Burnout and stress are real problems. You may have started your MSP as a one-person shop and are used to working 24/7, 365 days a year. That probably was what you needed to do to get your business off the ground, but that ongoing lifestyle is a recipe for long-term disaster.
Check out our five tips so you can finally take a week off, with no phone or no internet access. Yes — it is possible.
1. Delegate Your Tasks.
Most MSP owners fear taking a vacation because of the mountain of work they risk coming back to. To avoid this issue, delegate your tasks and train your top employees to act in your stead. If you can, practice being more hands-off before you leave so employees can be confident to manage on their own. To support clients you work with, introduce them to your top techs to maintain the relationship while you’re away.
2. Ease Your Administrative Burden.
You started your company probably because you enjoyed working in the tech space, not in HR or finance. Automate as much as you can with a tool like ConnectBooster, which frees you from billing tasks so you can get paid on time and with less effort. To outsource HR tasks, look for a full-service HR solution built for SMBs like Insperity. Leave your payroll processing, related payroll tax filing, employment eligibility verification, and other daily HR administrative
tasks to the experts.
3. Empower Your Employees — And Your Customers.
When companies empower their employees through security awareness training, they gain a host of unbeatable benefits like reduced security costs, increased compliance, and an edge against phishing and other cyberattacks. With risks around every corner, invest in a digital risk protection platform like ID Agent’s BullPhish ID and conduct regular employee security training. Learn more at IDAgent.com.
4. Prepare For Worst-Case Scenarios.
What’s the worst that could happen? Okay, don’t answer that. In the event you need it, however, create detailed standard operating procedures (SOPs) to outline important steps for employees to reference when things go wrong. When there are no documented processes, employees tend to do things their own way, resulting in process inconsistency and room for error. And that is no way to enjoy a vacation.
5. Consider Selling Up.
You could make that vacation time permanent. Or maybe it’s time for you to buy and add more talent to your team. Merger and acquisition activity is at an all-time high and is top of mind for many MSPs. According to Kaseya’s 2022 MSP Benchmark Survey, nearly 36% of respondents plan to sell or acquire within the next 24–36 months, which means even if you aren’t interested, you may start receiving some unsolicited inquiries in the not-too-distant future.
