The IT Experts Podcast

The IT Experts Podcast with Ian Luckett, is designed to help ambitious IT/MSP business owners build a profitable tech business.In this show you will learn the complete tried and tested strategies that are working today as Ian helps techie business owners in the IT / MSP community on a daily basis.The content of this Podcast is a blend of expert advice and Interviews with some of the most successful people in the industry, offering massive value and a wise range of topics from his MSP profit Builder System. Whether his guests are experts from large enterprises, established IT/MSP businesses, serial entrepreneurs, or world class techies, they all have great stories and content to share.So, if you are preparing your IT/MSP business for growth, then we will help by sharing what IS and what ISN'T working in business right now. Our outcome for you listening to this podcast is that we help you to spend quality time working ON your business rather than being consumed IN it!

The IT Experts Podcast is a technology podcast hosted by Ian Luckett, with 313 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Ian Luckett hosts The IT Experts Podcast, a technology show with 313 episodes published.

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  The IT Experts Podcast

  EP304 - Stop Chasing Revenue – Start Building a More Valuable MSP with Ian Luckett

  Sep 27, 202622 min

  In this episode of The IT Experts Podcast, I want to challenge one of the most common success measures in our industry. Are you measuring success, or are you simply measuring size? After more than 300 episodes, some themes keep coming back, and this is one we hear every week from prospects, c lients and the wider community. It is the gap between how much revenue you bring in and how much profit you keep, and why closing that gap is the key to building a more valuable MSP . So many owners set their sights on the million-pound turnover mark, or on growing to 30 people, as if headcount were the prize. I know MSPs well past a million pounds who are making very little , and I know MSPs turning over six or seven hundred thousand who are absolutely nailing it, with more in their pocket than competitors twice their size. A bigger turnover means more money flowing through the business. It often means more cost flowing out the other end too. You can run a profitable million pound MSP with eight to ten people. When I hear of a million-pound business carrying 24 people, I know straight away the numbers cannot work. Bigger teams bring more complexity, and that complexity lands on the owner. Most MSP owners never planned to lead large teams, which is why leadership is the area we help with most inside The MSP Growth Hub. Here is the test I often share. If you are too busy to make decisions, too caught up in the tech, or the person everything waits for, you have a leadership opportunity sitting right in front of you. The most successful MSPs grow because the owner has time to think. Strategic thinking time leads to better decisions, better clients , and better profit. We also talk about the clients who quietly drain your margin. Many owners fear saying no to anyone. Some of your biggest clients are the noisiest and most demanding, and very few MSPs track profitability by client or by service. In some cases, you would be better off letting that client go, because the cost of serving them outweighs the value they bring. I share the story of MSPs who joined us bloated, with ten or twelve people in the wrong roles. One owner described his approach as destroy and rebuild. He took control of his most important clients, built the right team around them, and came out leaner and stronger. Another member recently sold his business for an eight times multiple with a smaller team than he had two years earlier. He walked out with no earnout, because he had become ONN, owner not needed. Three or four years before the sale, he knew his numbers so well it was almost unhealthy. That is how a more valuable MSP is built. From there, I walk through four practical actions. The first is to measure net profit and EBITDA before you celebrate revenue. Keep a close eye on client concentration, so that no single client represents more than 10 to 15 percent of your revenue. I share an old analogy about pound coins leaving a drawer each morning and returning each evening with friends, because every pound that leaves your business should come back with a return. Track revenue per employee and aim for north of £150,000, and track profit per employee alongside it. These are the numbers that separate a busy business from a more valuable MSP . The second action is to attract profitable, right fit clients. If someone is shopping on price, let them go. Make sure projects and managed services each stand on their own commercially, so a dangling carrot does not leave you in a pickle. The third is to build a lean team with the right people in the right roles. Keep spans of control to six to eight people per leader, design roles that are plug and play, and use AI to upskill your people and raise quality, rather than to cut heads. The fourth is to review your KPIs monthly and quarterly so they drive business value. Even a small MSP can start with one or two. This is not about boiling the ocean. Something Stuart taught me many years ago still guides how we work. Where is the data? Show me the data. When your decisions rest on meaningful business metrics, you invest with confidence, you know which opportunities will pay, and you build a more valuable MSP that is easier to scale and far easier to sell on your terms. Better clients beat more clients. We do not want you to build the biggest MSP in town. We want you to build the best one. So I will leave you with the same question I close the episode with. What are you measuring in your MSP this month to move your profitability up? Answer that honestly and you are already on the path to a more valuable MSP , with more time, confidence and freedom as the owner. Make sure to check out our Ultimate MSP Growth Guide , a free guide that walks you through a proven process to take your MSP from stuck to scalable, without working even more hours. It's 44 pages rammed with advice, insights and inspiration to help you decide what support is available to you now if you want to grow and scale your business. Click HERE to get your copy. Connect on LinkedIn HERE with Ian and also with Stuart by clicking this LINK And when you're ready to take the next step in growing your MSP, come and take the Scale with Confidence MSP Mastery Quiz . In just three minutes, you'll get a 360-degree scan of your MSP and identify the one or two tactics that could help you find more time, engage & align your people and generate more leads. If yo u're s erious about growth and want to explore what this could look like for your MSP, you can book a Right Fit Clarity Call with us HERE . OR To join our amazing Facebook Group of over 400 MSPs where we are helping you Scale Up with Confidence, then click HERE Until next time, look after yourself and I'll catch up with you soon!

