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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EOS vs Scaling Up: How to Choose an Operating System
No business operating system covers everything. Here's what EOS, Scaling Up, 4DX, E-Myth and Great Game of Business each do best, and where each leaves gaps.
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What Does a Small Business Coach Actually Do?
A business coach builds the operating system with you and stays on the hook for whether your team runs it. Here's 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 Job Description and Salary: How MSPs Hire the Seat
What a real vCIO job description covers, what the seat pays, when an MSP is ready to hire it, and the sub-it-out ladder to run before you put it 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: How Much to Charge for vCIO
Virtual CIO pricing: charge 2.5 to 3x the seat's burdened hourly cost, budget about 4 hours per 25 users a month, and package it so support can't eat 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 Commission Structure That Works
How to build an MSP sales commission structure: base plus variable, paid on recurring revenue you keep, with a winnable quota and a hold-back that survives churn.
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MSP Prospecting: Get Clients Without Being Spammy
MSP prospecting and lead generation without the spam: fill your pipeline with good-fit clients by sorting the list, giving before you ask, and stacking touches.
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The Managed Services Sales Process: Four Phases
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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Managed Service Provider Business Plan: How I'd Build One
A managed service provider business plan is the operating blueprint for how the business makes money: the model, the margins, the budget, the mistakes to avoid.
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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.