I ran an MSP for 30 years… I went to the cliff edge and back

“There were probably three or four times when I found myself on the brink and that was purely because of how I ran my business.”

Nick Moran paused, reflected and then continued.

“In the early days, I just didn’t run the business lean enough or efficiently enough. I didn’t prepare for downturns in the market. I didn’t have enough in reserve both financially and mentally.”

Moran speaks with authenticity and authority on the issue of entrepreneurialism. This is the co-founder of Bedrock Computer Services, a Melbourne-based managed service provider (MSP) born in 1993 and later rebranded as Evolve IT.

“The Global Financial Crisis in 2007 and 2008 was tough,” he recalled. “Add in an unhealthy reliance on one or two large customers and poor planning for the future, it was obvious looking back that having a balanced and healthy business model was essential to remaining healthy moving forward.

“I hear owners say, ‘oh, we didn’t make much money last year because we invested in expanding our team, entered a new market or created a new business unit’. The challenge comes with poor planning or poor past performance.

“What happens if you have a down year the following year, experience a market downturn or lose a major client, then you’re really up against it. That means you’re making very tough and emotional decisions that will push you back even further.”

Looking back more than 30 years later, Moran emphatically came out on the right side of the road but at the time, sailing that close to the wind placed an “unhealthy amount” of stress on himself individually and the broader team.

This was looking over the cliff edge stuff, staring at the abyss below with no harness or safety net.

“In the early stages of the business, I was flying solo and was continually having to put up a facade,” he shared. “Always trying to remain positive with the team which was purely out of fear. My logic was if they think that something is going wrong and if I’m not communicating that properly then they’ll all disappear and make the issues worse.”

Fighting the good fight as a solo entrepreneur might have seemed noble, but it was bad for Moran and bad for business. If it truly is lonely at the top, magnify that feeling by a thousand when times are tough.

“Once I began to surround myself with strong leaders who we developed even further, then I started to share more,” Moran advised. “They became more in-tune with the business and the financials and everything became much more of an open book.

“That’s the most rewarding aspect of being a leader, you’re helping everyone else with their personal and business lives. But they’re also doing the same for you, especially during those hard times. You have to understand that you can’t do it by yourself.”

Learning lessons, sharing knowledge

When Moran started out, the internet and mobile phones hadn’t even hit the market and Adobe was gearing up to launch the PDF format.

The year was 1993 – Paul Keating was in office, the Wallabies were world champions and Sydney won the bid to host the 2000 Olympic Games.

Moran observed a “bizarre” feeling when looking back, somewhat uneasy at the process of self-assessing three decades of blood, sweat and tears – fresh from finishing year 12.

With only six months between completing school and starting the business, this fledging founder didn’t take his pedal off the metal for the next 29 years.

“I just didn’t let up,” he noted. “But as I reflect back, I feel like there was a whole lot of wasted time during that period. If I had known then what I know today, I would have done things very differently.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m unappreciative of what was achieved, that’s not the case. It’s just a feeling that I should have asked more questions earlier.”

Hindsight is a wonderful – yet unobtainable – thing however. For Moran, advice given in 1993 is all relative to advice received in 2024, whether starting on the journey or fully immersed in it.

“I was just an 18-year-old kid,” he reflected.

“Fortunately, my dad was a fantastic mentor from a financial and numbers point of view. But I ran a very lone race back then. I don’t know if it was arrogance, ego or a lack of confidence but I didn’t seek the help of other business owners, I was very insular in my approach.”

That was when Moran joined the IT Nation Evolve MSP Peer Groups. Designed to allow MSP owners to compare notes on the rollercoaster ride of running a business, members are connected to a global network of peers and experts, gaining business guidance, training and resources along the way.

“Think of the peer group as a board of 12-15 peers who understand you and your business and are there to help keep each other accountable,” Moran said. “We were in the same boat and could learn from not only the successes – because everyone can learn from other people’s wins – but mainly the failures and the mistakes.

“I made a truckload of mistakes over the years and got myself into some very bad habits, very early on. Anyone who says they haven’t is lying. You can really help others inside and outside of the industry by sharing those lessons.”

