Selling Your MSP: The Stuff Nobody Tells You
I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Not because I'm selling anything. But because I keep having conversations with MSP owners who either just sold, are about to sell, or are quietly wondering if they should.
Every single one of those conversations has the same pattern. They start with numbers and end with something way heavier.
So this is me writing down what I've learned from those conversations. For the guys who already sold and are wondering why they feel weird about it. And for the guys thinking about it who want to know what's actually coming.
The Numbers (Because Everyone Asks)
Let's get this out of the way first.
The median multiple right now is around 8.8x EBITDA. That's down from the peak of 13.6x back in 2023. The market cooled off.
But here's what the conference speakers don't tell you. That 8.8x? That's for bigger shops. If you're under $5 million, you're probably looking at 5x. Maybe less.
Do the math on your own business. Take your EBITDA, multiply by 5, subtract broker fees and taxes. That's closer to your real number than whatever you've been imagining.
I've watched owners do this math for the first time and go quiet. The number in their head was twice what the market will actually pay. That gap between expectation and reality kills more deals than anything else.
Why People Actually Sell
It's rarely what they say publicly.
The official story is usually something about "the right opportunity" or "taking some chips off the table." The real story is almost always one of these:
Burnout. Twenty years of 2 AM alerts. Clients who treat you like their employee. Staff turnover that puts you back in the technician seat. At some point you just want it to stop.
The writing on the wall. PE has rolled up hundreds of MSPs. You're competing against well-funded consolidators with marketing budgets you can't touch. The question shifts from "should I sell" to "can I even compete anymore."
Life stuff. Health scares. Divorce. Kids need college money. Spouse who's been waiting too long.
Actually ready. A smaller group. They built real management depth, optimized operations, and recognize a good window. They're playing chess while everyone else is reacting.
Most sellers are in the first three buckets. If you're honest with yourself about which one you're in, you'll make better decisions.
What Buyers Actually Care About
Forget what they say in the LOI. Here's what moves the needle:
Recurring revenue. They want 70% or more locked into managed services. Project-heavy shops get discounted 15-30%. Not a little. A lot.
Customer concentration. If your biggest client is more than 20-25% of revenue, you built a liability. Lose that client post-acquisition and the buyer just overpaid. They know this. They'll price it in.
Can this run without you? If the answer is no, you're not selling a business. You're selling a job. And jobs don't command multiples.
Clean books. They're going to look at everything. Personal expenses run through the business, weird revenue recognition, missing contracts. This stuff doesn't just lower your number. It can kill the deal entirely.
I've seen owners lose hundreds of thousands because their books were messy. Not because they were hiding anything. Just because they never cleaned things up.
The Mistakes I Keep Seeing
Going it alone. Some owners think they'll save the broker fee by handling it themselves. This almost never works. Buyers bring teams of advisors, attorneys, analysts. You bring your accountant who's great at taxes but has never run an M&A process. You're outgunned. And you don't know what you don't know.
Starting too late. Prepping an MSP for sale takes 1-3 years of intentional work. Cleaning financials, building management depth, diversifying the client base, documenting processes. Starting that work six months before you want out? You'll pay for it in the final number. Guaranteed.
The blood, sweat, and tears premium. Owners count their sacrifices as part of the valuation. The missed vacations. The weekends at the office. The stress. Buyers don't care about any of that. They care about future cash flows. Your emotional investment has zero value to them because it's already reflected in how the business performs today. This one stings. But it's true.
The Employee Question
This keeps more owners up at night than the valuation itself.
The honest answer: it depends entirely on the buyer.
Strategic buyers often want your team. They're buying capacity and relationships. Key people become retention targets with stay bonuses.
PE varies wildly. Some maintain operations. Others pursue aggressive cost reduction. Staff cuts follow.
Roll-ups consolidate. Redundant roles get eliminated. Your office manager, your dispatcher, your junior techs. They might not have seats.
