059: Billing Secrets You Need to Know Today

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Running a profitable MSP remains an elusive goal for half the industry. Shocking statistics show that 25% of providers are barely breaking even, while another 25% lose money each year. Yet despite these sobering numbers, entrepreneurs continue entering the space, drawn by dreams of independence and growth.

So, what separates successful MSPs from those that struggle?

Too many rely on questionable sources—anonymous Reddit threads, outdated conference decks, or one-size-fits-all coaching programs that overlook the unique nuances of each business. A strategy that thrives in California might fail in Columbus, yet many providers try to transplant business models across vastly different markets.

Data-driven intelligence offers a better path. By analyzing billing patterns and consumption data across a wide range of MSPs, we can pinpoint what actually works—in specific contexts. Instead of recommending specific vendors, this approach highlights essential solution categories (like password management and documentation systems), while offering market-accurate guidance on pricing, bundling, and go-to-market strategies calibrated to your size, location, and client base.

The mission is clear: empower every MSP to succeed by replacing guesswork with proven insights. A $1.5 million business shouldn't follow a blueprint built for a $4 million operation. Growth requires precision—knowing exactly which services to add, how to package them, and what to charge in your market. When we move beyond generic advice to data-informed decisions, more MSPs shift from surviving to thriving—building real business value that goes far beyond just covering the bills.

Ready to stop guessing and start growing? Discover how your MSP can join the profitable half of the industry through evidence-based strategies tailored to your business reality.

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Hi, I’m Marc Thomas, Founder and CEO of Current TEK Solutions and CYBER GUARDIANS. If you or someone you know could benefit from our cutting-edge IT and cybersecurity services, we’d love to help. Reach out to us today to learn how we can secure and elevate your business. https://www.currentTEKsolutions.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When we're doing what we're doing sounds like you
know, when we're doing billing,we're pulling in all this
information about consumption,of what products and categories
of products are being consumedand what quantities, and what
are they being sold with andwhat are people paying for them
and what are people charging forthem.
That starts to tell us thedynamic of how the economics of

(00:21):
this industry work right.
And so when somebody startscoming saying, hey, what is my
stack, what should my stack be,we're not going to come out and
say, oh, you should have thisproduct from this company and
this product from that.
No, but we categorizeeverything and we can come back
and say you need a product inpassword management, in
documentation, an RMM, a PSA,and that's what you need to run
your business on.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
So, based off just what you said right there, my
question for you is do you feelthat what you're doing today is
one of the ballsiest thingsyou've done in regards to
creating this right, thisoffering, trying to create this
and like going?
You know, before MSP we talkabout MSP and you had a clear
vision of what you're doing.
We know we're easy to solve it,but the password manager thing,

(01:06):
obviously you were a little bitahead of the curve there.
quite a bit right, the thingsyou're doing in the cloud base
but man it fit a great, you knowit fit a need, and then you get
to move.
So I mean I'm just curious like, do you think it's one of the
baldest things you've done whenit comes to yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:20):
absolutely.
It's totally the most ambitious, right.
If we look at Passportal, itwas not a purpose-driven company
, and by purpose-driven, yeah,there was a purpose and a fit
thing for it, but it was notlike what change do I want to
have on the world with this?
It was not.
I never want somebody to losetheir job because of it was not

(01:42):
that purpose, it was shit.
People need to manage passwords.
I'm going to build somethingthat does that and they can pay
for that, right, and it wasnever to seek to solve, you know
, some fundamental challengethat the world faces.
This one was, and still is,right.

(02:04):
Again, we did not set out tohey, you have to reconcile
billing so you can send invoicesevery month and not get client
complaints.
Make sure you're getting paidfor everything.
Um, it it was.
When I say I sifted through thereddit and stuff, it was the
amount of questions being asked.
Right, it was the questions ofwhat, what do I need in my stack

(02:26):
?
What, what are the bestsolutions in my stack?
Um, you know, and and hearingthings like why certain
solutions weren't the rightsolutions, and hearing things of
what should I charge what?
How should I bundle?
How should I go to market?
How fast are you growing?

(02:47):
What's your profit?
What's my business worth?
All of these questions that caninform them to actually grow
their business successfully andhave a difference.
Right?
And when I looked at all thosequestions that were flowing and
you read you know the stuff fromservice leadership that comes
out and says that 50% of MSPsdon't profit?

(03:09):
Right, you got 25% that barelybreak even and 25% that lose
money every year.
That's a shit business, right?
And back to the thing thateverybody deserves an
opportunity.
I firmly believe in our missionstatement is to give every
single company an opportunity tosucceed in the it channel.

(03:29):
Right, that's.
That's what we want to be ableto do is give every single
company that chance, and theonly way that we can do that, in
our opinion, is to be able togive people answers to the
questions that they have thatare actually true is not being
given by somebody behind someyou know concealed name and

(03:49):
screen name and avatar on ananonymous website.
That could be.
There's brilliant 19 year oldsworking in basements and garages
, and that's why we've got themost valuable companies in the
world today.
But, as a company that I amright now, do I want to take
advice from somebody at that age, new in this business, and not

(04:10):
be able to discern who thatperson is compared to.
Are they actually somebody atthe helm of a business, of where
I want to get to, that hasactually gone through this stuff
, this stuff, right?
And so when we're doing whatwe're doing sounds like you know
when we're doing billing, we'repulling in all this information
about consumption of whatproducts and categories of

(04:30):
products are being consumed andwhat quantities and what are
they being sold with and whatare, what are people paying for
them and what are peoplecharging for them.
That starts to tell us thedynamic of how the economics of
this industry work, right.
And so when somebody startscoming saying, hey, what is my
stack, what should my stack be,we're not going to come out and
say, oh, you should have thisproduct from this company and

