Make growth worth the effort.
We’ll look at what you charge, which customers make money and how you win more of the right work. If a busy service desk is hiding poor margins, we need to deal with that before adding more customers.
Strategic advisory for UK MSP owners
You’ve built
your MSP.
Let’s work on
what comes next.
You’ve worked hard to build your MSP. If growing it means more decisions, more escalations and longer days for you, something needs to change.
I help owners of IT managed service providers (MSPs) build a more profitable business that doesn’t need them involved in everything. We work through the difficult decisions together, with what you want from the business in mind.
Takes about 5 minutes. You can see your score without giving your email address.
Neil ShawFounder, MSP Clarity
In under eight years, I co-founded, built and exited an MSP.Now I work directly with owners who want more from theirs.
What we work on
Build the business
you want to own.
Growing turnover is only part of it. You need to know which customers are worth winning, who can make decisions without you, and whether all that effort is getting you closer to what you wanted when you started.
Give your team room to lead.
It’s hard to step back when every decision still needs your approval. We’ll work out what your managers should own, what they need from you, and where you need to let them get on with it.
Be ready for what you want next.
You might want to sell one day. You might simply want a proper holiday without checking in every morning. Either way, the business needs to work when you’re not there. We’ll build towards that while you still have time to choose.
A little about me
I know how much
you have in this.
When you’ve built the business yourself, being told to “just delegate” isn’t much help. You need to know the work will get done and your customers will be looked after.
Neil Shaw, founder of MSP Clarity
I’ve been the owner making those decisions. Co-founding, building and exiting an MSP taught me a lot, including things I’d do differently. I bring that experience to our conversations, while taking the time to understand how your business works.
I want you to get more out of the business you’ve put so much into. I’ll listen and take your concerns seriously. I’ll also be straight with you when I think something needs to change, including when a decision you’re holding onto needs to sit with someone else.
Alongside MSP Clarity, I chair the Customer Advisory Board at Overe, a Microsoft 365 security platform built for MSPs, and I serve as a school governor. Thirty years in the IT channel sit behind all of it.
I also work in MSP M&A, which gives me a current view of what buyers look for and where they ask harder questions. That’s useful perspective even if selling is years away.
In their own words
“Working with Neil has been the best investment I’ve made in my MSP. I’d grown the business to a certain point but felt stuck on how to scale effectively. From refining pricing and contracts to recommending the right technical tools, his support has helped me make smarter, more confident decisions. Running a business solo can be isolating — his guidance has given me real clarity and confidence to navigate what comes next.”
“Neil has been a valuable part of our journey at CNS. What I appreciate most is that he doesn’t deal in theory, he brings practical advice based on real MSP experience and delivers it in a way that’s easy to apply.
Running an MSP can sometimes feel quite lonely, and having someone who understands the challenges, opportunities, and pressures of the industry has been incredibly helpful. Neil asks the right questions, challenges assumptions when needed, and provides honest advice that is always focused on helping the business improve.
Beyond the business side, Neil is simply a good person to work with. He’s responsive, supportive, and genuinely invested in the success of his clients.
I’d happily recommend Neil and MSP Clarity to any MSP owner who wants practical guidance, accountability, and support from someone who truly understands the industry.”
“As an MSP, we’re driven by one goal - making sure our clients succeed. To do that well, we have to be sure we’re getting everything right ourselves. That’s why we engaged MSP Clarity to audit our business, identify any gaps, and help us close them.
I’m cautious about taking advice from people who talk the talk but haven’t walked the walk. Neil has. He’s been there and done it, and it shows. He’s knowledgeable, experienced, and his efficient, no-nonsense approach suited us perfectly.
I’d wholeheartedly recommend Neil to any MSP serious about strengthening its foundations.”
1 / 3
Already thinking about what a sale would look like? That’s a different conversation →
Try the scorecard
How much of your MSP
still comes back
to you?
What would happen if you took four weeks off? These 20 questions help you look honestly at where the business still needs you. You’ll get a score and some practical suggestions about what to work on first.
Scorecard responses are confidential to MSP Clarity and are not shared with an acquirer.
What the scorecard looks at
- Owner independence 01
- Management depth 02
- Commercial control 03
- Operational maturity 04
- Exit readiness 05
Working together
We’ll talk it through.
Then do something
about it.
You work with me directly. We’ll have room to think things through properly, and the point is to leave every conversation further forward than where we started. I’ll ask what happened with the things we agreed, and we’ll tackle what got in the way.