You can negotiate protections. Employment guarantees. Severance packages. Transition periods. But you need to fight for these terms. They won't be offered.
Here's the uncomfortable part. If you've treated your team like family for 15 years, watching a new owner make decisions you wouldn't make is painful. Some sellers stay involved through earn-out periods and regret every day of it.
The Part Nobody Talks About
This is the real reason I'm writing this.
A Columbia Business School study looked at 22 entrepreneurs who sold their companies. Every single one experienced significant emotional difficulty after the sale.
Not some. All of them.
For a lot of MSP owners, the business isn't just a company. It's an identity. It's what you talk about at dinner parties. It's how your neighbors know you. It's the thing you've built your entire adult life around. Then it's gone.
Researchers call it "founder depression." Not clinical depression in every case. But a profound sense of loss and disorientation. You wake up without purpose. The inbox that used to overwhelm you now sits empty. And somehow that's worse.
The Minecraft founder tweeted about feeling deeply isolated after his $2.5 billion exit. Billion with a B. Still felt lost.
Studies show entrepreneurs are twice as likely as the general population to experience depression. The exit amplifies everything.
And here's the loneliest part. Society expects you to be happy. You got the exit. You have the money. Complaining feels ungrateful. So you don't. The silence makes everything worse.
Family and Friends Get Weird
I've heard this enough times that it needs its own section.
After the sale, some relationships change. Jealousy surfaces in long friendships. Relatives suddenly have investment opportunities. The dynamic with your spouse shifts when you're no longer the provider grinding through 60-hour weeks.
Some owners tell me their peers stop calling. Nobody wants to hear about your problems when you just got a check.
Others say their spouse doesn't know how to relate to them anymore. The identity of "MSP owner working 70 hours a week" was part of the marriage. Now that's gone.
This stuff blindsides people. They're ready for the business challenges. They're not ready for their inner circle to act differently.
What Actually Helps
If you've already sold and you're reading this feeling seen, here's what I've heard works:
Give yourself permission to feel weird about it. The expectation that you should be happy is the problem. You're allowed to grieve something even if it was your choice to let it go.
Talk to other people who've done it. Not people who want to sell. People who have sold. They're the only ones who get it. Exit communities exist for a reason.
Therapy isn't weakness. A lot of sellers quietly see someone. The identity transition requires processing. Figuring it out alone usually extends the struggle.
Find something to do. Not immediately. But eventually. The sellers who thrive find new sources of meaning. Mentoring, advising, building something new. The ones who struggle are the ones who thought they'd be happy doing nothing.
If You're Thinking About Selling
Read everything above twice. Then ask yourself:
Why do you actually want to sell? Be honest. If it's burnout, maybe fixing your operations is cheaper than an exit. If it's the market, maybe you're right. If it's life stuff, that's valid too. Just know which bucket you're in.
Is your business actually ready? Clean books. Management depth. Diversified clients. Documented processes. If you're missing these, you're either selling at a discount or you need 1-2 years of prep work first.
What comes after? Not the financial plan. The life plan. What are you going to do? Who are you going to be? If you don't have answers, the exit will force you to find them. And that's a harder way to do it.
Are you emotionally prepared to let go? Not logically. Emotionally. Can you watch someone else make decisions you wouldn't make? Can you handle the weird identity vacuum?
The best exits happen when you don't have to sell. When you have options. When you can negotiate from strength instead of desperation. If you're not there yet, maybe the move is getting there before you start the process.
Final Thought
Selling an MSP is complicated. The money part is actually the simplest piece. The human part is where it gets hard.
If you already sold and you're feeling things you didn't expect, you're not alone. Every owner I've talked to felt some version of it. The fact that nobody talks about it publicly doesn't mean it's not happening.
If you're thinking about selling, go in with eyes open. Understand the numbers. Prepare for the emotional stuff. Have a plan for after.
Good luck.