#123 - MSP Owner Pay: Stop Paying Yourself Like an Employee | FROM THE TRENCHES

In this episode of From The Trenches, Josh Peterson sits down with Raffi Jamgotchian, founder and CEO of Triada Networks and Bering McKinley's very first peer team client back in 2013. Together they dig into MSP owner pay, the profit structure sitting underneath a comfortable paycheck, and what separates a business that is an asset from one that is a job. Josh makes the case that the predictable salary an owner draws every month is frequently the reason the company never becomes profitable. A million dollar MSP paying its owner $180,000 a year at three percent net profit does not have a margin problem so much as an owner who has been insulated from the margin. Raffi walks through ten flat years, the tools he bought and never implemented, and the peer group conversation that reframed every dollar leaving the bottom line as money out of his family's pocket. If you're an MSP owner, leader, or operator looking to grow, avoid common pitfalls, or learn from those who've done it before, this conversation is packed with practical insight. 🚀 Learn more about the BMK Vision Operating System: https://beringmckinley.com/vision 🎙 Want to join Josh on the show? Apply to be a guest: https://beringmckinley.com/blog#speak... ---------- 🔗 Connect with Our Guest & Host Raffi Jamgotchian:   / raffijamgotchian   Josh Peterson:   / joshdpeterson   ---------- 🎧 Topics We Cover Why a fixed owner salary quietly caps an MSP's net profit The exercise of cutting owner pay to $50K and taking the rest from profit Reframing discretionary spend as money out of your family's pocket Why low profit is a structure rather than a season you grow out of Building an asset versus building a job, and choosing on purpose Niching on domain knowledge instead of on a cluster of clients The end of the two-PSA era and what replaces it ---------- ⏱️ Chapters / Timestamps 00:00 - Cold open 00:31 - Intro 01:17 - Thirteen years of telling the origin story wrong 04:16 - Starting Triada in 2008 and finding the MSP community 10:08 - The gap the industry never filled for the small MSP 13:02 - The Naperville conversation that made Raffi angry 14:58 - Buying the thing does not make you do the thing 20:36 - Building an asset instead of a job 25:02 - Running unprofitably is no way to live either 26:29 - The $180,000 paycheck at three percent net profit 28:22 - Cut your pay to $50K and take the rest from profit 31:41 - The vendor job and the reboot that saved the company 38:36 - Two big PSAs, PE money, and the case against growing forever 51:27 - The tools MSPs build only for themselves 57:14 - How Triada ended up eighty percent investment firms 58:44 - Niche on domain knowledge, not on a cluster of clients 1:03:38 - Why he wrote Guarding the Vault ---------- 🎙️ Guest Bio - Raffi Jamgotchian Raffi Jamgotchian is the founder and CEO of Triada Networks, a managed services and cybersecurity firm in Norwood, New Jersey serving investment firms, alternative asset managers, and wealth advisors across the New York metro area. He incorporated the business in November 2008 after a career in technology roles at Invesco and its predecessors. Roughly eighty percent of Triada's clients come from the investment world, a niche he arrived at deliberately several years into the business. He is the author of Guarding the Vault, on cybersecurity for investment firms facing regulators, client security requirements, and real-world attacks, and he hosts the Cybersecurity Cafe podcast. 🌐 Website: https://triadanet.com 🔗 LinkedIn:   / raffijamgotchian   ---------- 🎧 Host Bio - Josh Peterson Josh Peterson is the CEO of Bering McKinley and host of The BMK Vision Podcast. Since 2004, Josh has worked with hundreds of MSP owners to build operationally sound, profitable businesses through consulting, peer teams, and direct coaching. 🚀 Learn more: https://beringmckinley.com/vision ---------- 🏷️ Hashtags #MSP #ManagedServices #MSPOwner #BMKVisionPodcast #BusinessGrowth