Build sustainable wealth without budgets or adding new customers as an MSP with Garrett Gunderson
19 Mar 2024 · 10 min
Garrett Gunderson explains how MSPs can build wealth by improving cash flow through lower taxes and fees, hiring strong full-time staff, and deepening relationships with existing clients. Skip the budget obsession and new customer chase. Focus on systems and delegation instead.
So if you think building sustainable wealth and budgeting or finding new clients for your MSP is critical or absolutely necessary, I want you to think again. My name is Chris weiser, here with Mr. Garrett Gunderson. How are you doing, sir?
Thanks for having me, man.
Yes, great. Yes, sir. We just came off stage here in Phoenix. It's really been a great session. You talked about so many things and I told you, I don't know if you even knew this, but as I was introducing you and then as we could.
I couldn't remember where we first met. That was a long time ago, man.
A long time ago. And I've built so much of what we teach in our coaching program.
That's like 15 years ago.
I know it's crazy, but I've literally built so much stuff based on your teachings and what you talked about when I first met you. It's so great for me to have you come back because. And on my side, to see how much of it I actually have implemented, kind of, not necessarily always.
It's awesome to see, watching and being part of it.
So, you know, the topic was building sustainable wealth for. For your business. All these different things. Let's dive into that right away.
Yeah.
What's your first big tip?
Like, one is, I think that business owners need to feel less guilty about not funding the retirement plan because a lot of times they think, oh, I gotta. I gotta start putting money there before they've really built the infrastructure of their business. They haven't hired the right people, they don't have the right processes, they don't have the right automation. And all of a sudden they're robbing that and putting it into other investments they know nothing about. So my biggest thing is, hey, let's just show them how to keep more of what they make. Save on tax, save on interest, save on investment fees, save on insurance costs, and then put that back into themselves. Their business, or creating cash flow.
Yeah, and I think, you know, we talk about the cash flow thing. It's one of my staples that I talk about a lot. So many business owners are so focused on either the exit or even just like making it happen. It seems like there's no in between, and they really struggle with the cash flow. Any thoughts on that?
Yeah, I think that just efficiency is the first step. So if they're paying too much in tax, like that, money can come into their life, and then they can use that to maybe hire someone. And then all of a sudden they can make more money. They free up their time. Yeah. Or you know, instead of again like if all their money is locked away or they're having to save all this money towards something they can't even touch till they're 59 and a half, that makes it harder on cash flow because now they're siphoning it off. So.
So we talked on stage a little bit about the scarcity mindset versus the abundance mindset. It's also one of the things that I talk actively about. I think so much of that scarcity mindset comes into this. Like I'm afraid to budget for this or I'm afraid to spend money here and it leads into not hiring the right people or a trap that I see these people fall into is oh, I'm gonna hire this person part time, not pay them all this money so I can keep as much as I can and it backfires. And I think that's a really dangerous mindset.
Thoughts? Yeah. I think that when we're focused on reduction and elimination, we're not focused on value creation and expansion. It's like those two don't really coexist at the same time in mind. And IBM did this study that A teamers are 5200% more productive than a B teamer. So when we think about oh I could do part time or get someone that's less expensive, it's more expensive because we don't produce. So if we start looking at like the expense of the payoff versus the cost, there's the economic cost that we can actually have a higher price for but pay less but end up with more money. Because like in the accounting world an amazing tax strategist might be twice as much as someone who's not good but save you ten times more.
Yeah.
So we think about the production and the profit, not just the savings. That's a different, more abundant mindset.
Yeah. And I think you know that that abundance mindset for you guys that are watching this too, I think it's so key to be living in this abundance mindset. And we talk about that. It's hiring the right people. Yes. But properly compensating them, making sure you're bringing them in for full time roles, delegating off to things that aren't productive for you.
Right.
I talked in my keynote this morning specifically about the things that I struggle with and evolving ourselves to be better business owners. And I think all of that kind of plays in. Any thoughts?
Well, I feel like part of your success in hearing your talk today is you're like you're going to be resourceful you're going to find a way because you, you're committed. You, you call it like you're willing to take risks, but I think they're very calculated because they're within your vision and what you're committed to do. And because you're so committed and resourceful, you don't let money stop you from doing something extraordinary or extra.
Actually very spot on.
So I just, I was watching that. Being like that is what I would teach. But you were living it and expressing it and being it for us to even be in the room.
Yeah, that's cool. That's cool.
Yeah.
And it was also. Thank you for watching my keynote. I've never had one of our speakers actually sit and watch my.
I really wanted, I was like, I really want to hear what you have to say. And I understand. I really appreciate it. I could learn from you.
So let's come back to the, to the topic. I forget what our second thing was here out of the box, but I think, you know, maintaining clients or not having to dig super deep for clients. What's your thoughts on that? Because I think these are really key points.
