Getting Stuck on the Small Stuff Prevents Success

The difference between success and failure isn’t just about how motivated you are. Most of us in the IT industry are very detail oriented, and it’s easy to get tangled up in the small details. Sometimes, getting stuck on the minutiae can really get in the way of launching and succeeding. Let’s talk about some common pitfalls MSPs often get stuck in that prevent them from driving business forward.

It happens to the best of us. We get stuck on the day-to-day tasks and minutiae and forget about using our time and talent to do things that actually drive the business forward.

I think every single IT professional faces this challenge every so often. Afterall, we like the minutiae. We love the details. That’s what makes us great IT professionals in the first place. We like solving problems. I don’t think a single day goes by where I’m not compelled to jump on a ticket and just take care of something when I really should delegate it out.

I recently sent out a quick little email that got a lot of response from our clients. Here’s an excerpt:

If you are anything like me, you probably want your hands on as many things happening within your business as possible. You want to make sure your techs are handling your clients well, you want to make sure projects are being done right, and sometimes you just want to dive in and solve a problem because it’s faster than delegating it…

Treat this email as permission to step away!

Give yourself time this week (and every week) to get away from the day-to-day tasks and focus on doing something great for your business. Automate a process. Kick off a new cybersecurity service. Ask your clients for referrals (and use this FREE campaign). 

I got a lot of nice feedback from this, so I wanted to put together a list of some things that I see a lot of MSPs get stuck on. Maybe this might inspire you to step back and just push the “go” button instead of getting stuck on things that don’t really matter.

Don’t Let These Trivial “Problems” Stop You From Marketing

I’m Too Busy Putting Out Fires

Let’s start big. You might not say this is a “trivial” issue but when it comes to your career and your company’s growth, the day-to-day problems are short lived. If you let them consume all of your time, you won’t have time for the important things that could actually bring long-term benefits to you and your company.

Yes, you need to put out fires, but you should always be looking for ways to prevent them or at least delegate them as they come in.

I Just Don’t Have the Budget for Marketing

You can’t expect to grow without putting some effort into your marketing. Fortunately, that effort doesn’t have to involve spending a ton of money.

We’ve put together a comprehensive 4 part MSP marketing guide here that goes into some things you can do if you don’t have a big marketing budget, but to sum it up, there are a lot of things that don’t cost more than a little bit of your time and effort.

For example, you can run our free referral campaign. It’s absolutely free. It’s the second time we linked it in this blog post; that’s how much we love using it.

You can go to your chamber mixers or other local peer groups. Shake hands and mingle!

Talk to your vendors about MDF funds. More likely than not, they might even have marketing materials you can use.

Offer to give cybersecurity webinars to train local businesses. 

The possibilities are endless and don’t need to cost an arm and a leg.

Plus, if you got yourself a new client or two, you’d have a budget for marketing.

I Think I Need a Different CRM/CMS/PSA

There’s a chapter in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, in book two “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” where the main characters end up on prehistoric Earth with a crashed spaceship full of exiled middle managers, hairdressers, and marketers. The exiled refugees would have regular fireside meetings to discuss how progress was coming along as they attempted to build society from the ground up.

One of the main characters (Ford Prefect) inquires about how the invention of the wheel is going.

The conversation goes something like this.

Manager: Well we are having a little difficulty there.
Ford: Difficulty? It’s the single simplest machine in the entire Universe!
Manager: Alright mister wiseguy, if you’re so clever, you tell us what color it should be!

Being picky about the backend details is fine, but you don’t need to let it stop you from moving forward.

One of the biggest examples we run into is selecting a new CRM and migrating everything over from the old one. That’s a huge endeavor and definitely worth doing, especially if the older platform wasn’t serving you, but if your goal is to get in front of more prospects, you don’t necessarily have to wait. It doesn’t have to be the most complex, expensive marketing campaign, but you can certainly start communicating and putting in the legwork while you get your house in order.

I Need to Change My Website Backend

This isn’t the first time we’ve discussed this, but I want to level with you. As long as your website is secure and has reliable performance, you don’t need to worry about what platform it’s on in most cases. 

Yes, if your website is 10 years old, it’s probably running out-of-date software, has an outdated design, and the content is probably also (sorely) behind the times. 

We’ve seen more than a fair share of MSPs delay sales and marketing efforts because they want to migrate their website from one perfectly good CMS to another, simply because someone told them the grass is greener on the other side.

Whether your website is built on Joomla, Wordpress, or even Wix, it can serve your marketing needs. As long as the platform is stable and secure, the site is responsive and accessible, and the content can be managed and updated, the platform really doesn’t matter.

Yes, we have an obvious bias towards Joomla. We manage thousands of websites and Joomla is by far the most stable, secure, and easiest to grow. Complex sites thrive on Joomla. WordPress is fine too, but neither have a major advantage over the other when it comes to marketing performance, SEO, accessibility, and the other metrics that actually matter. Even in cases where we know whole-heartedly that Joomla will perform better, if an MSP has a WordPress site, we can still run marketing campaigns and follow all the steps and best practices before you get to the point where you need to make the switch. The CMS has very little to do with your marketing in most cases.

I Need to Clean Up My List

While you should always be pruning and cleaning up your prospect list, you also shouldn’t let that task stop you from launching. You can goldmine your existing clients while you clean up your prospect list.  You can run social media campaigns and ads. You can start building inbound content and email drips. 

As you prune through your list, you can take small batches of prospects that you approve and just start touching them. Your mailing campaigns don’t need to be a thousand mailers at a shot—you can always start small and build up. The idea is to just focus on forward momentum, instead of letting a single task get in your way.

The Economy/Politics/Current Vibes Aren't Good!

We're not going to get into it, but this is a terrible excuse to not market or grow your MSP. Sure, lots of businesses suffered during the global pandemic, but many businesses, including MSPs, found opportunity and thrived. Some businesses and individuals are affected by the stock market and make buying decisions based on how comfortable they are in their current situation, but plenty of people and organizations don't change their spending habits all that much, especially when there is value in what they are buying.

Don't wait for the results in November to decide if you are going to send out a cybersecurity mailer. In fact, don't take that as an excuse from prospects or clients either. Would you advise an insurance firm with 40 endpoints to wait on an election to decide to purchase cybersecurity protection?

Of course not.

Don’t Make Excuses that Stop You from Growing Your MSP

It happens to the best of us. Launching is hard. It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae (just take it from me!).

Fortunately, we’re here to help. We’ve been helping MSPs grow and market for over 15 years. If you want to set up a meeting to discuss your hopes and dreams for your MSP, give us a call at 888-546-4384.