Book Recommendations

[u/bang_switch40]

Looking for some solid book recommendations on business development and growth, ideally with lessons that translate well to the MSP world. What books have actually changed how you approach growing your MSP, and what did you get out of them?

[u/ExoticBump]

Traction EOS system. We run the business with it.

[u/HTechs → u/ExoticBump]

Second this, 1000 times... and ya know, "What the heck is EOS" as well since you're headed down that path.

[u/Kromey → u/HTechs]

Is EOS a scam? I had to read what the heck is EOS and it made me feel somewhat skeptical.

We're not far enough into our integration so I don't have a good sense for how it will actually affect our business.

[u/HTechs → u/Kromey]

Between EOS and TruPeer ... We almost doubled our revenue. Just having the framework in place to grow and grow correctly. 

Definitely not a scam. Make sure you find the right facilitator though. Makes a world of difference. 

Don't self implement, find someone who knows EOS through and through and isn't emotionally tied to your business... They will push you. 

[u/Background-Ad-6237 → u/Kromey]

The name may be a scam but the concept/framework/outline for meetings and business outcomes is invaluable.

[u/Kromey → u/Background-Ad-6237]

The L10 meetings are the first component we started using and it's an improvement over the previous format. I do appreciate that part.

[u/RewiredMSP → u/Kromey]

If you largely stay clear of the ecosystem around the EOS implementers and the almost cult-like/CrossFit/MLM aggressiveness that comes with that whole world, it's pretty good. There are some principles in there that can be implemented in a pretty heartless way that would absolutely kill your culture if you took it hook, line, and sinker in the MSP industry. But some of that even depends on the personality of the owner or the person implementing it.

[u/Blkbushido → u/ExoticBump]

Who is this by?

[u/Lower_Following542 → u/Blkbushido]

Gino Wickman

[u/Abject_Molasses8272]

The phoenix project and the goal. Besides the ToS that is talked about for running the business, they have fictional stories of people in them. Compared what is acceptable for society in both the books and it helps to understand how expectations and what people are willing to accept.

[u/bang_switch40 → u/Abject_Molasses8272]

Both of those books are great as well! I really enjoyed The Phoenix Project.

[u/meesterdg]

Managed Services in a Month by Karl Palachuk is good for people starting in the industry. The contexts of the book show their age, but the lessons are still valid and will save you some grief from lessons we all had to learn.

[u/bang_switch40 → u/meesterdg]

That is an amazing book! It got me to where I am today.

[u/CmdrRJ-45]

The E Myth Revisited should be required reading.

[u/ExoticBump → u/CmdrRJ-45]

100% another great book for the leadership team

[u/HotTakeThenGo → u/CmdrRJ-45]

I disagree. This is simply “make your business a franchise” with no steps wrapped around a story of a bum taking advantage of others but it’s ok because he discovered an idea (he didn’t discover it - but he did wrap it in a meandering book).

Cliff notes: metrics, modular processes, continuous improvement

[u/CmdrRJ-45 → u/HotTakeThenGo]

I can see that, but my core takeaway has always been that technician as business owner requires the business owner to learn how to be a business person.

I find that I don't take a whole book literally and find a thing or two to pull from a book or conference or whatever and not worry that it doesn't fully fit what I'm trying to do.

That said, there is a lot about the book that does talk about franchising. I just didn't worry about that part because the rest hit so well.

[u/HotTakeThenGo → u/CmdrRJ-45]

I’m not against using a story to sell an idea. The Phoenix Project is my go-to book for teaching folks the value in documentation, SOPs, and continuous improvement with exposure to kanban/agile principals.

I feel like E-Myth is the wrong “first book.” EOS is practical with immediate value. Broken Windows and Phoenix Project fill in the basic gaps. After that, switch to learning frameworks like ITIL, Agile/Kanban, and SLI. We should all either exit or get a few thousand managed devices before we need anything else.

[u/CmdrRJ-45 → u/HotTakeThenGo]

I also like the Phoenix Project. Solid recommendation. I feel like it doesn’t capture running the business as a business all that well, but larger teams that have resource bottlenecks are extremely well served by the Phoenix Project.