I mean, what I love is recurring revenue is the game. Right. And you're, you're in that world.
Our whole conference is called double your mri. So. Yeah.
And so how do we do that? We add more value. We get feedback from them. We think of ways to, to serve the people that are already in existence versus just going to get the next person, the next person. Because it's so much more expensive to get the next person versus really add value to the existing people. And then like I call the impact equation, we can either reach more people or more deeply impact the people we currently reach. And it's not an either or. Yeah, but if we always go for reaching more people before we really think and listen to the people and say, what can we do to serve you? To solve problems, to add value and even sometimes. That's collaboration.
Yes.
Right. We don't always have to be the one that provides every service, but if we're the ones that make the connections.
Well, one of the things that, you know, I don't think you realize this, but one of our core components, one a brand new prospect and we deal specifically with it. Security service providers, when they come into our program, we have them basically give them a full training kit to go back to your existing clients first, serve them deeper and you're leaving. You can double your recurring revenue within six to 12 months just with your existing client base by serving them deeper and Then that gives you more cash flow to go after new prospects the right way.
Right, right.
And it's so key.
I do these like one on ones. I people come to my cabin and we just do a full day consult. It's like design their richest life, build their financial team, save them money.
Guess I'm allowed to go to your cabin now.
Right. So. And for the longest time I wouldn't ever do it a second time, but I had enough people saying like can we come back? And just this week I had someone come back a second time. We got twice as far. It was twice as easy. We knew each other so much. And then this, the information he's giving back to me, I'm like, why wasn't I doing that before? Right.
And get deeper into your existing client base. Right.
Serve them better depth, connection value. Like that's the thing.
Yeah, I think that's so key. And you know, one of the other things that I talk about a lot, especially in this industry, especially as a business owner's scalability, I think that's a really important part because this industry, for those of you that are watching, is very detail oriented. A lot of people pleasing mindset because we want to help all these different things.
I know, ask the crowd today I saw that I can raise hand went.
On people pleaser, very, very strong people pleasers, but also super detail oriented and very controlling. Now those things don't go real well with. I'm going to delegate.
Right. Because then.
Yeah, so, so what's your thoughts around that? How do we break through maybe some of those barriers too? Because it all, all comes down to the, the hiring machine and all these different things that we're talking about comes down to this too.
So I have a philosophy of delegating roles. R O L E S. We delegate roles instead of tasks and ask people to own that role like it's their business and get clear about what that role is. When we're not clear about a role and we delegate something, it's like a boomerang that keeps coming back around asking what to do next. But a role removes the micromanagement.
Delegate with purpose.
So I'm like, I'm like, hey, if you need support on this, come to me. But this is what you own. Like it's the buck stocks with you.
Yeah.
And that's what helped me get away from micromanagement.
And you were talking during, during your session today about intellectual property and SOPs being one of those. I think that's a really key point. You know, writing strong. Sops making sure you have this. Okay. We covered so much in like 10, 10 minutes here. Any final things that you want to kind of go over or get a little deeper on? Very. I take.
Give me everything. I would. I would recommend, like, it'd be really cool for anyone that's watching or listening to come to one of your events, because then they can see what we're talking about in action. Absolutely right. Because it's one thing to have us talk about this philosophy, but when I was watching you be your keynote, I'm like, oh, this is like when you're saying the things I had impacted you with, I'm like, yeah, you can see it in the room from the things that you're teaching, how you're showing up, how you're growing your organization. You're showing people in this business what's possible and kind of blazing that trail for them to follow. I mean, that's. That's nice because it's really hard to do things on your own and isolated and it. And people think that they're going to save money in the world, but they lose time and it's exhausting. And.
Well, what's the one resource we have know more of is that factor. Right.
So I'm, I've always been like, the best way to collapse results and get where you want to go faster is if you can pay someone to mentor, to coach, to create accountability, and to give you systems and tools. And that's been the thing that's really made the biggest. The biggest difference for me. And prosperity is not a do it yourself game. So get some support.
Yeah. And oddly enough, not oddly or coincidentally, really, all the stuff that has been my success stories have been directly related to mentor, you know, finding mentors, finding coaches, things that can accelerate my. That's amazing. So how can our viewers find you a little bit more?
Garrettgunderson.com you can buy books from that site. You could take your money.
I just signed up for my kit today, just so you know.
Yeah. That. That you go. Garrettgunderson.com Rich Life. And there's some awesome free resources, including a couple of my books to kind of engage in the content.
Probably one of my top one or two, maybe even not two speakers. So thanks so much for being here with us today. Good to have you on the podcast and we'll see you soon, brother. Thanks, guys. We'll see you next time.
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