Tell me what’s going on.
What’s going well? What keeps landing on your desk? What have you been putting off? You don’t need a polished presentation. I need to understand the business as it is.
Agree what happens next.
We’ll agree a few things worth doing first, who’s responsible and what a good result looks like. You should leave knowing what to do next, rather than carrying a longer list of worries.
Make sure it happens.
Day-to-day work has a habit of taking over. We’ll come back to what we agreed, check what’s moved and deal with what’s stuck. If something isn’t working, we’ll say so and adjust.
Case study
Three months.
A different set of numbers.
An £875,000-turnover MSP working mainly with manufacturing clients in the South West came into a three-month engagement carrying pricing that hadn’t moved with the market, and proposals that weren’t landing the way they should have been.
What we worked through
We looked at supplier terms, renegotiated where the numbers no longer made sense, and brought client contracts up to reflect current pricing rather than what had been agreed years earlier. Alongside that, we reviewed how proposals were being put together and where they were losing ground to competitors.
What changed
- £3,000 a month added to the bottom line through supplier renegotiation and contract repricing.
- £15,000 a month in new contracts secured, across two new customers.
- Prospects specifically noted the proposal stood out against competing bids, the clearest sign the changes were working, not just internally tidier numbers.
Ways of working together
Three ways in.
Pick the one that fits.
Every engagement starts with a conversation, and most owners know which of these they need before we’ve finished it. If you don’t, that’s fine too.
Ongoing, one-to-one.
A standing monthly relationship: regular sessions, access between them, and someone who knows the business well enough to be direct. I keep this portfolio deliberately small. From £1,000 per month, with a three-month minimum. Most run considerably longer.
One piece, properly done.
Pricing and contract reviews, proposal audits, an exit-readiness assessment. Scoped and priced up front, delivered as a piece of work you can act on rather than a deck you file away.
Deal by deal.
For owners selling and owners buying. Fees depend on the deal: a retainer, a success fee or a combination, agreed before anything starts. More on buying and selling MSPs.
This suits owner-led MSPs turning over roughly £500,000 to £5 million, in the UK or overseas. Outside that range, get in touch anyway. Turnover isn’t really the qualifier.
From MSP owners I've worked with
Names withheld at their request.
"Neil opened my eyes to our numbers. We released profit without winning a single new client. He helped me understand how marginal gains compound — the effect was bigger than I expected."
"Day to day I was stuck in the weeds or firefighting, and it was taking its toll on me and the team. Neil worked with all of us to overcome the operational shortfalls. Twelve months later, we're happier, more profitable and have a plan for the future."
"I wanted to sell and thought my business was worth much more than it was. Neil showed me how my involvement was hurting the valuation. He worked with me and the team to make me genuinely redundant, which increased it considerably."
Questions owners ask first
The things you’d want
to know before calling.
Straight answers to the questions that usually come up early. If yours isn’t here, ask it anyway.
How is this different from a business coach?
Most coaches haven’t run an MSP. I co-founded one, helped build it and exited within eight years, so when we talk about margin, technician utilisation, or why a customer keeps escalating past your service desk, I’m working from having made those calls myself, not from a framework.
What does this cost?
This starts at £1,000 a month, up to bespoke engagements for larger or longer-term work. We’ll talk about what you need before either of us talks about price.
How much time does this actually take?
Less than most owners expect, and more than they’d like. Sessions are focused rather than frequent. The real time cost is the follow-through in between, which is the part most engagements like this skip.
Is what we talk about confidential?
Yes. What you share stays between us. If that ever needs to change, for example bringing in another adviser, we’d agree that first.
What if I’m not ready to make big changes yet?
Then we start smaller. Most owners who work with me aren’t in crisis. They’ve just noticed the business needs them more than it should, and want to do something about it before it becomes a bigger problem.
Let’s talk
You don’t have to have
it all worked out.
If something here sounds familiar, tell me a bit about your MSP and what you’d like to change. We’ll have a conversation and see whether I’m the right person to help.
Your message comes to me. What you share stays confidential. Prefer email? Write to info@mspclarity.co.uk.
The MSP Owner’s Note
Not ready to talk?
Read along instead.
An occasional note on running, growing and eventually selling an MSP. The things I find myself saying to owners more than once. No fixed schedule, no sales sequence, unsubscribe whenever you like.
Your address goes straight to me and nowhere else.