5 Steps to a Successful Mid-Year Goal Check-in
The day-to-day demands of running an MSP can keep everyone quite busy, whether they’re putting out fires or upgrading a sea of endpoints. But with the year more than halfway over, it’s a great time to step back and see how your business is tracking against your year-end goals. Even though there are not too many more months to go, there’s still plenty of time to course correct if necessary.
Step One: Get out your Goals
I’m sure that way back in 2018 you put a lot of time and thought into figuring out what you wanted your MSP to accomplish this year. Adding customers, growing top-line revenue and increasing profits are common, easy-to-measure goals.
If you went the extra mile, your objectives might have also included increasing revenue per account, decreasing incidents and downtime, shortening response times, improving staff efficiency, or diversifying revenue streams by expanding your menu of services. In addition to some of those measurable aspirations you might have had more strategic ambitions, as well, such as automating routine processes or adding new services such as dark web monitoring or compliance solutions.
While these annual goals should be taped up on the wall and revisited regularly, it’s quite possible you’ll need to search through your files a bit or blow some dust off them as more immediate demands have pushed them aside. But regardless of whether they’re on display or buried in a drawer somewhere, you can’t tell if you’re on the right track if you don’t know where you’re trying to go.
Step Two: Check your Progress
For each goal you established for your MSP, run the numbers on 2019 so far to see how things are stacking up.
Are you at least 50% of the way there yet? If not, you’ll need to take a deep dive into your pipeline and see if there are big deals closing soon. Otherwise, you’re on course for a disappointing finish to the year.
Are some metrics tracking appropriately while others lag behind? It’s not unusual to, for example, add new customers without seeing a jump in profitability due to increased onboarding costs or additional expenses tied to their launch, but you should be seeing progress on all fronts to keep those extra costs from negating your growth.
Are you overperforming in a certain area? Sometimes we set the bar too low for ourselves, and sometimes a huge windfall drops into our laps. Either way, it’s good to know if you’re in better shape than expected so you can take advantage of other opportunities.
Step Three: Dig into the Details
You now know where you wanted to be and how far you’ve come so far. Now it’s time to evaluate why things played out this way. What worked and what didn’t work? What surprises came your way, good or bad, and how did they impact things? Are individual employees pulling their weight? Are there any surprise superstars or slackers that should be recognized or dealt with?
This doesn’t have to be a solo exercise, either. Raising these questions with other senior leaders or even individual contributors can reveal interesting nuggets you may not be aware of. It’s probably best to
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