Tag
msps
10 posts
Your Growth Plan Has a Client-Size Problem
Demand for outside IT help rises with the size of the customer. The average MSP's client book runs the other way, and most of it sits in the band that buys least and takes almost as much work.
The Business Runs on What Nobody Wrote Down
Diligence counts contracts, margins and the tool stack. Nobody checks whether the work is written down, and that is the part that decides whether an MSP can absorb a new hire, an acquisition, or a resignation.
Half the Industry Sells Through the Owner
MSPs are almost evenly split between having a sales team and having sales run strictly by the founder. The standard deal removes that founder within two years. If you bought recurring revenue, half the time what you bought was a seller.
The Growth Engine You Bought Was the Founder
Organic growth stalls at sponsor-owned MSPs because the pipeline was the founder's personal referral network: unwritten, unbudgeted, and scheduled to leave with him. The fix gets built during the hold.
Your Vendors Reprice on a Calendar. You Don't.
Microsoft, Sophos, and Atera all raised prices this summer with dates and mechanics. Only 9 percent of MSPs have an increase written into their own contracts. The fix is escalators on paper and increases that arrive packaged, not bare.
Buying Was the Easy Part
There were 466 MSP acquisitions last year. What a platform owns the morning after is a book somebody else priced, sold by an owner who is leaving, on contracts that do not match its own. None of that becomes revenue by itself.
The Question Nobody Asks
MSPs name winning customers their biggest problem every year. An entire industry sells them the answer. Not one of those firms has ever published what it costs to win a client.
The Market Split in Two
One in ten MSPs now runs at a loss, double last year. In the same survey, the group defending real margin grew too. Same market, same year, two different businesses.
Four Dollars in Ten Start Over
The 2026 MSP 501, the industry's own honor roll, averages almost 60 percent recurring revenue. The buyers who set MSP prices want 80 or more. Closing that gap is a selling job, and it decides how much of this year's revenue is still there next year.
Where Did the Big Deal Go?
In one year, the share of MSPs whose typical client spends $25,000 or more fell from 75 to 41 percent, and the biggest contract bands emptied out entirely. The way back is growing accounts, not hunting whales.