Amy Babinchak Got Burned Out, Got Fed Up, and Built Something Better

Amy Babinchak didn’t set out to build a business. She just couldn’t keep doing what she was doing. Burnout doesn’t always look like collapse. Sometimes it’s quiet, just the slow buildup of exhaustion, frustration, and the creeping realization that you’re spending all your time solving other people’s problems and none solving your own.

That’s where Amy found herself after years in IT roles that kept asking more without ever offering balance. She was flying across the country week after week, fixing failed projects, rescuing angry clients, and holding together systems that were never built to scale. She was great at it. But she was miserable. So she quit.

What she didn’t know at the time was that this moment, walking away, would be the beginning of a decades-long career running one of the most respected MSPs in the industry. Amy’s business didn’t start with funding or a five-year roadmap. It started with six side clients and a simple request: if I quit my job, will you sign a contract? They all said yes. From the beginning, Amy built differently. She didn’t want to manage people. She didn’t want to scale for the sake of growth. She wanted to help people, work with clients she respected, and stay close to the work that mattered. When it came time to hire, she looked for someone like her—driven, self-managing, values-aligned. That first hire stayed for 23 years.

Amy’s MSP weathered the 2008 recession without losing a single client. While many businesses laid off staff and froze vendor relationships, hers held strong. Why? Because she wasn’t just a vendor. She and her team had embedded themselves into their clients’ operations so thoroughly that cutting the MSP would have made less sense than cutting a department. That wasn’t luck. That was leadership built on consistency and care.

But Amy will be the first to tell you it wasn’t perfect. One of the hardest lessons she had to learn was when to walk away from the wrong clients, especially the big ones. The ones who took up too much oxygen, stressed her team, or made her second-guess her value. The turning point was realizing that keeping those clients wasn’t about serving them. It was about ego. She didn’t want the next MSP to come in and see the mess. Eventually, she let that go. And everything got lighter.

Over time, Amy’s focus expanded beyond her own business. She became a Microsoft MVP. She co-founded Third Tier to provide deeper support to other IT firms. And when the industry needed a push toward professionalism, she stepped up again and co-founded the National Society of IT Service Providers to help raise standards and give customers a way to tell who was truly qualified. She’s never been in it for the gadgets. She’s in it for the people. For the businesses that rely on good IT to function and for the professionals trying to do the right thing in an industry that doesn’t always make it easy.

Lessons from the Journey

• Burnout isn’t the end. Sometimes it’s the invitation to build something that actually fits.
• Your first hire matters. Choose someone who aligns with your values, not just your budget.
• A client who drains your team is more expensive than they look on paper.
• Letting go of ego is what makes real leadership possible.
• You don’t have to know everything. You just have to be willing to ask, listen, and learn.

Amy’s story isn’t about scaling fast or selling high. It’s about building something that actually works, for your clients, your team, and yourself. Burnout was her wake-up call. Her first hire was a leap of faith. Firing bad clients made space for better ones. Letting go of her ego helped her lead. And asking for help made her smarter. She didn’t build by the book. She built something better.

If you’re ready to build a business that works for you (not one that burns you out) Gozynta Consulting is here to help. Whether you need strategic direction, leadership coaching, or someone to challenge the way things have always been done, we’re the team behind the teams that grow. No fluff, no busywork, just real progress.