While preparing for a recent podcast appearance, the host shared with me a question that they were going to ask, which, for a moment, took me aback: what is the one thing that has attracted me to devoting my professional life to supporting the business growth of MSPs, and only MSPs?
It took me a moment to collect my thoughts and sort through everything I enjoy about working in the MSP space, but once I landed on the answer, it was obvious all along – the thing I love the most about MSPs is that everyone you meet is an entrepreneur.
By and large, managed services providers are not a place for corporations or massive businesses. They’re not a place for people with overpriced salaries who come in and do largely nothing at all.
Nearly everyone I meet – and certainly every one of my clients – are small business owners looking to accomplish something great on their own. They’re dedicated to the cause and they’re willing to put themselves out there to reach these goals and from that perspective, we have a lot in common.
More often than not, they want to grow their business for the overarching goal of gaining more freedom in their own lives. It’s fascinating – even going beyond the tactics and strategies of marketing, whenever I have discussions with a client, the conversation almost always turns in the direction of “what do you need to do as a person to get to that point?”
I know that I still have a lot of work to do in my personal and professional life and I’m always working to get better. This is true of all the great entrepreneurs I know. The moment that you think you’ve “done enough” to become the best “you” that you can be is the moment you lost a game that you never truly understood in the first place.
Having said that, here are three core things that have helped me get to where I am today – three qualities that I consider vital parts of my life and that I sincerely hope you will, too.
Become the best version of yourself
Every brilliant entrepreneur I’ve ever met has been clear on one thing: if you want to build the best version of your business, you need to build the best version of yourself, too. This is by far the most important piece of wisdom I have to offer.
In order to accomplish your long term goals, you need to be more than just someone who can delegate responsibility. You need to be a role model. You need to be able to inspire people. You need to be prepared to show them the way forward – both in terms of your clients and your team members. If you’re not an amazing person at the start of it all, you’ll need to work hard to get to that point.
This involves being as healthy as you can be – both physically and mentally. You need to put the effort into yourself because, at the end of the day, that’s what will allow you to put the effort into your business.
Tackle the important things first
Along the same lines, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the years is that willpower is absolutely a finite resource that we have to be very, very careful with.
Willpower tends to become depleted as the day goes one. Therefore, I think it’s really important to tackle the big, important things on your agenda first while the proverbial gas tank is still full.
Regardless of what your own goal happens to be, understand that willpower is not infinite. You need to budget your willpower and be as strategic about it as you can – that’s how you get things done. If you’re having trouble with something and you’re having trouble sticking to something, try to get it done first thing in the morning – you’d be surprised by what you can accomplish.
Make sure your vision is crystal clear
Finally, one of the biggest moments of realization I’ve ever had – and one that made a significant impact in my own life – is the idea that you need to achieve clarity on your overall vision as soon as you’re able to do so.
Having the goal itself is a good thing and it may very well be achievable. But having the clarity to know what you need to do, where, when and why is equally important to your overall trajectory.
It doesn’t matter what it is – once you have the clarity of vision, you can start laying out those important milestones that will allow you to achieve your goal over time. Without those milestones – or at least without the context surrounding what needs to be done – you’ll never be able to get to that point.
These are three personal habits I’ve gained over the years because I’ve had great mentors and I’ve worked with great clients that inspire me. Myself and my team take our relationships very seriously and we want to provide that same level of inspiration to our clients.
Are you looking to work with a marketing company that will strive to help you get to the places where you want to be? Contact myself or one of my colleagues at Tech Pro Marketing so that we can get your no obligation strategy call on the books. I’ll give us a chance to get to know each other while also allowing our team to find out what we need to do to push your business to bold new heights, exactly as it should be.
Photo: Rudy Bagozzi / Shutterstock
