A new year means new opportunities to expand your business. The best way to do so is to set goals and growth targets. Goal setting can be a challenge, however, as setting the bar too high or low can lead to struggles for your business.
In my years running MSPs and working with other similar businesses, one of the most tried and true methods I found for setting business goals is through the SMART criteria:
For example, instead of saying "increase revenue," set a specific target like "achieve $500,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) by Q4 2025."
SMART Goals give you and your organization targets that, while challenging, are not impossible to achieve. They promote growth and give everyone on the team clear objectives to strive for.
Building off these criteria, you can then start aligning your goals around key areas that will benefit the business. Looking out over the new year, here are seven areas that MSPs can use to further their goals.
As an MSP, serving the customer is always your primary goal, acting as the forcing function for all the others you set for the new year. Focus on improving customer satisfaction by streamlining operations, automating processes, and maintaining transparent communication.
Satisfied customers are more likely to stay loyal. Thrilled ones embed you into their business and refer others to your services. Aim to satisfy; shoot to thrill.
Your bread-and-butter offerings helped get your business to where it is today, but there are always opportunities to expand and improve. New calendar years often lead to new technologies, new cybersecurity threats, and, of course, new client expectations. Dedicate some goal-setting time to evaluating your service portfolio and identifying ways to meet evolving client needs.
Many MSPs may consider adding services like cloud migration, cybersecurity, and AI-driven solutions to provide more value to clients. Expansions like these help push you beyond simply providing IT solutions to becoming a trusted partner in your clients’ business models. Not only does this help them succeed but it sets up your organization to better meet your goals, too.
Stay ahead of the curve by researching and investing in the latest technologies to augment your business capabilities. Pair this with providing ongoing training for your team to help them operate your new stack effectively.
Maintaining legacy tech, while fine in the short term, leads to obsolescence and potential security vulnerabilities down the road. And it’s always important to keep your team’s skills sharp to maintain effectiveness and productivity. Baking both into your new year’s goals will help you maintain a competitive edge and improve service quality.
Expanding your pipeline ensures more incoming new business and greater deals. Develop a targeted marketing strategy that reaches potential clients where they are and showcases your expertise.
Utilize a multi-channel approach, with social media, content marketing, and industry events to build your brand. Be sure to craft each with specific audiences in mind. The more you speak to a customer’s direct needs and situation, the better they will understand the value you bring to their business.
A key aspect of the SMART framework is Measurable. Tie each goal to an associated set of metrics to measure them easily. Be sure to have methods and solutions to record, track, and analyze your chosen metrics regularly.
Metrics such as MRR, churn rates, and customer lifetime value can help you gauge your progress and make informed decisions on improvements. Others like impressions, clicks, and views identify marketing successes and show you’re hitting the right audiences.
If your end goal is to grow, you need to be ready for inevitable growing pains. Prepare your business for growth by creating scalable infrastructure and processes.
Doing so requires a strategic approach, anticipating how increases in workloads and requests will affect your systems and staff downstream. This will help you handle an increasing number of clients and services to meet your goals without compromising quality.
With a growth engine established for your yearly goals, don’t forget to gas it—and your team—up. Always recognize and celebrate achievements along the way, both on the organizational and individual levels.
Highlighting specific employees’ work boosts individual morale while inspiring others to follow suit. Emphasizing wins showcases success and informs future best practices. Both will keep your team motivated and focused on reaching the next set of goals.
Armed with these tips, you can create goals that your entire organization can rally around. Not only will they help align strategic outcomes with day-to-day operations, but they’ll also lead to better results overall.
As you set up your New Year’s business goals, consider the growing need for cybersecurity and the dramatic effects a breach can have on you and your clients. To learn more about ways you can improve your cybersecurity offering, check out this eBook.
Ken Patterson leads the charge for Todyl to develop and grow the relationships within the IT Channel and internally at Todyl for everyone's benefit. His 20-plus years of technology experience range from creating a Community for a top peer group/coaching company and the leading distributor/marketplace to owning and running multiple MSPs to hands-on technical support, implementation, managing, and building an Operations Center.
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