In January 2019, Evolve IT merged with Powernet IT Solutions before the combined entity was acquired by Virtual IT Group (VITG) in December 2022.

Could Moran have reached his end destination quicker? Possibly. But those lessons – whether up or whether down – were all part of the journey.

“At the end of the day, I was very fortunate to be able to exit the business still with my health, my family, my marriage and to be able to move forward,” Moran added. “The advice I tend to share with business owners is that you don’t have to immerse yourself that much. Find that balance.”

During the final 10 years of Moran’s entrepreneurial journey, such a balance was found. This was prompted by surrounding himself with “like-minded individuals” and other business owners.

“I smile and look back every single day at the people who have worked with me, I’ve had hundreds of employees that have gone on to achieve such amazing things,” he shared. “I feel fantastic to have played a small part in that because a lot started their career with me, some are still at my old MSP today. Each and every one have played a part in this story.”

Such reflection is somewhat ironic given this wasn’t part of Moran’s repertoire as an entrepreneur. In fact, there wasn’t a moment during the running of Evolve IT in which he reflected on anything.

It was only in the six months after finishing up that time was afforded to sit down and look back – essentially coming back down to earth following 30 years of entrepreneurial orbiting.

“Honestly, I felt like I slept for the first two months,” recalled Moran, outlining the days and weeks after exiting stage left. “It was just 30 years draining out of me. It’s hard to explain because you go from being non-stop mentally drained to suddenly turning everything off overnight.”

Those daily thoughts of keeping the business afloat, keeping everyone employed and keeping up appearances.

“Leaving is a relief and a curse at the same time,” he said. “It probably took about 6-9 months, even a year, to switch off.

“For a period of time you wake up and walk around in circles – it’s a very weird scenario not having anything to worry about. That was the reality of running an MSP, it was all-consuming at times.”

The trouble with too many tools

In January 2024, Moran was appointed as Evangelism Director across Asia Pacific at ConnectWise, tasked with playing a “pivotal role” in driving regional growth and engagement with ecosystem partners.

Moran was recruited by Jason Magee – CEO of ConnectWise – and holds responsibility for actively engaging MSPs in peer-to-peer collaboration while also advocating for market-leading technologies and programs to drive future growth.

“Having been appointed personally by Jason, and spending many years working closely with his team, I wanted to be part of executing their vision and changing the game once again for MSPs globally,” Moran said. “It’s an exciting time for ConnectWise.”

Moran’s legacy goes beyond simply founding and selling solutions, it lies in the wealth of tradesmanship and wisdom he has acquired as a purpose builder at every stage, from start-ups to achieving balance, and creating value.

“Part of the challenge facing MSPs today is that most are over-tooled and therefore inefficient in how they show up in market,” Moran highlighted.

“Most solve a problem by putting in another tool and before long, 20-25 products are running in the business with data everywhere. It then becomes difficult to create a data or workflow layer to receive the required information to become efficient.”

Equating the approach to MSP whack-a-mole, Moran advised businesses to “take a step back” and instead embark on a strategic self-assessment to reduce the number of solutions and systems running internally.

Granted, that takes significant planning but to transition out of such a complex environment, MSPs must be ready to go deep with a specific platform.

“Stop looking at tools individually,” Moran cautioned. “Everyone’s running different races with multiple contractual obligations and disparate systems – nothing talks to each other and instead of improving your business, you’re complicating it. It becomes worse the bigger you get and is even harder to unwind.”

Referencing the ConnectWise Asio Platform, Moran advocated the benefits of MSPs embracing one IT management software offering to maximise a consolidated set of solutions, capturing the potential of hyper automation in the process.

“Minimise your toolsets and go deep instead,” he claimed. “Previously, MSPs were very focused on the capability of a particular tool, whereas now is about selecting the right platform.

“Tools are table stakes to a degree and the focus should be on the data layer to understand how to build on top without creating complexities in the business.

“There’s a huge opportunity in the market for MSPs today but to capitalise and remain competitive, you have to run your business very efficiently – otherwise you’re not improving or growing.”

Moran also stressed the importance of MSPs attending the upcoming conference IT Nation Sydney on 21-23 August – “this is a very important event for Asia Pacific as a region. All I can say is that it will truly be a game-changer for MSPs.”