(04:52):
this product no, but wecategorize everything and we can
come back and say you need aproduct in password management,
in documentation, an RMM, a PSA,and that's what you need to run
your business on, right.
And now you need to offer anemail security solution and a
password, you know, a credentialmanagement solution, and you
need to offer a backup solutionand all these other security

(05:14):
monitoring tools and edr andeverything else, and we can
classify those.
But now we can come back,because what's?
The very next question is well,how do I package that?
Okay, well, here's the onesthat should be packaged together
because that's how the world isbuying them today.
Well, what should I charge forthat?
This is what you should chargefor that, because that's what
the market is bearing today.
Right, and give them all theanswers to the questions that

(05:37):
they have, so that they don'thave to go out and seek it and
get some really bad advice thatdwindles their company or, worse
yet, speaks to a sales rep at asoftware vendor.
I've run them and it's fine.
They are not business experts,right.
And there was a LinkedIn post Icommented on recently too, where
you look at the conferences inthis industry and the speakers

(05:59):
of them.
They're a channel manager or anaccount executive or whatever,
and they're up there givingsecurity advice and giving
business advice and guidance andstuff like that.
Sure, maybe some of the peoplethat prepared the presentations
had some of that to it.
They're not experts to bedelivering that information, and
what happens is an MSP leavesthat conference thinking I need

(06:22):
to do X, y and Z, and this isall I have to do and everything
else, and they bank on that andthat's their livelihood, this is
their largest asset, this istheir future, their retirement
right For them and their family.
And so for us to be able tobuild something that allows an
MSP to come in with any questionand just be told Right and have

(06:46):
it based on not a guess, notfrom an expert.
That was an expert 10 years ago, I shouldn't be telling you how
to run an MSP today.
I ran one Geez.
I did that in 2016.
I was out of it in 10 years ago.
Yeah Right, it's a differentworld now.
Sure, I can give you businessadvice all day long, but I can't

(07:06):
tell you what the right stackis.
I can't tell you what youshould charge based on what we
charge for managed services 10years ago, sure Right.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
So why, just curious, you said 50, 50% are losing
money, 25% barely break it evenor pay the bill.
Why in the hell?

Speaker 1 (07:24):
would anybody get in this business With those kind of
stats?
Exactly a problem, right, butit's because I don't want to
crawl under a desk and do techwork to make somebody else rich.
I don't want to be beholden tosomebody else and have a boss.
I don't want to.
There isn't.
Everybody starts a business anda breakeven business isn't a
bad business necessarily, right.
It's not a valuable business,right, but I can collect a

(07:47):
salary.
Business doesn't have to profit.
I can collect a salary and I'mfine.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
It can be a lifestyle and I've got something.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
I've got a job, I've got things to do, I've got money
coming in.
I'm good and there's nothingwrong with that.
But when you go out and youmeet with hundreds and thousands
of MSPs over the years, they'reall eager to grow.
They do want more right, moreRight, and and they stay in it

(08:13):
because they see the prospect,they see the opportunity.
They're sold a bill of goodsthat, hey, this coach can get me
there, hey, this thing can getme there, and they're paying out
more money to do it.
And I'm not saying it's snakeoil and I'm not saying it's
wrong.
But there is no one size fitsall growth strategy or plan for
an MSP, right, they come fromdifferent countries.
They come from different.
You know regions with differenteconomic conditions and and you

(08:36):
know drivers and verticals andyou know business segments.
Everything is different, right,and so there's not a one size
fits all.
And I might be a company that'sworking over in the UK taking
advice from how something isworking in California or in New

(08:56):
York.
That doesn't make any sense.
I can be in the US.
I should not be living inColumbus, ohio, doing services
and an MSP and trying toreplicate, yeah, what somebody
in California or New York isdoing.
That is not going to work.
I have a different, you knowindustry that drives the economy

(09:17):
in that in that region.
I have it's it's.
I can't buy a house for the sameamount of money in Ohio that I
can in California, but that isnot a thing.
So why would I be expected torun the exact same type of
business in the exact same wayat the exact same pricing with
the exact same services?
It doesn't match up that way.

(09:39):
It just it's not.
It's not paired and same forsame.
And so that's where we need tosolve things for MSPs.
Piece, so they understand whatI can charge for certain
services and what needs to beincluded in that and what the
market will bear where I amRight, it needs to understand
how my business is compared toeven other businesses in my area

(10:01):
.
Right, I'm not going to.
I shouldn't take arecommendation for a company
that would work for four milliondollar revenue if I'm at one
and a half.
That doesn't make sense.
Right?
I can't go and take on allthese new services if I only
have this many clients.
I don't get the same quantityof scale on volume and
everything else.

(10:22):
It's probably a better,different solution new service
for me to bring on in adifferent category, to go with
right, should I be selling a tonof cyber insurance right now?
Or should I be selling securityawareness training right now?
Right, like what makes the mostsense for the business with
where they're at.
So that's what it is for us,and my belief is that if we

(10:45):
focus on that, we will helpthese companies become more
profitable, or become profitableand build a sustainable, strong
business that has a valuebeyond just paying a bill for
that.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Hi, I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech
Solutions and Cyber Guardians.
We know business owners likeyou want to focus on growing
your company, not worrying aboutIT problems or security threats
on growing your company, notworrying about IT problems or
security threats.
That's where we come in.
Our team uses AI to protectyour business from cyber risks
and keep everything runningsmoothly.
If you're ready for peace ofmind and a stronger future,

(11:22):
reach out to us today.
Let's secure and elevate yourbusiness together.