Cyberattacks hit one in three small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in 2024. Without abundant resources or dedicated security teams, SMBs are easy targets for cybercriminals. Budget constraints often keep enterprise-level security solutions out of reach for smaller organizations. Unfortunately, that forces them to rely on more fragmented, less effective tools.
Those tools are also time-consuming to manage. SMB IT teams spend an average of 4 hours and 43 minutes each day managing cybersecurity tools. That precious time could be spent driving innovation and business growth.
This challenge underscores the critical role of MSPs in closing security gaps and reducing operational strain for SMB clients. But to set your services apart in a crowded market, you must deliver clear value by streamlining security management and demonstrating measurable results.
Here are three key areas to focus on in 2025 and beyond.
1. Proactively Mitigate Risk
Limited resources and competing priorities make it hard for SMBs to recover from cyberattacks. That’s why you must prioritize proactive threat mitigation, which helps catch and neutralize threats before they disrupt clients’ operations.
Start by conducting a comprehensive risk assessment to identify threats that pose the greatest risk to your clients.
Dror Liwer
Then, implement targeted solutions that help them manage risk proactively, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect user accounts and email security tools to filter out phishing attempts.
Automated solutions like endpoint detection and response (EDR) also help identify and contain threats in real time, reducing the need for constant manual oversight.
Additionally, with two-thirds of CISOs agreeing that human error is their organization’s most significant cyber vulnerability, shoring up clients’ security knowledge can go a long way in mitigating risk. Work with clients to establish regular training sessions that teach employees how to recognize phishing emails, practice strong password hygiene, and report suspicious activity.
2. Simplify Security Management
Most SMBs lack dedicated cybersecurity teams, leaving IT staff to juggle both daily IT operations and cybersecurity tasks. The use of fragmented tools further complicates the situation, causing inefficiencies and gaps in security. For instance, if a firewall doesn’t integrate with an EDR solution, critical vulnerabilities can go unnoticed.
You can ease this burden by consolidating your clients’ tools into unified security solutions. For example, a centralized security platform lets you monitor and manage threats from a single dashboard. This eliminates the need to manually toggle between tools, reducing missed alerts and enabling faster response times.
By integrating critical capabilities — like endpoint security, email protection, and data loss prevention — into a single platform, you can help clients streamline management and improve visibility across their IT environments. Automating routine tasks like patch management and vulnerability scans further reduces manual workloads for your clients while ensuring updates happen on time.
3. Prove ROI with Quantifiable Results
For SMBs operating with limited budgets, demonstrating your value with tangible results is essential. For existing clients, track progress using metrics like vulnerability remediation rates, improvements in phishing test results, and time saved through automation.
Share insights regularly through concise reports or dashboards to clearly visualize improvements and ROI. These updates give clients confidence that their investment is paying off while solidifying your role as a trusted, results-driven partner.
When engaging with client prospects, highlight key metrics from past programs, such as reduced incident response times, percentage of threats proactively blocked, and downtime hours prevented through swift remediation.
SMBs Need Streamlined Support From Your Security Team
SMBs face mounting cybersecurity risks, but they don’t have to face them alone. To stand out and build long-term trust with your clients, focus on delivering proactive protection, simplifying security wherever possible, and providing transparency every step of the way.
Your clients need a partner who makes cybersecurity easier, smarter, and more effective. By delivering on these promises, you become a trusted extension of your client’s team — empowering them to navigate security challenges with confidence.
Dror Liwer is the co-founder of small business cybersecurity provider Coro.
