If you follow me (Amy) or Rayanne online, you might think we designed the perfect business owner life. I hear from MSP owners all the time who ask how I take time off to travel, work in my garden, and spend weeks every summer on my boat. Rayanne goes to concerts, travels the world, fishes, and shows up at sporting events. That is the part social media shows you. The real story is more complicated and even more wonderful.
So how do you actually get there?
I talk with a lot of MSP owners who want growth, but I do not think growth simply means adding clients or increasing revenue. Healthy growth means building a company that produces better results, supports more responsibility, and gives you more choices as the owner.
As an MSP grows, it should become more capable. I want to see better systems, clearer roles, healthier margins, stronger client relationships, and less dependence on one person holding everything together.
But I do not believe you create that kind of growth alone. You need people you trust walking with you toward a better business and a life with more options.
Rayanne and I hear this from business owners all the time: if my business were just a little bigger, then I could take more time off. I wish it were that simple.
Growth exposes everything
Growth reveals problems that a smaller business can often absorb. As I like to say: bigger boat, bigger risks; bigger house, bigger bills; bigger business, a lot more complexity.
You may manage a few inconsistent processes when you have a small team. You may make one client exception and convince yourself it is harmless. You may run sales yourself because referrals keep coming in. But as the business grows, those same issues turn into bottlenecks.
More clients create more complexity. More employees require clearer leadership. More revenue raises the stakes when pricing is weak, agreements are outdated, scope goes unmanaged, or accountability stays fuzzy.
That does not make growth dangerous. It means you need to grow intentionally.
I do not think the right question is simply, “How can we get bigger?”
I think the better question is:
What must become stronger before the next stage of growth makes this business harder to run?
Owners need room to think
Most MSP owners did not start their businesses because they wanted to work 24×7. We started them to serve clients, solve problems, create a living, and build something of our own. And yes, we also wanted to be our own boss and make more money!
Over time, though, ownership gets more complicated. You carry responsibility for the business you run today and the decisions that will shape it years from now.
You may be asking yourself questions like these:
- Are we growing with the right kinds of clients?
- Are our agreements and pricing still working for us?
- Is our leadership team ready for more responsibility?
- Where are we losing margin?
- How much of the business still depends on me?
- Is the business becoming more valuable, or just more demanding?
- What would need to change for me to step back, bring in a partner, or eventually exit on my own terms?
These are owner-level questions. I see owners postpone them all the time because client work and operational demands fill the day, but they matter too much to answer casually.
Advice and peers serve different roles
An advisor brings experience, perspective, and a structured way to evaluate a challenge. A good advisor helps you see patterns, ask better questions, and stop treating every business issue like a unique emergency.
Peers bring something different: context.
Other MSP owners understand the tension between client expectations, staffing realities, technical complexity, cash flow, sales pressure, and the responsibility of making payroll. They may not have your exact answer, but they can help you test your assumptions, share what they have learned, and remind you that hard decisions are often part of normal business ownership.
That combination makes a difference and that’s why we have small cohorts. The best of both worlds.
An advisor can help turn a broad concern into a practical plan. Peers can help you stay honest about whether you are actually carrying out that plan.
The value is not just ideas
Most experienced MSP owners do not lack ideas.
You probably have books to read, podcasts to hear, conferences to attend, vendors offering advice, consultants with frameworks, and a long list of things you intend to improve. The hard part is deciding what matters most now and making consistent progress while the business keeps demanding attention.
A good working group creates a repeatable rhythm:
- Identify the issue that would most improve the business.
- Define a practical next step.
- Commit to completing it by a specific date.
- Return to the group and report what happened.
- Learn from other owners facing similar decisions.
- Adjust the plan and keep moving.
That rhythm is not about judgment. It gives owner-level work a place where people expect it, protect it, and take it seriously.
Better growth creates options
I do not believe every MSP has to become large. That is not the strongest reason to work on growth. I remember talking to one MSP owner who told me the good news that he now had 14 employees! But then he dropped the bad news. He said, but I work a lot harder for no more money. We push around more dollars but my paycheck hasn’t gotten any larger. He was about to make the decision to shrink the business back, because the growth didn’t produce anything.
Some owners want to add revenue and expand their team. Others want a smaller, more profitable company with a better client base. Some want a leadership layer that lets them step back. Others want to improve the business now so a future sale, succession plan, merger, or transition can happen when the time is right.
Those destinations differ, but they require many of the same foundations:
- Financial visibility that supports confident decisions.
- A clear picture of which clients and services produce healthy margins.
- Agreements that set appropriate expectations.
- Documented, repeatable operations.
- Leaders who can make decisions without waiting for the owner.
- Sales and client-management processes that do not live in one person’s head.
- A business that performs well even when the owner is not present every day.
When you improve these foundations, growth becomes less risky. The business becomes more valuable as an asset, and it also becomes a better place to work and lead.
Find the right room
Not every owner needs the same kind of support. MSP owners can choose from plenty of communities, consultants, peer groups, and industry events. The right room helps you make progress on the business you actually want to build.
Look for a setting that offers:
- Confidential conversation with people who understand the responsibility of ownership.
- A willingness to discuss difficult topics, not just celebrate wins.
- Experienced advisors who bring structure and perspective.
- Peers who challenge assumptions respectfully.
- Accountability that turns good intentions into completed work.
- A focus on business value and owner options, not growth for growth’s sake.
The goal is not to outsource your judgment. The goal is to make better decisions with better information, stronger perspective, and a commitment to act.
You do not have to grow alone
Every owner eventually reaches a point where working harder no longer solves the problem. The next stage requires clearer priorities, more delegation, stronger systems, and a willingness to make decisions that may feel uncomfortable in the short term.
That work gets easier when you have people in your corner: peers who understand the reality of MSP ownership and advisors who can help you turn ambition into a plan.
That is why Rayanne and I created the B² MSP Advisors Better Business working group. We bring those elements together for MSP owners who want to build stronger businesses now and create more choices for the future. It is a confidential place to do the work that is easy to defer, difficult to do alone, and essential to sustainable growth.
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If you are ready to make measurable progress on the business—not just stay busy running it—explore the B² MSP Advisors Better Business working group. You will work alongside experienced MSP owners, with advisor guidance and a practical rhythm for turning priorities into action.
