Why MSP Owners Should Schedule a Mid-Year Business Review

Gudrun Lauret

Why MSP Owners Should Schedule a Mid-Year Business Review image

If you’ve been on LinkedIn in the last few weeks or you’re part of a business mastermind or membership, you’ve probably seen people talking about carrying out a mid-year business review.

But if you haven’t done one yet, there is still time. And while I definitely recommend a review of the services you provide to clients, this is an analysis of the internal workings of your MSP.

A Mid-Year Business Review Checks if You’re Still on Target

Back at the end of last year, or maybe January of this year, you sat down and planned out your business and revenue goals. And if you’re organised, you refer to that plan every week and check off the milestones.

But for most of us, that yearly plan is lost in a pile of papers or somewhere in a subfolder that has an unhelpful string of numbers instead of a proper name. That’s fine – life and client demands get in the way.

So now, as we’re at the mid-way point of the year, let’s dig out that plan and see if we’re actually on target to hit those big goals. If you’re not on track, then this is the perfect opportunity to course-correct and see if you can pull it back.

If things have gone really wrong, then now is the time to fix problems. It’s far better to face these issues head-on than get to the end of the year and have to address the hard reality. Depending on what the problems were, your business might actually be facing bankruptcy.

When you’re conducting your review, evaluate performances – not just of your staff, but of your products, services and marketing efforts. Be honest about what’s worked and what hasn’t.

Once you’ve done that, you can reallocate resources to ensure you hit your goals. Involve the senior leadership team and the department managers so they know what’s expected of them. And if possible, eliminate potential blocks to your success.

Check in With Your Finance Team

For any small business, cashflow is always the biggest challenge. I’d expect you to be familiar with your numbers already. Don’t wait until the middle of the year to find out you’ve got several large, outstanding invoices that have been unpaid since February!

Remember that around 45% of businesses fail within their first five years. And one of the biggest reasons for this is capital. So go through the books with the proverbial fine tooth comb and see what’s what.

Are you on target to hit your financial goals or are those outstanding invoices causing a headache? Are your services selling as well as you’d hoped? What about client retention and onboarding new customers? Have you been able to sell any new offerings to existing clients? Is it time to put your prices up?

Don’t forget to review your expenses, too. This includes any software and app subscriptions. I know that MSPs like to try out the latest shiny new tool, but maybe you’re not using that productivity tracker and you’re paying for it anyway…

Having a clear picture of your finances means that you can reevaluate your offerings, pricing and outgoings. Make a strategic decision now (yes, right now) to help you stay on track to the end of the year.

Do you do a mid-year business review for your #MSP? No? @GudrunLauret explains why you really should. Click to Tweet

Involve Your Employees in the Mid-Year Business Review

If you want to ensure you have a happy, engaged workforce, then ask them for their feedback. What’s gone well for them in the last six months? Hopefully, your managers are already carrying out regular performance reviews too.

But if you want to retain your tech talent in an increasingly competitive market, then make them feel that their opinion counts. The engineers and helpdesk advisers quite probably have a better idea than you do about which services are doing better than others.

One of your biggest resources is your staff, so they might need to be reallocated at this point. Ask for volunteers for secondment or for projects to help you hit your business goals. They’ll feel valued if they’re picked to help the company grow.

Of course, the mid-year business review might also be the time when you realise that not all of your employees are as valuable as you thought. Redundancies or terminations are never easy and certainly not a decision to take lightly.

But if people aren’t performing, or you need to make cuts to improve your financial situation, then unfortunately you might have to make those tough decisions. In that case, speak to HR before taking action.

Make Time to Catch up With Clients

As with your employees, you should be meeting regularly with your MSP clients. In fact, I’d encourage you to do this on a monthly basis. This doesn’t have to be a formal, sit-down meeting. A short questionnaire or chat should be sufficient, or if you have a large company, ask their account manager to check in.

You should have built good relationships with your clients so they can be honest about how things are going. At the mid-year point, ask them how they’re doing with reaching their own targets. Is there anything you can help them with to get them closer to their goals?

And look at which tools they’re using the most in their business. Is there a software solution that would make them more efficient and productive? Are they paying for a tool they’re no longer using? Be proactive about reviewing their licences with them and helping them reassess their product suite.

Review Your Marketing Efforts

You are marketing your business, right? I know it’s not everyone’s favourite task, but it’s important if you’re serious about growing your MSP. The key thing to remember is that all marketing efforts, whether they’re organic or paid-for, take time to show results.

So while the mid-year point is the ideal place to see how your marketing campaigns have performed, it’s not the time to decide to ditch your LinkedIn posts in favour of TikTok videos! Consistency is essential if you want your content marketing to work for you.

You should be using some kind of analytics tool to see which posts, videos or social updates have performed the best. This data might give you unexpected news – perhaps those behind-the-scenes Instagram photos are more popular than your product update videos. So look at how everything has performed over the last six months.

And then tweak and refine. Ask Linda in Accounts to post more pics of her messy desk, get candid snaps of the Friday team pizza lunch and share Dave the Office Dog’s visits. Do you have hybrid workers? Perhaps you can ask them to share behind the scenes of their home offices.

But don’t do anything drastic. Instead of getting rid of those videos, look at how you can make them more engaging for your audience. Ask your clients what they’d like to learn about. And if necessary, consider getting an external marketing expert to help you.

Your Mid-Year Business Review is Unique to You

Ultimately, the areas you look at during your mid-year business review will be specific to your MSP. Maybe you’re still new to business, or you’ve just switched from break/fix. Or you’ve experienced rapid growth and now things are evening out.

There’s all sorts of advice on what you should review, but so long as you’re regularly monitoring performance and finances, you won’t have any nasty surprises when you get to your next check-in point.

Do you do a mid-year business review? Or carry out QBRs? What does your process look like? Let us know in the comments!