it feels like policy. When it comes from Jess, it feels like Jess is bugging them. Automate it and take the personal dynamic out of it entirely.

    Build an Escalation Ladder

    Automation handles most situations, but not all of them. When you need human intervention, you need a defined path so it doesn’t just fall to whoever feels like dealing with it that day.

    A simple ladder: your admin sends a friendly reminder at 15 days, you send a firmer note at 30, and at 45 days services pause per the terms of your MSA. Document the ladder. Stick to it. Clients learn quickly that the cadence is real.

    Yes, you will have to get involved personally at some point. That’s fine. Having the process behind you makes your involvement feel like a policy step rather than a personal confrontation. Define when you need to get involved, and make sure that you follow your process.

    The Service Suspension Clause

    This is the strongest tool in your MSA, and also the most misunderstood.

    I hear MSP owners tie themselves in knots over this one, especially when Microsoft 365 or Azure is in the picture. The concern goes something like: “I can’t actually suspend their services, can I?”

    Think about your cable company. They will cut your internet circuit for non-payment without much hesitation. Here’s the thing: cable and telecom companies are regulated as common carriers and utilities, which actually creates more restrictions on when they can act, not fewer. MSPs operate under no such regulatory burden. You’re a private business providing contracted services.

    Your MSA governs your relationship with your client, not Microsoft’s terms of service. As a CSP partner, Microsoft’s own agreements actually allow for license suspension for non-payment. You’re not in violation of anything by acting on your contract.

    A few places to be thoughtful: life-safety systems, healthcare environments, or any regulated vertical. These deserve explicit language in your MSA and a real conversation with a contracts attorney. And as always, verify the specifics with your own lawyer before you act. I’m a practitioner, not a legal expert.

    The practical reality is that you rarely have to use the suspension clause. The existence of it, communicated clearly, changes behavior. Clients who know services can pause for non-payment treat your invoices differently. And the ones who do get suspended tend to pay very quickly once services go dark.

    The key here is to make sure that you’ve done your communication pieces as mentioned above and that the client knows the clause exists in your contracts and you’re fairly safe here.

    All that said. . . I am not a lawyer, and I’m definitely not YOUR lawyer, so it’s best to consult one before you get to this point with any of your clients.

    The Mindset Shift

    None of this works if you’re not willing to enforce it. That’s the real problem for most MSPs. The tools, the clauses, the automation, it’s all available. The willingness to use it is what separates MSPs with healthy Accounts Receivable process from the ones chasing invoices every month.

    The awkwardness of enforcement is almost always worse in your head than in practice. Most clients respect clear, consistent policies. It’s the inconsistent ones that get taken advantage of.

    You are not a bank. Stop operating like one.

    Where to Start

    If you take nothing else from this post, start here:

    • Make auto-pay a requirement for every new client starting now.
    • Audit your MSA for a late fee clause and a service suspension clause. If they’re not there, get them added at the next renewal.
    • Set up automated invoice reminders if you haven’t already.

    Build the system before you need it. AR problems are almost always preventable. The MSPs who struggle with cash flow despite solid revenue are almost always the ones who never built the process in the first place.

  • Newsletter 2.05 – Are you treading water or moving forward?

    Back in June of 2013 I was participating in a triathlon in the little town of Buffalo, MN. For those of you who don’t know me very well, I’m an endurance athlete. A fat and slow endurance athlete, but nevertheless I love that sort of thing.

    Before the race we had a unique opportunity. At this triathlon we had a judge from the Guinness Book of World Records. The goal was simple: get over 450 people into a 60 degree lake and tread water together long enough to make it official. So off we went, listened to the guy on the megaphone, made sure everyone was deep enough, and we did it. We entered the record book.

    Treading water, in that moment, was the whole point. We won by staying in place.

    460+ people treading water for the Guinness Book of World Records

    The more I talk to MSP owners, the more I think a lot of them are treading water too. The difference is, in their business, staying in place isn’t a win.

    When you start your MSP you have a vision. Grow the business, make some money, maybe even have some fun along the way. You know it’ll be a fair bit of work, but you’re an entrepreneur. That comes with the territory.

    You sign some clients. Things get busy. Before long you’re stuck doing all the things. Because you’re capable of doing nearly every task in your business, the natural tendency is to just handle it yourself. The problem is it’s hard to get out of your own way when you’re the one blocking the path.

    Every minute you spend on tasks that don’t move your business forward is a minute you’re treading water. You’re burning energy just to stay in place.

