Market & Grow Your Businesses

There are fundamentally two ways to grow a business: organically and through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), each with its own set of risks and rewards. We have adopted both approaches.

Organic

Up and cross selling – white space (Insurance companies excel at this due to their data-driven strategies). However, it is a gradual process that requires significant investment in sales, marketing, and lead generation. It is essential to consider how these factors align with your business or exit plan and the desired exit valuation. Cleansing and maintaining data, building target lists, creating content, organizing events, and developing systems are all costly endeavours, so closely monitoring ROI is crucial.

Partners offer an effective means to reach target markets. Establishing partnerships can be straightforward, but the key lies in driving mutual value. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) can collaborate with technology companies, distributors, other MSPs, consultants, advisors, lawyers, and accountants, among others. These partnerships require management, education, and regular engagement to maintain mind share, which again incurs time and financial costs.

M&A (typically only pursued for two reasons)

• Market Share (Geographic or Vertical)
• Resources (Cash, Technology / IP or Human Capital)

M&A can be risky without thorough due diligence, appropriate pricing, and strategic integration into the business. Key considerations include funding the deal, determining the timing and structure of payments, and assessing the cultural fit of the acquired entities’ personnel and customer bases. Cultural compatibility is arguably one of the most critical factors to consider.

In a previous venture, we successfully exited by selling to a large insurance company for over £150 million, following three strategic acquisitions over three years, focusing on complementary products, services, or geographic expansion.

In the current MSP I am involved with, we have completed five transactions in the past five years, including three in the last 18 months which has resulted in +860% growth

Embrace change—hesitation hinders progress. As with the analogy of eating a frog, the more you dwell on it, the harder it becomes to eat it. The same principle applies to embracing change.

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