I’ve had a version of this conversation hundreds of times.
An MSP owner comes to me frustrated. They’ve tried a few things, nothing has stuck, and now they’re thinking about hiring a marketing coordinator. Someone to “handle” it. Someone to take it off their plate.
And I get it. Marketing feels like a distraction from the actual work. You’re good at IT. You built this business by being good at IT – delivering MSP services that clients depend on. Why would you spend your time on something that isn’t that?
Here’s the honest answer: because there’s no business without it.
Every business has two jobs
There’s growing the business, and there’s servicing clients. That’s it. Those are the two jobs.
Most MSP owners are excellent at the second one. They built their reputation on it. But over time, if you only do one half of the job, the business stalls. You hit a ceiling. You rely on whoever happens to find you, and you cross your fingers that referrals keep coming.
Some people try to solve this by bringing in a business partner who handles the growth side. That works sometimes. More often, it creates friction and splits equity without solving the underlying problem.
The other option, the harder one, is becoming someone who takes business growth as seriously as client delivery. Not because you love marketing, but because you understand that it’s just as much your job as everything else.
Hiring a marketing person too early is an avoidance
Here’s something I tell our early-stage clients that they don’t always want to hear: if you’re under a million dollars in revenue, you probably shouldn’t hire a marketing coordinator yet.
Not because marketing doesn’t matter. Because a junior marketing hire at that stage almost always works on the wrong things. They’ll post on social media. They might redesign stuff. They’ll stay busy without moving the needle, and you’ll end up spending money to feel like something is happening without anything actually changing.
What moves the needle at that stage is the owner getting reps. Learning what works. Talking to prospects. Understanding why people buy. You can’t outsource that before you understand it yourself.
The MSPs who figure this out early win
I’ve watched the same pattern play out with hundreds of clients over the past decade. The ones who grow fastest are the ones who stop treating marketing as somebody else’s job.
They don’t have to love it. Nor do they need to be great at it right away. They just have to accept that it belongs to them, commit to learning the fundamentals, and build a process around it.
The ones who keep waiting for the right hire, the right tool, or the right moment end up having the same conversation with me three years later, wondering why things haven’t changed.
At some point, most MSP owners figure this out. Usually, after a few painful lessons. The good news is the lesson doesn’t have to be that expensive if you see it early.
If this post hit close to home, that’s your cue. Book a free Growth Call with my team, we’ll look at where you are, tell you what’s worth doing first, and give you a plan you can actually follow without hiring anyone yet.
If you want more practical, no-fluff advice like this, follow me on Instagram @natehelpsmsps where I share what’s actually working for MSPs right now. Or shoot me a note at [email protected] with the word “List” in the subject line, and I’ll add you to my email list.
Photo: Kunakorn Rassadornyindee / Shutterstock
This post originally appeared on Smarter MSP.