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  The IT Experts Podcast

  EP302 - Why Your Biggest Client Could Be Your Biggest Problem with Ian Luckett

  Sep 13, 202617 min

  I n this episode of The IT Experts Podcast, I want to talk about one of the most common reasons MSP owners end up coming to the Growth Hub for help, and it is one I wish more people addressed before it becomes a crisis. That dreaded phone call. Your biggest client rings up and tells you they have been bought out, they are in financial difficulty, or they are simply leaving. If you are lucky, you have a three year contract in place. If you are not, you could lose that revenue overnight. This is client concentration risk in its rawest form, and it catches so many MSP owners completely off guard. Client concentration risk builds quietly. On paper, your revenue looks healthy because your biggest client keeps growing with you. Underneath that growth, your exposure is increasing every month. Your costs stay fixed while your income becomes tied to the decisions of one organisation you do not control. When that client leaves, the cash flow shock is sudden, staff redundancies can become a real possibility, and instead of planning for growth you are firefighting to survive. I want to share the five steps we walk our own clients through in the Growth Hub to manage client concentration risk properly, and I would love for you to take action on these today rather than filing them away for later. The first step is to calculate the revenue percentage contributed by your top ten clients. Many owners only look at their bank balance and assume everything is fine. A healthy bank balance tells you nothing about debtors, accruals, or how exposed you really are. Once you know the numbers, you can start making informed decisions rather than hopeful ones. The second step is to stress test what would happen if you lost your largest client tomorrow. Look at your contract length, whether that is thirty days or five years, and talk this through with your team. Bringing your help desk and wider team into this conversation matters, because client concentration risk should never sit with the owner alone. The third step is to build and maintain a rolling ninety day cash flow forecast. This single habit gives you far more clarity than watching your bank balance ever will. It shows you your reserves, your incoming recurring revenue, and your project work, so you can make confident decisions around recruitment and resourcing rather than reactive ones. The fourth step is to set a target to reduce dependency on any single client over time. If your biggest client currently represents fifty percent of turnover, aim to bring that down gradually, perhaps to forty percent next year and thirty the year after. Best practice suggests no single client should represent more than ten percent of turnover for a strong business valuation, and closing that gap steadily protects you from client concentration risk without damaging the relationship with that client. The fifth and hardest step is strengthening what we call your new client runway, so you consistently replace revenue rather than relying on one relationship to carry the business. Account management keeps your existing clients happy, and it needs pairing with sales and marketing activity that brings in fresh leads every single month. We call this ONCA, one new client a month. Build credibility with your target market, stay consistent on your messaging, and bring your existing clients into events where they can introduce people who are not yet clients. Reducing client concentration risk gives you a more resilient business. Your valuation improves, your cash flow forecasting becomes sharper, and your leadership time shifts from firefighting back into planning for growth. No MSP owner wants that call from their biggest client to be the moment they finally address this, so I would encourage you to run these five steps this week with your team. Make sure to check out our Ultimate MSP Growth Guide , a free guide that walks you through a proven process to take your MSP from stuck to scalable, without working even more hours. It's 44 pages rammed with advice, insights and inspiration to help you decide what support is available to you now if you want to grow and scale your business. Click HERE to get your copy. Connect on LinkedIn HERE with Ian and also with Stuart by clicking this LINK And when you're ready to take the next step in growing your MSP, come and take the Scale with Confidence MSP Mastery Quiz . In just three minutes, you'll get a 360-degree scan of your MSP and identify the one or two tactics that could help you find more time, engage & align your people and generate more leads. If you're serious about growth and want to explore what this could look like for your MSP, you can book a Right Fit Clarity Call with us HERE . OR To join our amazing Facebook Group of over 400 MSPs where we are helping you Scale Up with Confidence, then click HERE Until next time, look after yourself and I'll catch up with you soon!