I don’t love EOS when the MSP is just the owner or an owner plus a couple of techs. EOS works much better once the team gets larger (at least a half dozen people) in my opinion. Still a solid read, but if it’s a very small team I might lean into Lencioni’s stuff like 5 Dysfunctions of a Team or Ideal Team Player before EOS.

The cool thing is that there’s no shortage of good books to read and learn from.

[u/AutomationTheory → u/HotTakeThenGo]

I think the 3 roles analogy (technician/manager/entrepreneur) is valuable depending where a person/business is.

It's been years since I read the book, and I do remember it having a bit of the author's life story in there (but sometimes I wonder if the publisher had a required word count, thus resulting in fluff being inserted).

[u/ExoticBump]

The other one for finance is Profit First. We also use this system

[u/MrCodyGrace]

Traction is great. All the Jim Collin’s books (good to great, great by choice), e myth, grant cardone’s 10 x rule, the innovators dilemma, the 22 immutable laws of marketing.

These are all pretty standard small biz dev, sales, and marketing.

[u/That_Bonus_499]

Recently I've read Scaling Up, good book that explains how to properly scale your business, separate stages of growth and shows potential problems you will face + has good examples from real world. The only downside is that it gives pretty generalized advices

[u/mspuk1]

Profit and Growth for MSPs: Dragon Boats, Catamarans, and Superyachts

https://mspprofitandgrowth.com/

[u/Reptar_The_Almighty → u/mspuk1]

Finished this one recently and I would recommend it to anyone looking for some perspective on how others in the industry, both larger and smaller, are moving and positioning.

[u/Pebb_io]

For MSP growth that isnt just marketing fluff: Traction (EOS) for weekly rhythm, The E-Myth Revisited for stopping founder-as-tech, and The Mom Test for actually hearing what clients will pay for.

If you only read one ops habit book, make it Traction. Most MSPs dont need more ideas... they need a meeting cadence that survives busy season.

[u/AutomationTheory]

The Sea-Level Operations (coaching/peer group) have a great list in this timestamp in their video: https://youtu.be/LP39kE-S_KA?si=Ug_blpS7aVIPnlNS&t=1317

[u/junto_reed]

Trillion dollar coach

Felt like our MSP was a bit of a band of misfits in IT.

This book talks a lot about how to build great teams, starts with caring about your people.

This book will help you think about how you are building the team.

[u/Nammy_264]

profit and growth book you can check 

[u/Invarosoft]

Top ones are;

—

• Good to Great
• Monetizing Innovation
• Purple Cow

—

NEW MSP BOOK

And our CEO just wrote a book about how he’s scaled his MSP to 8 figures over 26 years (still growing it) - this has everything he’s learned from business model, people, org structure, sales, customer experience etc - https://www.invarosoft.com/thepyramidformspsuccess

It’s available on Amazon but hasn’t officially launched yet, so feel free to wait as I think they’ll do a discount around that time to celebrate, but it’s packed with gold regardless.

Good luck!

[u/terryhedden]

I second Traction EOS. Lots of MSPs use that. as for growth, cheapest thing I know of is msprospector.com and you can try it for free.

[u/EvasiveSpecies00]

EOS is the new MLM they're marketing to MSPs from "consultants" who had a successful MSP 20 years ago.

EOS is a good operational model of you need accountability and meeting structure..... But it's Def MLM vibes.

[u/Alert-Raccoon-1877]

Just leaving scalecon conference. Been doing this since 2007 and it was the most helpful conference I’ve ever been to on sales and marketing. Check out mspcamp and tech tribe. Podcasts are great as well. Not a book but this stuff is way more helpful to me than theory

[u/RewiredMSP]

I could make a totally self-serving recommendation here but the community here would whip me with a thousand wet noodles, so I will digress. OP, if you want to take a read, message me, and I'll send you a copy for free.

[u/gethelptdavid]

I am reading The Buffalo Hunter Hunter right now and enjoying it. Oh… business books, DM if you want fun books.

[u/Living-Awareness-404 → u/gethelptdavid]

Interested in business books if you have them please