Karl's SMB Email August 1st

Nothing Happens by Itself

Good News: No SMS Messaging!

Greetings!

Welcome to August. Somehow, this month represents the beginning of the end of the year to many people. To me, it's the beginning of the busy season.

For example, I'm flying much of the day today, headed to ChannelCon. More on that trip in a second.

-- -- --

I love Constant Contact, the company that pushes these newsletters to your inbox. We are now consistently at 33% open rate.

Just for the record, that's a great number. The industry average is about 25%.

Unbeknownst to you, I've done you a favor. Constant Contact is rolling out a new service: Sending messages via SMS directly to your phone. I have opted out of this! The reason is pretty simple: I hate uninvited text messages, and I suspect you do, too.

Also, I don't want people throwing things at me at conferences.

This is not a temporary decision. Even if you tell me you WANT text messages from me, I won't do it. I want this new service to fail miserably and be dropped. I would like at least one annoying marketing service to fail.

That also means you have to do your part: Don't respond to text message marketing!

Join Richard and me in the UK:

Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Manchester!

My friend Richard Tubb has set up a page so you can let us know if you're going to be at one of our UK events. Please browse to

https://zd1dvnpz.paperform.co/

We're calling this "Not a Roadshow" because we're not planning any formal presentations. We're going to gather folks for dinner, drinks, and networking in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Manchester.

AND our friends at Linode are going to help with food and drinks. :-)

Basic Info:

Saturday, August 6th in Edinburgh

Tuesday, August 9th in Glasgow

Thursday, August 11th in Manchester

Connect if you're interested in catching up with us.

:-)

Migration Update

Well, we're finally finished with the big migration.

We now a configuration we hope will last for many years to come. It includes a total of four dedicated servers. All servers are at Cloudways running Linode servers. Note: This decision is not in any way connected with the fact that Linode is also a sometime guest or sponsor of podcasts. I'm receiving no discounts. But having learned about their services, they're the one I picked.

We have a total of four servers, each dedicated to a specific group of domains. Each server is over-powered for it's job and cruises along using about two percent of CPU capacity.

As of last Thursday, all systems are in their "final resting place," and running smoothly.

You might not notice any difference, but our life is going to be a lot less stressful in August.

And if we're really lucky, this setup will last five to ten years!

NSITSP Elections Coming Soon

to run for office!

NSITSP Elections will be held in September. But August is the month to declare yourself a candidate.

Beginning immediately, all paid members can file to run for office. "Offices" include the Board of Directors and all committees (Finance, Governance, Legislative, and Marketing).

Go to the Meetings link at nsitsp.org to watch the Election Kick-Off meeting with an overview of timeline, etc.

You can file for office NOW. But also register for the next big all-member meeting on August 10th. Obviously, the elections will be a big topic.

Way at the top I mentioned this week's travel. I'm taking the long way to Chicago today. I am hoping that all the airlines have figured their stuff out enough to get me to Chicago on Monday.

Tuesday will be SUPER business. I'm teaching an online class from my room, participating in the big Advancing Tech Talent and Diversity EC meeting, plus the all-new Community Challenge. And then there's a vendor hall.

Then I collapse exhausted.

Wednesday, it's all ChannelCon meetings, except one podcast recording and more vendor hall.

Thankfully, crew members Kara and Jenn will be joining me in Chicago. So, we'll do some personal catching up and present a united Small Biz Thoughts front at ChannelCon.

Thursday, I fly off to JFK so I can change planes and head off to Edinburgh, Scotland for the big non-roadshow with Richard Tubb and company.

Join us at ChannelCon

If you're headed to Chicago, please join me and my fellow coaches for a great event.

Check the schedule. We're live at 10:30 AM Tuesday in the Missouri room, Level 2.

Coaches include

Amy Babinchak
Chip Reaves
Dave Seibert
James Kernan and
Manuel Palachuk

If you're not yet registered - Register NOW for free on Small Biz Thoughts. Click here: https://i.snoball.it/p/I9xl/t to register.

Then use the code CC22SmallBiz to register free.

-- -- --

Thanks for reading. Follow us on Facebook for updates from Chicago and the UK!

Have a great week.

- Karl P.

:-)

Starts August 9th:

Create a Great Lead Generation Program

Create a Great Lead Generation Program

You’re guaranteed to learn something that will make or save you the price of admission!

Taught By: James Kernan, Author and sales coach

- Five Tuesdays - August 9th - September 6th

- All classes start a 9:00 AM Pacific

Learn the industry’s best practices on the overall sales process from Prospecting, Qualifying, Needs Analysis and Assessments, Connecting your value proposition to the customers issues. Tips to get through the Sales Process faster and Closing the Deal!

