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BMK Vision
Vision, the MSP business operating system
Vision is Bering McKinley's operating system for MSP owners and their leadership teams. It combines a one-year strategic plan, a dedicated consultant who works the plan with you every month, quarterly reviews, and a platform that tracks your financials and KPIs against BMK's standards.
A ONE-YEAR PLAN
Built with your leadership team in the Strategic Planning Session, with goals that each have an owner and a date.
EVERY MONTH
Your consultant works the plan with you: the tactics, action items and accountability that move each goal forward.
EVERY QUARTER
The BMK Quarterly Review (BQR) assesses your progress against the plan and the financials, then resets the next ninety days.
YOUR NUMBERS
Your financials connect to the Vision platform and are tracked against BMK's standards, so you see what is working and what is not.
From $1,550 a month, plus a one-time onboarding. Twelve-month commitment. See packages
NOT A BINDER
AN MSP BUSINESS PLAN, BROKEN DOWN UNTIL SOMEONE OWNS THE NEXT STEP
Everything else, from sales process to service delivery to hiring to financials, gets worked on inside your plan, in the order that matters most for your business.
We don't believe in vague goals and ambiguous progress. Every company goal breaks down into milestones, initiatives and goals, each with one owner and a date. Every monthly plan meeting ends with action items, and your team works and reviews them every week.
COMPANY GOAL
$3.2M revenue at 15% net profit by December 31
Owner: CEO
MILESTONE
Agreement gross profit at 65% by June 30
Owner: CEO
INITIATIVE
Service delivery: reprice and right-size agreements
Owner: Service manager
GOAL
Reprice the 12 agreements under 50% AGP by March 31
Owner: Account manager
ACTION ITEM
Flag the bottom 12 agreements before the next plan meeting
Owner: Service coordinator
Sample plan, for illustration.
THE PLAYS
THE PLAYS THAT MOVE THE NUMBERS
A plan names where the business is going. Your consultant brings the plays that get it there. Here are four of them. Each one is specific to how an MSP makes money, tied to a BMK standard and aimed at a number in your plan.
FINANCE
Price from what service costs
Set bill rates from what your service team is paid. Take a tech's hourly cost to the company and multiply it by 5.2 to get what that hour should bill for. Price agreements the same way, and service payroll holds at 33% of service revenue as you hire.
Moves: net profit
SERVICE
Run service through dispatch
A dispatcher schedules the work, so the same team gets more billable hours done. BMK's standard for billable utilization is 75%.
Moves: net profit, revenue
SALES
Grow the clients you already have
Project and hourly work is built into account management, so existing clients buy more than their agreement. BMK's standard is project work at 30% of service revenue.
Moves: revenue, business value
OWNERSHIP
Know what the business is worth
Value the business every year, so you know what it is worth and can see it grow. A current valuation backs your buy-sell agreement, your exit strategy and any emergency. BMK's standard is a valuation every year.
Moves: business value
These are four examples. BMK has more than 180 standards across six areas of an MSP: financial metrics, service, sales, finance, ownership and technology. Your plan decides which plays come first.
HOW VISION RUNS
STRATEGY. TACTICS. EXECUTION. RESULTS.
Onboarding and the Strategic Planning Session set the strategy. Monthly plan work brings the tactics and the execution. The quarterly review measures the results. Plenty of people will sell you something. Vision is built around being there every month after the sale.
AT THE START
1. Onboard
Your financials connect to the Vision platform and we assess how the business operates. You get one readout with your numbers measured against BMK's standards, so the plan starts from fact.
- Your real numbers in one place
- A baseline against BMK's standards
- The gaps worth fixing first
AT THE START
2. Strategic Planning Session
One to two days with your leadership team that produce your one-year business plan. It covers the financial, ownership, sales, service and technology sides of the business, with milestones, initiatives and goals that each have an owner and a date.
- One twelve-month plan your team built
- An owner and a date on every goal
- Your first month of action items
MONTHS 1 TO 12
3. Monthly plan work
Every month your consultant works the plan with you: a plan meeting with action items, accountability on goals, a review of your numbers, and hands-on help where you need it.