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  The IT Experts Podcast

  EP301 - Stop Thinking Small – The Mindset Shift That Helped Build a £10 Million Co-Managed MSP with Adam Monks and Ian Luckett

  Sep 6, 202629 min

  I n this episode of The IT Experts Podcast, I sit down with Adam Monks, group director for technical services at A cademia T echnology G roup, to unpack the mindset shift that helped him build a ten million pound co-managed MSP. Adam Monks started his career on the help desk over twenty years ago and worked his way up through service delivery, customer success and professional services before deciding to build something of his own alongside his co-founder Chris. What makes Adam Monks' story so valuable for MSP owners is that his business, SmartDesc , grew almost entirely through a co-managed model, working with organisations of three hundred and five hundred staff from the very beginning, rather than starting small and scaling up gradually. We talk about the early days, where trust and reputation carried everything. Adam Monks explains that in the beginning, clients are buying you, not your accreditations or vendor badges, because those simply take time to earn. Doing what you say you will do, delivering safely and quickly, and building a reputation for getting things done became the foundation for growth. That same principle stayed true even as the business scaled into the millions, though the accreditations and credibility markers mattered more as the deals got bigger. One of the most interesting parts of the conversation covers the middle years, where Adam Monks describes the frustration of being seen as too small for the bigger contracts, even with strong references and a track record of results. He shares how sector focus, particularly within the charity and nonprofit space, gave SmartDesc an edge because those organisations were more open to sharing recommendations with each other. We also discuss the nervous moments, including a year when two founding customers, who made up around seventy percent of revenue, were both due for renewal at the same time. Adam Monks recalls standing in the street with his co-founder weighing up what could happen if neither renewed. A turning point for the business came when growth stopped being reliable. Adam Monks talks candidly about the year the numbers flattened, and how that pushed him to bring in proper marketing support for the first time. Working with a specialist agency, SmartDesc introduced a monthly newsletter, quarterly round tables, webinars and events hosted through their Microsoft Elevate Partner status. Adam Monks is clear that round tables delivered the strongest results, not through instant leads but through consistent, senior level conversations that built trust over nine to twelve months. Alongside this, becoming a direct Microsoft CSP opened an entirely new revenue stream. We also get into the leadership challenge that so many MSP owners will recognise. Adam Monks describes the awkward middle stage of twenty five to forty staff, where you are too big to stay hands on with everything, yet too small to have a fully structured leadership team. Bringing in a fractional finance director helped SmartDesc break through that stage, giving visibility into which parts of the business, MSP services, fractional leadership, cybersecurity and procurement, were genuinely profitable, and allowing accountable leaders to own each area. Adam Monks also shares his honest view on running fully managed and co-managed services side by side, including the margin differences between the two models and why choosing fewer, bigger customers made sense for his business. The conversation closes with the story of SmartDesc's merger with academia technology group in October 2024, a deal that took the combined business to around two hundred and seventy five staff and gave Adam Monks a seat on the board. If you are an MSP owner who has ever felt boxed in by size, or you are wrestling with the leadership gap that comes with growth, this conversation with Adam Monks will give you plenty to think about and apply straight away. Connect with Adam Monks through L ink e dIn and website . Make sure to check out our Ultimate MSP Growth Guide , a free guide that walks you through a proven process to take your MSP from stuck to scalable, without working even more hours. It's 44 pages rammed with advice, insights and inspiration to help you decide what support is available to you now if you want to grow and scale your business. Click HERE to get your copy. Connect on LinkedIn HERE with Ian and also with Stuart by clicking this LINK And when you're ready to take the next step in growing your MSP, come and take the Scale with Confidence MSP Mastery Quiz . In just three minutes, you'll get a 360-degree scan of your MSP and identify the one or two tactics that could help you find more time, engage & align your people and generate more leads. If you're serious about growth and want to explore what this could look like for your MSP, you can book a Right Fit Clarity Call with us HERE . OR To join our amazing Facebook Group of over 400 MSPs where we are helping you Scale Up with Confidence, then click HERE Until next time, look after yourself and I'll catch up with you soon!