The MSP Lead Generation and Appointment setting course will include five live training sessions delivered in 60-minute classes. Designed for technology business owners, sales managers, and sales professionals, this training program covers industry best practices for selling contractual monthly recurring revenue and finding new accounts.

All five sessions will be recorded LIVE and delivered with a PDF workbook and related template exercises.

You will learn:

How to create your sales playbook
Appointment setting 101
How to run the first and second prospect meeting
How to make customers for life – secrets to valuable QBR’s
How to create and present fantastic proposals that close
and MORE!

ITSP University Certification:

Meets Certification Requirements for:

Management
Sales and Marketing

This class will be recorded. Each unit is generally posted within 24 hours of the live class. These recorded units will become the On-Demand class and you’ll have lifetime access to it.

Class Content

Unit 1 Creating Your Sales Playbook

Unit 2 Appointment Setting 101

Unit 3 The Sales Process and How to Run Your Prospect Meetings

Unit 4 How to Keep Customers for Life – secrets of QBR’s

Unit 5 Creating and Presenting Amazing Proposals

About James Kernan

For the past 12 years, James has served as a Principal Consultant for Kernan Consulting and provides Coaching, Advising and Mentoring programs to entrepreneurs and leaders. Kernan Consulting offers One on One Coaching, CEO Peer Groups, M&A Consulting and online training programs.

Note: * Members of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community attend at no additional charge. See details in the Community

All the Resources That Are Fit to Print

Recent Blog Posts, Podcasts, and Videos

Small Biz Thoughts Blog:

SMB Community Podcast - New episodes drop every Thursday

The Killing IT Podcast - New episodes drop every Tuesday

National Society of IT Service Providers News Blog

Relax Focus Succeed:

Take the Customer's Perspective on Service - SOP for Managed Services

Selected Recent Videos and Webinars:

Take the Customer's Perspective on Service < This video is HOT. 8,000 views
5W14 - Create a Great Lead Generation Program
SOP: Licensing - Set an Example for Staff and Clients
Be My Guest at ChannelCon !!!
Managing Your Service Board - Class Info

Our YouTube tech channel is now reaching 30,000 views per month (and sometimes more). Subscribe today and don't miss a thing!

A quick guide to my Playlists:

Total: Over 830 videos on the Small Biz Thoughts channel
345+ SOP videos
265+ Relax Focus Success videos

Plus . . .

Training, Courses, Seminars on Managed Services
Product Reviews
and more

You can always check out my YouTube Channel and subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/smallbizthoughts

OR my Relax-Focus-Succeed Channel at https://www.youtube.com/relaxfocussucceed

Community News

SmallBizThoughts.org

Join us live every Thursday on Zoom!

The weekly link is always in your Dashboard.

Also Remember - your discount codes for training via ITSP University and Bigger Brains are just a click away.

Now you don't even have to be at your dashboard to grab your discounts. As soon as you're logged in, just click the dollar sign next to your name on any page.

Speaking of discounts . . .

Now is a great time to plan out the courses you will take - for free - at IT Service Provider University. Of course, I recommend you take James Kernan's great class on lead generation and beginning to build a sales funnel that works.

James is an excellent sales coach. Before that, he built and sold a seven-figure MSP. You may have heard a lot of people use the term, "7-Figure MSP." Well, James built the original program.

After that, figure out whether you want to focus on managed services, technology management, front office, or something else. Remember that ALL of your training is free as part of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community.

We have twenty classes now, and will add more this year. So if you're not sure where to start, contact me to schedule a 20-minute Zoom call.

Everyone needs a program customized to their situation, their business, their clients, and their employees. I'm happy to help any SBT member who wants to build a roadmap to greater success.

Remember: We are 100% committed to your success!

If you haven't seen the latest news video, check it out here.

That's it for this week. I'll see you at the meeting on Thursday.

Thank you!

:-)

Picture of the Day

Our State Fair had a display filled with great old games.

I wanted to play the giant Battleship, but there was a line. And just like any Battleship game, people cheated, even when everyone was watching.

:-)

Live Events Calendar

What's Here?

This calendar lists two kinds of things: LIVE in-person events from any organization that focuses on the SMB consulting community; and MY events, whether live, webinar, etc.

If you have live events on your calendar that may be useful to others in the SMB Community, please let us know. We'd be happy to list them.

Of course: Everything here is subject to change based on Covid. Click the links for the latest details. Please send updates so we can post them.