- A plan meeting every month
- Action items your team works every week
- Your numbers reviewed with you
MONTHS 3, 6, 9 AND 12
4. BMK Quarterly Review (BQR)
Every quarter we step back and review the plan, the business and the financials together, score the quarter against the plan, then reset the next ninety days.
- The quarter scored against the plan
- Next quarter's priorities reset
- A plan that keeps up with the business
THE NUMBERS
IF NUMBERS DON'T LIE, WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?
Most owners can tell you revenue to the dollar. Fewer can tell you agreement margin by client, effective hourly rate, or service payroll as a share of service revenue.
The Vision platform connects your financials and tracks the KPIs that decide whether the plan is working, against BMK's standards.
65%
Agreement gross profit
What each managed services agreement earns after the labor and AV and RMM licensing it takes to deliver. BMK's standard is 65%.
125%
Effective hourly rate
Agreement revenue minus license costs, divided by the hours your team spent servicing it. The target is 112.5% to 125% of your rack rate.
33%
Service payroll to service revenue (SSSR)
What your service team costs against what it brings in. BMK's standard is 33% or lower.
19
The Bering McKinley Financial Metrics
These three are a few of the 19 metrics BMK tracks. Together they tell the story of your company, and measuring the business against them is what produces the outcomes MSP owners are after.
SOUND FAMILIAR?
MOST OWNERS AND LEADERSHIP TEAMS WE MEET ARE LIVING WITH ONE OF THESE
You've bought the tools. The problems are still there.
Vision starts with a plan, not another tool, and a consultant works it with you every month.
Revenue is flat, or growing while profit isn't.
Price from what service costs and track agreement gross profit against BMK's 65% standard, so growth brings profit with it.
Everything still runs through the owner.
Each leader owns an initiative in the plan, so decisions stop coming back to the owner.
You can't list from memory your goals and where you are against them.
Every goal in the plan has one owner and a date, and the Vision platform shows where each one stands.
You keep hiring your first salesperson over and over again.
The plan sets the sales role, its standards and comp plan, and a sales process that adds clients on purpose.
You don't know what your MSP is worth, or what would make it worth more.
BMK's standard is a valuation every year, so you know what the business is worth and can see it grow.
Most of the MSP industry will sell you another tool for each of these. Tools aren't the problem, and they aren't the answer. The answer is knowing exactly where your business is going, doing the work every month to get there, and measuring it honestly.
WHO VISION IS FOR
MSP OWNERS AND THEIR TEAMS, FROM THE FIRST HIRE TO THE EXIT
Where your MSP is today decides what the plan works on first.
AROUND $1M
Growing, without a plan yet
You're growing on referrals and hustle with a small team of leaders, and nothing is written down about where the business is going. The owner is still the top tech, the salesperson and the bookkeeper. Revenue is up, cash is still tight, and it isn't clear who to hire next.
- Numbers you can trust: clean books, pricing that covers what it costs to deliver, and which clients make money
- Your first real plan: one-year goals with a name and a date on each, and a monthly rhythm to work them
- The owner's job and the next hire: the owner out of the service queue, and the next role decided when the numbers support it
- Repeatable service, so growth doesn't break it
After a year: revenue and profit growing together, on pricing that holds.
Usually Vision Essentials: the owner and up to two leaders working the plan.
$1M TO $3M
Leaders building their teams
Your service, sales and operations leaders are in their seats and hiring under them, but without roles, standards or numbers to manage by. Every new hire seems to make the business less profitable. Growth still waits on referrals, and decisions still come back to the owner.
- One plan across your leaders, each owning an initiative for their department
- Roles and standards for service, dispatch and sales, comp plans included, so each leader can build a team that runs without them
- Payroll that scales: service payroll and utilization held as you hire, and hiring when the numbers say so
- A sales process that adds clients on purpose, and a salesperson who works
After a year: each leader runs their department by the plan and the numbers, not by checking with the owner.
Essentials or Strategic, depending on how many leaders work the plan.
$3M TO $15M
Scaling toward an exit
Your leaders manage managers now, and the growth that got you past $3M has flattened. A sale, a partner buyout or private equity is on the horizon, or the owner wants out of the day-to-day. No one is sure yet what the business is worth or what a buyer will see.
