The model's US owner-salary example is $240,000 a year before personal taxes. That's a planning reference for the existing owner's work, not a buyer's compensation offer. If you're staying on after selling business assets or shares, price the new job separately from the proceeds of the sale.
I'd agree the role, reporting line, decision authority, compensation, and handover before closing. A promise to help with the transition doesn't tell you which work stops being yours. Nor does a familiar job title tell your team whose approval they need.
Compare the New Job With the Work You Want
Write the work you intend to do after the sale. Distinguish managing the MSP, introducing clients, transferring technical knowledge, and answering occasional questions. If the buyer wants several of those, ask how the time and priorities will fit together.
I'd compare the proposed role across buyers, alongside the price. An attractive transaction can still leave you with a job you don't want.
Amy Babinchak says she deliberately made her MSP operate without her because she didn't want to stay after a sale. That's her transition choice, not a rule that staying is a mistake. Use your own desired working life to decide which role you're willing to negotiate.
The model favors a business that doesn't rely on the owner. Even if you choose to stay, identify the work another person must learn. A transition that leaves every client and technical decision waiting for you hasn't completed that handover.
Keep Salary Separate From Sale Proceeds
Salary is payment for the work you perform in the role. Sale proceeds are the amounts paid for the transaction under its terms. Keep the proposed streams separate when comparing what you receive and what you must do to receive it.
For the model's annual salary reference, calculate the monthly amount by dividing $240,000 by 12. If a buyer offers different pay or a different commitment, replace that input with the actual offer. Don't carry the model's owner salary into a reduced transition job as though it were an agreed market rate.
The calculation for proposed base pay is the agreed periodic pay multiplied by the periods covered, subject to the actual employment or consulting terms. List benefits, expenses, and any conditional compensation separately. Have your advisers check how each stream interacts with the deal rather than adding every headline amount together as guaranteed cash.
An earn-out is a conditional part of the purchase price determined under the sale terms. Keep its calculation distinct from the job's performance review. Ask your transaction advisers to explain any connection between continued work, a change in duties, and the amounts payable.
A job title doesn't sign the paycheck. Name the entity that engages you, the person who reviews the work, and the process for resolving a pay or scope question. Put that beside the proposed role rather than assuming the buyer's deal lead will remain your manager.
Give the Role Actual Decision Boundaries
Ask the buyer to explain what you can decide and what requires approval. Use representative MSP work to check the answer. A statement that you still run the business is too vague to settle a hiring request or a change to a client agreement.
| Decision | What to Agree | What the Team Needs to Know |
|---|---|---|
| Client pricing and scope | Who approves renewals, exceptions, and changes to the promised service. | Where an account owner sends a commercial decision. |
| People and capacity | Who approves hiring, role changes, and the allocation of existing staff. | Whose direction determines priorities when work competes. |
| Purchasing and tools | Who approves spending, vendor commitments, and changes to the standard stack. | Which approval is needed before ordering or changing a supported system. |
| Service incidents | Who coordinates recovery and which business decisions need buyer approval. | The current lead, escalation route, and available cover. |
| Client relationships | Which introductions and relationship work remain with you and who takes them over. | The named account contact and the point at which ownership changes. |
Check the document against the buyer's actual operating process. If a decision needs a central team, identify the person and the information they require. Record how an unresolved approval is escalated rather than promising clients that your old authority still applies.
Use the reporting line when you disagree. Explain the service, cost, or client consequence and ask for the decision. Don't create a second instruction route through employees who still see you as the owner.
Agree the Tools You Need for the Work
List the systems and information the role requires. That may include the PSA, client records, reporting, vendor contacts, or the current operating budget. Ask which access will continue, which will change, and who can resolve a missing permission.
Separate access needed for the new role from permissions you held because you owned the business. Have the buyer's responsible team approve the arrangement. An account that still works on the first day doesn't establish that its access has been reviewed.
If tools are moving, record which work you must perform in the old system and which belongs in the new one. Assign the migration and its support to someone capable of owning it. A seller employed for client introductions shouldn't silently become the technical migration team as well.
Make the Handover an Observable Job
Describe the transfer in outputs the buyer can check. A useful handover identifies the knowledge, the receiving person, and what that person must be able to do. Meetings held and documents uploaded are activities; verify that they support the work being transferred.
- For a client introduction, identify the receiving account owner and the relationship information they need to carry the next conversation.
- For a technical process, identify the responsible colleague and use an approved walkthrough to check that the instructions can be followed.
- For a vendor relationship, record the authorized contact, current commitments, and unanswered decisions.
- For an approval you previously held, record the new decision owner and confirm the team knows the route.
Track the remaining work in a shared handover record. Name what is complete, what the receiving person has checked, and what still needs your input. Set review points around the actual transfer instead of treating the end of an arbitrary calendar period as evidence that independence has arrived.
Discuss Changes and the End of the Role
Ask what happens if the buyer wants different duties, needs less of your time, or proposes an extension. Also ask how either side raises a disagreement and how the handover will finish. Have your legal and tax advisers review those arrangements with the sale and any conditional-payment terms.
Keep operational questions concrete while that review happens. If you're leaving the role, who receives unanswered client matters, open approvals, and work that still depends on your knowledge? A departure date needs a receiving owner for those items.
Before agreeing to stay, ask the buyer for the proposed job and reporting line beside the compensation terms. Walk a client exception and a hiring decision through that arrangement. If nobody can identify who decides, finish defining the role before treating the post-sale work as agreed.
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Written by Graham Whitfield
MSP Outpost publishes information, not legal, financial, insurance, tax or compliance advice, and reading it creates no professional relationship. For decisions about your business, talk to a qualified professional.