December marks a time of lists for many businesses and people (me included). It’s a time when we put together goals for the new year and assess our accomplishments and challenges of the past year. The VAR Guy already has a list of predictions for 2014 (and please feel free to click over there to add to it.) But is there anything specific to managed services providers (MSPs)?

I recently came across HTG peer group Arlin Sorensen’s list of things that keep him awake at night currently.  So now they will be keeping me awake at night, too.

(Don’t Read if You Already Can’t Sleep)

Here’s a partial look at the big things on Sorensen’s list:

Sorensen’s millennial workforce transition concern focuses on selling to the millennial customer. They buy differently, he writes. And so MSPs will have to re-evaluate how they sell.  

Cash Flow in the Cloud

Adapting to cash flow shifts in the new cloud world is another one of the concerns going forward, and Sorensen had this to say: “I believe this is one of the biggest threats to our industry around the cloud.  And unfortunately, far too few people are paying attention to the potential impact on businesses.  We have always been an industry where margin came up front and we lived on that until the next upgrade/refresh when we received margin again.  Those days will be fewer and farther between in the new world.”

Of course Sorensen recognizes the glass-half-full piece: “When there are challenges, there is also opportunity and I am confident that each of these areas not only provides a challenge, but an opportunity to differentiate from the masses.”

So what about you? What is keeping you up at night? Please let us know in the comment section below.