    So what’s the fix?

    Start by figuring out where your time is actually going. If you feel like you’re treading water, track what you’re doing throughout the week. Write down every task you work on and be diligent about it. You might need to do this for two or three weeks to get a real picture, because one week doesn’t always tell the whole story.

    Once you have that list, break it into four categories. Note that a task can land in more than one:

    • List 1: Tasks you love to do
    • List 2: Tasks you hate to do
    • List 3: Tasks that truly only you can do
    • List 4: Tasks that can be handed off

    Now review the lists. Pay close attention to lists 3 and 4. Some things you must do even though you hate them. Some things you love doing but probably shouldn’t be the one doing them anymore. Both of those are worth sitting with for a minute.

    Then really dig into list 4. Group related tasks together and ask yourself whether that bundle of work represents a full time hire, a part time hire, or a contractor or outside service. You may find more than one role hiding in that list. The tech who handles your client work probably isn’t going to do your bookkeeping, for example.

    For me, bookkeeping and invoicing are the clearest examples of treading water tasks. If I were starting an MSP tomorrow those would be the first two things I’d hand off. There are good, affordable options out there for both, and every minute I spend reconciling accounts or chasing invoices is a minute I’m not growing the business.

    Does the math work?

    This is where a lot of folks get stuck. The cost of hiring feels very real. The value of the time you get back feels theoretical.

    Here’s a simple way to think about it. Take what you earn as an owner and divide it by the hours you actually work. That’s your effective hourly rate. If you can hand a task off for less than that rate, the math already works in your favor on paper. Dan Martell dives much deeper into this concept in his book, “Buy Back Your Time” – it’s an excellent read if this topic resonates with you.

    The more interesting question is what you do with that recovered time. If those hours go toward sales, strategy, or anything that generates new revenue, you’re not just breaking even on the hire. You’re investing in forward motion.

    For a technical hire specifically, a reasonable benchmark is that a tech should be able to support roughly 3x their salary in billable work. If that math holds, the hire pays for itself and then some.

    The goal isn’t to build the biggest team. It’s to stop being the bottleneck in your own business. Every task you’re holding onto that someone else could handle is another minute in the water.

    At some point you have to start swimming.

    Recent Content

    My videos have been a little sporadic as of recent, but I have a number of new videos and blog posts that you might find helpful.

    Also, I’ll be at Pax8 Beyond next week and hosting the Pax8 Peer Groups from Salt Lake City. I have two sessions that I think are worth checking out at Pax8 Beyond.

    Session 1 is called Shadow IT Unleashed where I’ll talk about how Shadow IT has shifted in the age of AI. Session 2 is called What is Gross Margin and How Do You Control It? I’ll talk about one of my favorite topics: Gross Margin. I’d love to see some friendly faces in my sessions!

    Thanks for inviting me into your inbox,

    Adam

  • You’re More Exposed Than You Think: What Happens When You Lose Your Biggest Client

    I want you to stop for a second and think about your biggest client. Now ask yourself: if they called you tomorrow and said they were leaving, what would happen to your business?

    For a lot of MSPs, the honest answer is: it would be bad. Really bad. Lost revenue, lost margin, and quite possibly lost people. People you hired. People you promised a future to.

    That call happens more than you think. The MSPs who get blindsided by it almost always say the same thing afterward: I knew it was a risk. I just didn’t do anything about it. Often, the client kept them busy enough that it was hard to stay diligent on lead generation and adding new clients.

    The 25% Rule

    If any single client represents more than 25% of your revenue, you have a concentration problem. Full stop. I actually think that if you have clients that are more than 10% of your revenue I’d be at least a little concerned. Dropping 10% of your revenue essentially overnight would hurt… a lot.

    I’ve talked to MSPs where one client is 60%, 70%, even 90% of their revenue. That is not a business. That is a dependency.

    And here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter how happy that client is right now. Things outside your control happen all the time. They get acquired. New ownership brings their own IT team. Someone gets a bug in their ear that another vendor is cheaper. They decide to bring IT in-house.

    You can do everything right and still lose that client. That’s what makes this so dangerous. How does your business survive if you lose 70% of your revenue in one shot?

    What It Actually Looks Like When It Happens

    Let me be honest about what losing a whale client means for a small MSP.

    Week one is shock. That client wasn’t just a revenue line. It’s where your team spent most of their time. It was part of your identity as a business.