- Value a buyer can see: stronger EBITDA, recurring revenue and net profit
- One plan for the whole leadership team, each leader owning an initiative
- A business that performs without the owner in the middle, which is what buyers pay for
- Exit readiness: books, agreements and KPIs that hold up to diligence, and a written exit strategy
After a year: a higher valuation, from stronger EBITDA and cleaner recurring revenue.
Usually Vision Strategic: a leadership team of three or more, each running an initiative.
PACKAGES
TWO WAYS TO WORK
You are not buying a planning system. You are buying the outcome. Both include the Strategic Planning Session, your twelve-month plan, monthly plan work, quarterly reviews and the Vision platform. The difference is the size of the team working the plan: every leader in the planning group runs an initiative, and more initiatives take more consultant time.
VISION ESSENTIALS
$1,550 a month
4 advisory hours a month
For an owner and up to two leaders working the plan.
- Strategic Planning Session and one-year plan
- Monthly plan meeting, with action items your team works every week
- Quarterly review of the plan and financials
- The Vision platform: goals, KPIs, the handbook and staff training
VISION STRATEGIC
$2,750 a month
8 advisory hours a month
For a leadership team of three or more, each leader running an initiative.
- Everything in Essentials
- Twice the consultant time each month
- Hands-on time with each leader's initiative
- The Vision platform: goals, KPIs, the handbook and staff training
ONBOARDING AND EXTRA TIME
- One-time onboarding: $5,000 remote or in Chicago, or $7,500 at your location
- Extra consultant time: $300 an hour, billed in quarter-hour increments
- Twelve-month commitment
QUESTIONS
COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT VISION
Is Vision software?
Partly. Vision is software and consulting together. The Vision platform holds your plan, goals and action items, tracks your KPIs and financials against BMK's standards, and gives you the handbook: BMK's standards, policies and other documents for running the business, plus training so your staff learn the standards and how the business operates. A BMK consultant works the plan with your leadership team every month. The whole package, the one-year plan, the consultant and the platform, is the operating system that is Vision, and we add to the platform all the time.
Who is Vision for?
MSP owners and their leadership teams who want to grow, become more profitable or get ready to sell, and who are willing to work on the business every month.
How long is the commitment?
Twelve months. A plan takes about a year to show up in the numbers, so that's the commitment we ask for.
What does it cost?
Vision Essentials is $1,550 a month and Vision Strategic is $2,750 a month. Consultant time is included every month, and extra time is $300 an hour, billed in quarter-hour increments. A one-time onboarding fee depends on where your Strategic Planning Session happens: $5,000 remote or in Chicago, or $7,500 at your office. On a walk-through we'll tell you which package fits.
What exactly do I get?
A twelve-month plan built with your leadership team, a consultant who works it with you every month, a quarterly review of the plan against your financials, and the Vision platform: your goals, KPIs and benchmarks, the handbook of BMK's standards, policies and documents, and training for your staff. The platform keeps growing, so you get what we add along the way.
How does the plan stay on track between meetings?
Your goals, action items and numbers live in the Vision platform, so your team can see what's due and who owns it. Your team works and reviews its action items every week. Your consultant reviews progress with you every month, and the quarterly review resets the plan.
Do you help with ConnectWise or other tools?
When a tool decision is part of your plan, we help you make it in the context of your goals.
How is this different from a peer group?
A peer group gives you perspective. Vision gives you a plan built for your business and someone who holds you to it every month.
Why should I trust BMK?
Ask around first. Bering McKinley has worked with MSP owners and their teams for almost two decades, and every Vision consultant specializes in MSPs.
How long until I see results?
In onboarding you'll see your real numbers, often for the first time. The plan's results show up in your financials over the year, and each quarterly review measures them.
Should I wait until I'm less busy?
Busy is usually the symptom. The first thing the plan decides is what the owner and the leadership team stop doing, so the work on the business gets time on their calendars.
NOT READY TO TALK?
Start with The Vision Brief
For the people who run and work in MSPs. Five minutes from Bering McKinley, the first Tuesday of every month.
Or listen to The BMK Vision Podcast: new episodes every week on running an MSP as a business.
READY TO TALK?
Stop buying tools. Start buying outcomes.
Walk through your numbers with Josh: 15 or 30 minutes, no pitch deck.
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