Table of contents
Episode Summary
In this episode of Syncronized, host Brandon Garcin sits down with Brian Strong, CEO of TenHats, to explore the roadmap for scaling MSPs past the $10 million revenue mark. Drawing from decades of experience, Brian shares actionable insights on how to transition from a founder-led operation to a scalable, executive-led organization. From shedding day-to-day responsibilities to fostering trust and leadership in your team, he explains the mindset shifts required to build a thriving enterprise.
The conversation dives into the financial strategies MSPs need to master for sustainable growth. Brian emphasizes the importance of dissecting costs, leveraging fractional CFOs, and optimizing pricing models to improve margins. He also highlights the value of granular financial tracking to identify blind spots and ensure long-term profitability.
On the sales front, Brian outlines how to structure and incentivize a high-performing sales team while balancing inbound and outbound strategies. Whether you’re targeting niche markets or expanding through referrals, this episode delivers practical advice for scaling MSP success.
Guest-at-a-Glance
💡 Name: Brian Strong
💡What they do: CEO
💡Company: TenHats
💡Noteworthy: Grew MSP revenue to $10M+ with 600% growth in 4 years.
💡 Where to find them: LinkedIn
Key Insights
Overcoming Emotional Challenges of Leadership Transition
Brian Strong reflects on the emotional challenges founders face when transitioning leadership responsibilities to others. He emphasizes that while delegating tasks is logically necessary for growth, it often brings a sense of identity loss for founders. This emotional hurdle can be overcome by focusing on the bigger picture and trusting the team to handle their roles effectively, even if outcomes aren’t always perfect.
“My identity is not that I can do all these tasks. My identity is I can lead the organization… I can avoid the challenges and steer around some of the problems I see ahead of us.”
The Role of Peer Groups in MSP Growth
Strong discusses the importance of joining peer groups to benchmark progress and gain valuable insights from other MSPs. These groups provide a platform to compare strategies, identify inefficiencies, and share best practices to drive improvement. He emphasizes seeking out peers who have already achieved growth milestones and leveraging their experiences for guidance.
“I want to benchmark… I don’t go there to find out what I’m doing right. I go there to find out what I’m doing wrong.”
The Shift to Strategic Customer Relationships
Brian Strong highlights how the MSP market is evolving beyond infrastructure management to providing strategic guidance on advanced tools like AI. He underscores the need for MSPs to align customer technology roadmaps with their business goals, enabling better adoption and integration of emerging technologies.
“How do I use these new tools that are out there? A lot of them just need foundational help to get to a place where they could use AI.”
Leveraging Niches and Local Markets for MSP Success
Strong explains how MSPs in smaller or tertiary markets can thrive by building a reputation in niche industries. He advises leveraging local connections, word-of-mouth referrals, and specialization to stand out and dominate specific markets.
“You can dominate an area if you do it well. If you’re in a tertiary market and you do it well, you probably will be unique.”
Syncronized is the MSP podcast that drives MSP growth, from startup to scale-up. In each episode, we dive into the topics that matter most to IT providers, such as automation, AI, service delivery and profitability. Join us as we engage with experts and gain hands-on insights and practical advice you can directly apply to propel your business forward.
Share
Related Resources
