K7 Insights
Field notes on climbing without melting your wings.
Leadership, operations, and scaling for owners who want to grow faster than their peers — without sacrificing personality or profitability.
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How to Fire a Client (Do the Math First)
Most advice on firing a client is a breakup script. Make the decision first: what the account costs you, what a replacement costs, and how you hired them.
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MSP Marketing Is a Budget Line, Not a Tactic
MSP marketing starts as a budget line. The percent of revenue each growth target takes, in one table, plus the message and the owner's own weekly number.
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What a Business Coach Costs in San Diego (Vistage, EO, YPO)
Real 2026 numbers for a business coach, Vistage, EO and YPO in San Diego, each with a source and a date, plus my own price and what each option buys you.
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Your Level 10 Meeting Stopped Moving the Needle
A Level 10 Meeting goes stale five ways: all-green scorecards, Rocks kicked quarter to quarter, an IDS that never solves. How to tell, and how to reset it.
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AI for MSPs: It Speeds Up Whatever You Already Are
AI for MSPs speeds up whatever your shop already is. Where it goes first, where it must never speak for you, and the tier-1 margin math most owners skip.
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The Excuses We Tell Ourselves
The economy isn't what's holding your business back. Here's the psychology behind the excuse, and the one question that cuts through it in about ten seconds.
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You Are the Glass Ceiling
Your business keeps stalling in the same spot. The market and the team usually aren't the problem. You are, every time you change the plan before it can work.
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Choosing a Business Operating System: EOS vs Scaling Up
No business operating system covers everything. What EOS, Scaling Up, 4DX, Great Game, and E-Myth each do best, where each leaves a gap, and how to choose.
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What Does a Business Coach Actually Do?
A business coach builds the operating system with you and stays on the hook for whether your team runs it. The real job, and how to tell if you're ready.
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Why San Diego Owners Cave on Price
San Diego owners cave on price more than they admit. Every discount is a quiet pay cut for your own team. Here's why you do it and how to hold the line.
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Virtual CIO Services: How to Choose the Right vCIO
Virtual CIO services are IT strategy on retainer: a roadmap, a budget, and risk management. What a real engagement delivers, the red flags, and what to ask.
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vCIO Salary and Job Description: How MSPs Fill the Seat
What a vCIO makes, what a real job description covers, when an MSP is ready to hire the seat, and the sub-it-out ladder to run before it goes on payroll.
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vCIO QBRs: Get Out of the Review and Into the Board Meeting
Most MSP QBRs train clients to cancel. How a real vCIO splits the meetings, sets cadence by client, and runs the budget cycle so the roadmap sells itself.
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vCIO KPIs: How to Measure the Seat Without a Quota
The five vCIO KPIs that prove the seat works: realized utilization, reviews delivered, risk reduction, audits, and budget. Plus why a vCIO never gets a quota.
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Virtual CIO Pricing: What a vCIO Costs and What to Charge
Virtual CIO cost and rates: a vCIO bills $200 to $600 an hour, and a client's monthly fee usually runs $800 to $1,000. Here's the pricing math behind it.
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MSP Referrals: Turn Luck Into a System
MSP referrals are the cheapest pipeline you have. Build a referral engine: ask for warm intros right after you deliver, then verticalize so they compound.
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How to Hire Your First Salesperson for Your MSP
How to hire a salesperson for your MSP: sell it yourself first, then hire a BDR to fill the funnel before a closer. The signs you're ready to make the move.
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MSP Sales Compensation Plan and Commission Structure
How to build an MSP sales compensation plan: a 60/40 base-to-commission split, commission paid on recurring revenue you keep, and a quota a rep can hit.
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How to Get MSP Clients: Prospecting Without the Spam
How to get MSP clients without becoming the dialer nobody wants: sort the list, lead with a give, stack three touches a week, and keep the funnel full.
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Managed Services Sales Process: Four Phases for MSPs
The managed services sales process is four phases: plan, prospect, present, follow through. Here's what each one does, and where MSP owners lose deals.
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How to Sell Managed Services: The Backward Math
How to sell managed services without guessing: run sales like your help desk, work the funnel backward from your growth goal, and size the real activity it takes.
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What Is a vCIO? How MSPs Build and Price the Offering
A vCIO is outsourced IT strategy: roadmap, budget, and risk for the client. How MSP owners build, price, and sell a vCIO service clients actually pay for.
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MSP Business Plan: How I'd Build One, With the Workbook
A managed service provider business plan is how the business makes money: model, margins, budget, traps. Then run your own numbers in the free calculator.
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Managed Services Pricing: How to Set and Hold Your Number
Managed services pricing comes down to margin and conviction, not the competitor's rate. How MSPs underprice, what discounting really costs, and how to fix it.