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  The IT Experts Podcast

  EP300 - 300 Episodes later, What We Have Learnt with Ian Luckett & Stuart Warwick

  Aug 30, 202636 min

  In this episode of The IT Experts Podcast, Stuart and I mark a genuine milestone, our 300th episode, and 300 episodes later we sit down to share what we have learnt across seven years and every one of those conversations. This is not a tidy list of tips. It is a set of honest reflections on what has changed, what has stayed true, and what we would tell our younger selves if we could. We start with the belief that has shifted the most for Stuart. Every MSP owner knows they need a plan, and that has never changed. What has changed is the recognition that most owners already know what to do. The real gap is accountability, having someone or something that holds you to the actions you already know you need to take. Overwhelm shows up more than almost anything else in our coaching sessions, and it nearly always comes from a blurry list of a hundred things rather than a lack of knowledge. 300 episodes later, my own thinking has shifted too, particularly around vision, mission and values. I once believed that work was reserved for bigger businesses with bigger budgets. Seven years on, I have watched smaller MSPs transform once they get genuine clarity on who they are, who they help and why. That clarity becomes the foundation the rest of the plan sits on. Some lessons have stayed constant the whole way through. Stuart is firm that MSPs do not need more leads, they need a better business to bring those leads into. Structure, people, process and culture are the legs of the stool, and if any of them are weak the business cannot carry the weight of growth. On my side, the advice that remains just as true today is that MSPs must understand their target market properly. Too many businesses try to serve everybody, end up competing on price, and repeat the same generic messaging as every other provider in the channel. We also talk candidly about the mistake we see repeated most often, waiting for a crisis before making a change. Stuart shares how businesses often join us shortly before losing a major client, and how that shift from growth thinking to survival thinking can set a business back for months. I share a similar pattern, where owners have tried a marketing agency, a salesperson or a lead generation service without first understanding their own model, their own audience and their own value. Looking ahead, Stuart believes the next three years demand stronger processes, documentation and governance, so that AI can be layered onto a business that is genuinely ready for it. I focus on people, and the importance of bringing in younger, more driven talent who can push a business forward rather than simply maintaining what already exists. Being brave enough to shake up a settled team matters too. Finally, we reflect on the lessons we each wish we had understood sooner. For me, it is the power of a properly connected operating model, one that content, pricing, packaging and account management all hang off, rather than a model that looks good but lacks a true, connected story. Stuart reminds us that this connected story is what allows a business to articulate its value to employees, prospects and existing clients alike. If you are somewhere between four hundred thousand and nine hundred thousand pounds in turnover and feel stuck, this episode will resonate. Structure, accountability and a genuine understanding of your value are the threads that run through everything we have learnt, 300 episodes later. Make sure to check out our Ultimate MSP Growth Guide , a free guide that walks you through a proven process to take your MSP from stuck to scalable, without working even more hours. It's 44 pages rammed with advice, insights and inspiration to help you decide what support is available to you now if you want to grow and scale your business. Click HERE to get your copy. Connect on LinkedIn HERE with Ian and also with Stuart by clicking this LINK And when you're ready to take the next step in growing your MSP, come and take the Scale with Confidence MSP Mastery Quiz . In just three minutes, you'll get a 360-degree scan of your MSP and identify the one or two tactics that could help you find more time, engage & align your people and generate more leads. If you're serious about growth and want to explore what this could look like for your MSP, you can book a Right Fit Clarity Call with us HERE . OR To join our amazing Facebook Group of over 400 MSPs where we are helping you Scale Up with Confidence, then click HERE Until next time, look after yourself and I'll catch up with you soon!

