Swimming with Sharks
Your MSP business is a great white shark swimming through the seas of profitability. Today, there’s a certain “de-mythification” trend going on where modern idealists try and re-invent the past by arguing semantics either on The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, or some other such reality-show dominated station. To that end, they’re saying that “sharks don’t have to swim to live.” But then they caveat with “well, not all sharks, some do, they’re called obligate ram ventilators.”
Turns out mako sharks, great white sharks, and whale sharks are all obligate ram ventilators—they’ve got to swim or they die. This point is being made for a certain reason: with click-bait, reality TV, and other factually inverse material, the trend seems to be to say something like, “Everything you knew is totally wrong, and this is why!” But this isn’t quite true. What’s happening is that the fringe is being used as an argument against the majority. But the majority remains.
So here’s the application for your business: you are a great white shark and swimming: making profit, expanding to a new territory, growing…it keeps you alive. Stop swimming, stop profiting, stop growing, and your business will slowly die.
The Grind
The problem is that there’s a boring kind of grind which characterizes daily operations. The passion slowly goes away, you get to that “seven-year itch” phase where you’re just not feeling it anymore. What you may not realize is that you’re on the cusp of a learning opportunity that can either propel you into greater successes than you had the capacity to imagine previously or will ultimately sink you, forcing you to start from essentially scratch if you aren’t careful. But what is most important is keeping that blood-lust in your great white shark eyes. You cannot stagnate personally, or there will be a trickle-down effect to the rest of the company.
Avoiding stagnancy is easier said than done. You’ve got to push yourself. You’ve got to read. You’ve got to learn. You’ve got to grow; it’s every bit as difficult as hitting the gym. But you know what’s easier than hitting the gym? Playing a sport, hiking, biking—doing something physical which isn’t synthetically forced.
When it comes to your MSP business, a form of “biking,” or “getting mental exercise” which doesn’t require you to adroitly force yourself is to attend a peer group; something like DattoCon. Turn it into a social activity. If you do that, if you attend webinars, if you interface with diverse people, then you’re going to have books suggested to you, and likewise, come into contact with reading materials you’d never even hear about otherwise. This can transform you as a business leader in an organic way.
It’s like a great white swimming into a school of tired tuna. Dinner is just all over the place; it’s much easier than swimming for weeks in some segment of irradiated waters with nary a fish in sight.
Implementation
Now the next stage is to execute that which you have learned at seminars, in peer groups, and through interaction with other diverse technology professionals. The mere act of working toward such a goal will forestall stagnancy in your company. You’ll be able to grow, and to such a degree, you may be able to eventually source an acquisition, or be involved in a merger—this is the natural upward progression of a company!
You want to remember that many writings incorrectly characterize the reality of necessary growth for political purposes. You’ll definitely stumble on a glut of rhetoric that makes the semantic shark argument. “Sure, some businesses need to grow and profit to remain, but not all businesses—look at this clearly unrelated non-profit!” Ignore that kind of advice. You know deep down inside that it’s totally wrong. Basic experience tells as much. Also, following that advice will definitely lead you into stagnancy, which is more toxic to success, growth and sustainability than anything else. So, to review:
• Keep growing, keep swimming, keep profiting
• Stimulate your imagination through peer interaction
• Apply what you’ve learned to your business
• See your business grow
An MSP business which puts such ideas into practice will streamline operations, collect knowledge, continue to grow, and remain successful.
