The leaves are changing, it’s getting cooler out (well… sort of), and we’ve already packed up the RV for the winter. On the one hand, I’m ready for hoodie weather, but I do love the summer. Especially being able to work from the campground wherever we happen to park. That said, seasons are changing… and winter is coming.

I’ve been thinking about my career a lot recently. I’m fortunate in that I really enjoy my job. Getting to work with so many MSPs and my amazing staff of facilitators and operations folks is energizing. We just pulled off a great event in Dallas with something like 150 MSPs participating throughout the week. It was a great week, especially with us trying our very first content day where we had 15 sessions over the course of the morning, and a cool event in the afternoon. We also spent a couple days in Denver working with the smaller MSPs, the 1-5 person shops that are on their way to $1M in revenue. Spending time with people doing the work in industry is my favorite thing to do at work.

I mention all of this not to brag about my job, but as a reminder to consider your own role at your MSP. Whether you’re an owner, service manager, dispatcher, or whatever; are you able to make your job as enjoyable as possible? What would you do differently to make your days, weeks, and months more enjoyable? What would you not want to change?

I’ve had a lot of conversations with MSPs and other industry folks about acquisitions and transitions. A topic that is consistent throughout the whole conversation is what does their role look like on the other side of the transition? What do your team members’ roles look like? How does that impact your team? Your clients?

Sometimes the transition is the purchase or sale of the business. Sometimes the transition is a promotion or reorganization of the team. I’ve been through all of them at one point or another in my career. Transitions create uncertainty. Some people don’t mind uncertainty and ambiguity. For others, it’s crippling.

A LOT of good things can happen with transitions. If you’re buying another business, congrats on being able to do that. If you’re selling, congrats on having something worth buying. And if your role is shifting and creating some internal transition, congrats on showing your worth to the company.

On the flip side, know that all of these things can create turmoil for your teams. Turmoil for your teams, even if minor (and/or brief) can absolutely impact your clients. My recommendation here is to be as transparent about what’s happening as possible. Having been through many transitions through my career the more I knew the better I felt about the situation. Even if it wasn’t ultimately a good thing for me having more information made it easier to make my own decisions.

I was helping an MSP through an acquisition a little while back, and the benefit for half the company and owner was clear. They tried and tried to figure out how to spin it positively for the other half of the company and they simply couldn’t. Lots of things were going to change, and nearly none for the better for at least half of the company. That was a tough spot for those in the “losing” half. Without a clear benefit there was much more turnover in that side of the company than anticipated. This led to some client losses which led to a few layoffs. None of which was good for anyone.

This was just a single example of something that was done poorly, but know that even a positive transition can create more turmoil than you’d expect. Any sort of transition will create ripples, and many transitions will have some people looking for the exit. Both clients and employees. It’s a fact of life (and business).

The bigger the change the more important it is to communicate well and paint a clear picture of what your team should expect on the other side. That’s your role as a leader in your company. Even if you aren’t the owner, your job is to help take care of your team and help them through whatever the change is. Some may self select out. Heck, YOU may self select out if you aren’t an owner.

Change is hard. Communicating is hard. It’s important to consider the people involved. Put yourself in their shoes and communicate to them how you’d want to hear from your leaders.

M&A Webinar on Tuesday

I recently met Hartland Ross through a mentor of mine. Hartland runs a company that helps MSPs with the buy and sell side of acquisitions. Please join us for a free webinar next Tuesday (11/10/2026). Once the webinar is over I’ll be uploading the recording to my YouTube channel and will change this section to link there instead.

Recent Content

I’ve talked about a few different topics recently on the YouTube Channel and the blog. Here are some recent videos and blog posts:

• Service Manager Series: I launched a three video series about the role and life of a Service Manager. You can find those videos here:
  • Video 1: Hiring a Service Manager
  • Video 2: Service Manager Day-to-Day
  • Video 3: Career Progression of a Service Manager
• Price Increases: This time of the year is often the right time to move forward with raising your prices. I created a longer blog post walking through the whole thing and a video about what to do when your tool prices go up.
  • Blog Post: The MSP Guide to Raising Your Rates
  • Video: How to Charge Clients for Tools
  • Pricing Playlist: Pricing Your MSP Offering

Unless something changes, I’m done traveling to events for the year. Next year we’ve got Peer Groups in February, May, and October. I’m working on finding ways onto stages for at least one or two other conferences throughout the year. Otherwise, you can catch me in person at our Peer Groups.

Thanks for inviting me into your inbox.

Happy November!

Adam