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  The IT Experts Podcast

  EP299 - Why Most MSPs Stay Stuck – The Cost of Waiting, Overthinking and Not Taking Action with Neil Shaw and Ian Luckett

  Aug 23, 202630 min

  In this episode of The IT Experts Podcast, I sit down with Neil Shaw to unpack why most MSPs stay stuck, and what it really takes to build lasting momentum after years of plodding along. Neil spent over thirty years in the IT industry, built and exited his own MSP, and now helps other owners avoid the traps he fell into himself. We start by exploring what stuck actually looks like. It rarely means rock bottom. More often it is an owner who has found a level of success and settled there, surrounded by choice paralysis, too many options, and no clear next step. This is one of the clearest reasons why most MSPs stay stuck, they default to what they know rather than making a deliberate decision to move forward. We talk about the danger of referral success. When new business keeps arriving without effort, there is little pressure to build proper marketing or sales processes, which quietly reinforces why most MSPs stay stuck for years longer than they need to. Neil shares how he and his business partner stripped their own business back to basics, figuring out exactly what was missing before hiring ahead of need rather than waiting until they were creaking under pressure. We spend real time on letting go, and Neil is candid about how hard this is for techie owners who are used to doing everything themselves. His advice is simple and powerful. Look at the tasks that belong to old you rather than business owner you, and find the right person to take them on, even if they only reach eighty percent of your standard to begin with. Shiny object syndrome comes up too, particularly with the flood of AI tools now aimed at MSPs. Neil's advice cuts through the noise. Before buying anything new, work out what would break if you were away for a day, a week, or a month, then fix those things first. We also get into some of the most common regrets Neil has seen, firing bad clients too late, waiting too long to raise prices, and holding onto delivery work that should have been handed off years earlier. This theme of avoidable delay runs right through why most MSPs stay stuck, and Neil is refreshingly direct about the fact that most owners already know what needs to change, they simply have not made the decision yet. One of the most practical moments comes when Neil walks through his own client matrix, ranking accounts by spend and by how much hassle they cause, then working through the list from least favourite upwards. It is a simple, repeatable way to raise prices with confidence and free up capacity for the clients who deserve it. We also talk about trust, and how building a team who can think for themselves, rather than constantly asking permission, is one of the biggest unlocks for any owner trying to step back from day to day delivery. Towards the end we shift to momentum itself. Motivation fades fast once real life gets in the way, so Neil talks about the value of an accountability partner, someone to share your roadmap with and lean on when the energy dips. His rapid fire answers say it all, the best decision he ever delayed was getting rid of a bad client, and the worst was not raising prices sooner. If you recognise any of this in your own MSP, the message from this episode is clear. Understanding why most MSPs stay stuck is the first step, and taking one small, imperfect action this week is the one that actually moves you forward. You can find Neil Shaw through his LinkedIn and website . Make sure to check out our Ultimate MSP Growth Guide , a free guide that walks you through a proven process to take your MSP from stuck to scalable, without working even more hours. It's 44 pages rammed with advice, insights and inspiration to help you decide what support is available to you now if you want to grow and scale your business. Click HERE to get your copy. Connect on LinkedIn HERE with Ian and also with Stuart by clicking this LINK And when you're ready to take the next step in growing your MSP, come and take the Scale with Confidence MSP Mastery Quiz . In just three minutes, you'll get a 360-degree scan of your MSP and identify the one or two tactics that could help you find more time, engage & align your people and generate more leads. If you're serious about growth and want to explore what this could look like for your MSP, you can book a Right Fit Clarity Call with us HERE . OR To join our amazing Facebook Group of over 400 MSPs where we are helping you Scale Up with Confidence, then click HERE Until next time, look after yourself and I'll catch up with you soon!

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