Your theme — turning challenges into predictable MSP opportunities — is similar to my blog entry about rising unemployment rates.

There are silver linings. And we’ll be careful not to press the panic button here at MSPmentor. As you point out, negative media talk slows financial decisions.

Still, there’s no denying the situations at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are cause for concern.

I am a banker by training, and I worked for the government’s RTC (Resolution Trust Corp.) from 1987 – 89 creating conservatorships for failing S&L’s who violated their charters and fiduciary responsibilities by aggressively pursuing business outside their core (the S&L Bailout). Sound familiar?

Twenty years later it is same song, second verse. History, unfortunately sometimes repeats itself. The message to us as the MSP eco-system is that 1) many of the community banks that provide credit to us, our clients and the industry not only fight their own challenges of their loan portfolios, but also are equity holders in Fannie and Freddie. It looks like the equity investors are going to be the biggest losers. 2) The negative media coverage of these events may have the same effect we (masterIT) saw in the first 4 months of the year surrounding recession talk that resulted in delayed decisions regarding our solutions.

We as an industry have the opportunity to take these events and the uncertainty of the economy as an endorsement of the value MSP’s provide – predictable, scalable IT costs that are operating expenses rather than capital expenses whether our clients grow or shrink. What a hedge!