Free game · about 6 minutes · your logo on a demo company
Profit simulation game for IT services firms and MSPs
The Profit Game is a free simulation of the decisions behind a year of profit at a managed service provider or an IT services firm. Type your work email and the game reads your company's public website, then runs four quarters under your name, logo and color.
Play The Profit Game as your company Free · about 6 min · work email required · your name and logo on a demo company
- 4board meetings, one per quarter
- ×2the profit of the quarter before, each time
- 100futures played before each decision
- ≈ 6 minin Boardroom mode, free
On this page
What decides an MSP's profit in a year?
Recurring revenue makes an MSP look predictable. The margin still turns on what each contract includes, how many hours your engineers really spend per client and how much rests on a few accounts.
What a client pays against what it uses
Per-user or per-device pricing hides the real question: what a client pays against the engineer hours it consumes. The game makes you set the price of new contracts and shows what a higher price costs in deals lost, with buyers’ price sensitivity hidden at the start.
Tickets, projects and onboarding share one team
Tickets, projects and onboarding all draw on the same engineers. Sell more contracts than the team can serve and response times slip; the game counts every week over capacity and raises churn when clients feel it.
Senior engineer, junior tech or offshore?
A senior engineer is productive fast and costs the most, a junior helpdesk technician needs months of supervision, and an offshore team covers hours at night. The game reveals each hire's real speed only after the ramp.
Triage, first responses, documentation
Ticket triage, first responses, documentation, patch reports and scripted fixes are where agents already carry hours. The hours they really deliver depend on how clean your processes are, which is exactly what the game keeps hidden.
The account that pays for two engineers
One large account often pays for an engineer or two. When it asks for 20% off at renewal, the game makes you weigh the certain discount against the odds it moves to a competitor or takes IT in house.
How do the game’s levers map to an MSP?
The game simulates a small retainer firm. Every lever above has a setting in it, plus scope, overhead and cash; the table shows its numbers and where to read each one in your own company.
See the demo firm’s numbers, lever by lever
The demo book is a six-person firm on monthly contracts worth $68,000 a month: read it as managed services agreements, with fewer and larger clients than most MSPs. At each board meeting you set contract price and scope, hiring, AI agents and the answer to your largest client's discount request, after the twin plays 100 futures of each option.
In the game every fee earner is called a consultant. Every number under “In the game's model” belongs to its model, not to a benchmark; “In an MSP or IT services firm” is where to read each lever in your own year.
| Lever | In the game's model | In an MSP or IT services firm |
|---|---|---|
| Retainer price | A standard retainer sells at $12,000 a month; your six current ones run from $9,000 to $14,000, $68,000 in all. New retainers at $9,000, $12,000, $15,000 or $18,000. Buyers' price sensitivity is hidden and learned from the proposals you win and lose. Existing clients keep their fee. | Monthly contract per client, per user or per device. |
| Scope | Lite 16 h, standard 24 h or premium 32 h of consultant time a week per client. A wider scope is worth more and churns less: 4.5%, 3.5% and 2.8% a month. | Service hours, response times, projects and onsite visits included. |
| Capacity | Five consultants at 34 h a week plus you. Every week over capacity raises the odds that clients leave. | Engineer and helpdesk hours, on-call rota. |
| Hiring | Senior at $13,000 a month, 4-week ramp; junior at $6,500, 10-week ramp; contractor at $4,500, 6-week ramp. Real speed shows after the ramp. | Senior engineer, junior technician, offshore team or contractor. |
| AI agents | Pilot: about 24 h a week for $2,500 a month. Full rollout: about 60 h for $7,500. Ramp of 6 to 8 weeks; the share of promised hours really delivered is hidden, from 35% to 110% depending on the world. | Ticket triage, first responses, documentation, reporting, scripted fixes. |
| Client concentration | Largest client at $14,000 a month, a fifth of retainers, asks 20% off at renewal. A refusal loses it in half the worlds, a 10% counter-offer in a quarter of them. | Your largest accounts and the vendor or distributor that sends leads. |
| Overhead | $16,000 a month. Trim it by $2,500 (about 15%) and the team works 3% slower; cut $5,000 (about 30%) and it works 15% slower. | Tool stack per endpoint (RMM, PSA, security), licences, vans and office. |
| Cash | Invoices paid 30 to 60 days after they are sent; the bank starts at $45,000. | Monthly invoicing in advance against projects billed on completion. |
Can your company double its profit next quarter? Check the arithmetic
Before you play, put your own numbers in. This runs in your browser and nothing is sent. The prefilled values are examples, not benchmarks: replace them with yours.
What will you learn in four quarters?
One board meeting per quarter, one module per meeting. The season takes about 6 minutes in Boardroom mode and about 20 in the MBA season, which adds a graded case per quarter.
- Q1, pricing: whether a higher contract price with a clear scope beats cheap contracts that eat engineer hours.
- Q2, capacity: senior, junior, offshore or agents for the extra hours, and whether to match a rival's offer to your best engineer.
- Q3, growth: your largest account's renewal discount, and whether outreach or a vendor partner fills the pipeline.
- Q4, strategy: the pricing and team you present at year end, and how much of the business still depends on the founder.
Questions MSP owners ask about the game
Is there a business simulation game for MSP owners?
Yes. The Profit Game is a free four-quarter simulation of a small firm on monthly contracts, with the decisions an MSP owner faces: contract price, scope, engineer capacity, hiring, AI agents and a dominant account. It takes about 6 minutes.
Does the game model tickets and SLAs?
Not one by one. The game models hours: each contract takes a number of engineer hours a week, and weeks over capacity raise the odds that a client leaves, which is how missed SLAs show up in a year of profit. A twin of your own company would read your PSA data for the real figures.
Can I play as my own MSP?
Yes, under its own name. Type your work email and the game reads your company's public website for its name, logo and main color. The game never connects to your systems. If you add your monthly recurring revenue, the money on screen scales to your size; the engine still plays the demo firm.
How can an MSP double its profit?
By price and efficiency before headcount: contracts priced on the hours they consume, tickets that agents or automation close, and new clients only within the engineering hours you have. The calculator on this page shows the arithmetic, the game shows the odds.
The game for other professions
How the game works, its modes and its rules: The Profit Game.
Then play your own company.
The game plays a demo firm. A digital twin of your own company runs the same engine on your CRM, time and invoice data, so the buyers, pipeline and capacity it plays are yours. Before it advises anything, it replays your last 12 months and shows you which figures land inside its error bands and which do not yet.
Play The Profit Game Book a scoping call
A twin of your own company, built on your CRM, time and invoice data: from $55,555; your exact scope is set on a call. Want to try your own numbers in a flow model now? Twin Lite runs them in your browser.
- Play the game: four quarters, 100 futures per decision.
- Book 30 minutes: we pick the one decision your twin should answer first.
- Get your twin: same engine, your data, and a replay of your last 12 months you read before any scenario.