    Week two is when the math hits you. If that client was 60% of your revenue and you have four employees, you cannot keep all four of them. Not without cash reserves. Not without a pipeline. You will need to have some uncomfortable conversations.

    That’s the part nobody talks about. It’s not just a business setback. Letting someone go is gut-wrenching. These are people who trusted you with their careers. That is real, and it is heavy.

    Nearly every MSP I’ve talked to that’s landed in this spot had some sort of inkling (or a general worry) that this was possible. It’s hard to prioritize finding new clients and minimizing your risk when your giant client keeps you running all the time. Kicking the can down the road becomes easy and this becomes a problem for future you.

    The future has a way of arriving whether you’re ready or not.

    The Real Risk Gauge

    So how exposed are you, really? Here’s the question I want you to honestly answer:

    Are you involved in the strategic direction of that client’s business?

    Not tickets. Not tactical conversations. Are you sitting in the room when they talk about where the company is going?

    If the answer is no, your risk is higher than you think. When things change at that company, and they will change, you will be one of the last to know. The last to know frequently gets caught flat footed.

    If the answer is yes, your position is stronger. But it is not bulletproof. Being in the room helps. It does not guarantee anything.

    What You Can Actually Do About It

    Get into the strategic conversation

    If you are not already there, ask for it directly. Have the owner-to-owner conversation. Something like: “One of the things we do best for our clients is help them think through their IT strategy. I’d love to be more involved in those conversations with you. Can we make that happen?”

    That is a reasonable ask. Most business owners respect directness. And it gives you visibility you don’t have right now.

    Lock in a real contract

    Thirty-day termination clauses are not protection. For clients this large, you need a multi-year agreement with meaningful early termination fees. Fees that would actually cost them something.

    I’ve talked to MSPs where the client said they were being acquired and needed to back off starting tomorrow. If your contract has no teeth, there is not much you can do about that. That’s a hard lesson to learn on a client that represents most of your revenue.

    This is not adversarial. It is honest about the risk on both sides, and any sophisticated business owner will understand that.

    Make sure their IT environment is in excellent shape

    Well-documented. Well-secured. Up to your standards. This matters more than people realize.

    If that client gets acquired, the incoming IT team has to evaluate your work. A clean, well-run environment gives them a reason to keep you around. A mess gives them a reason to replace you. This is one of those areas where doing good work is also good risk management.

    Build the pipeline. Now.

    This is the only real mitigation. Everything else buys you time or softens the landing. A strong pipeline is what replaces the revenue.

    If you are not doing consistent lead generation right now, start this week. Not after you finish the next project. This week.

    If you already have referral partners in your orbit, call them. Have coffee. Let them know you’re actively looking to grow. If you don’t have those relationships yet, go find some. Join a networking group. Get in front of your accountant, your banker, your insurance broker. This is a relationship business, and relationships take time to build. Time you won’t have if you wait until the call comes.

    The goal is straightforward: take that client from 60% of your revenue to 50%, then 40%, then 30%. Every new client you bring on is risk reduction. Every month you wait is another month you’re still fully exposed.

    One note on urgency here. If you find yourself scrambling to replace revenue quickly, you will be tempted to take on clients that aren’t a great fit. I’ve seen this play out, and the short-term relief comes with a long-term cost. Bad-fit clients erode your margin and your team’s morale over time. If you have to take on some imperfect clients to keep the lights on, fine. Just make sure you have a plan to replace them with better ones as your pipeline develops. Grow into good clients, grow out of bad ones.

    The Part That Actually Matters

    A lot of MSP owners know they have a concentration problem. They acknowledge it. And then they do nothing, because they’re busy, because things feel fine, because dealing with it feels like admitting a problem exists.

    This is a high stakes game though. If you lose that client without a pipeline behind it, you are not just taking a business hit. You are probably letting people go. People who showed up every day and did good work for you. That is not an abstraction. That is someone’s livelihood, and the weight of that decision lands on you as the owner.

    You have the ability to prevent that outcome. Not by hoping the client stays. By building something that survives if they don’t.

    The time to build that is right now, while things are good and you have the margin to do it properly. Not when the call comes.

    Where to Start This Week

    Take stock. What percentage of your revenue is your biggest client? Are you in their strategic conversations? What does your contract actually say?

    Then, regardless of the answers, start building your pipeline. If you want a framework for putting together a structured lead generation plan, I’ve covered that in depth on this blog. Start there, and build something that protects your business and your people for the long term.