Nothing Happens by Itself
Copyright © 2021 Karl W. Palachuk
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Totally Personal Note - Follow-up
Thank you all for the notes and messages about my daughter. Apparently, appendicitis is extremely painful, and more so for women because they need to do some extra poking around to eliminate alternative diagnoses.
Anyway, Monday was a long day for me. I was finally able to pick her up at the hospital at 6:30 PM and take her home. She's doing great.
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I feel lucky to be in tech for one big reason: Change.
Not any specific change, but the concept of change in general. You've heard the old saying that the only constant is change.
Everybody knows it's true. Most people have a negative concept of change. In fact, there are management consultants who build their entire career on helping companies deal with change.
Personally, I believe that people really only dislike change that 1) They did not initiate, and 2) They don't have much control over. If you start the change, you probably like it. If you can control the change, you probably like that as well.
After all, almost every "highlight" of your life is typified by change. Moving from grade school to junior high; graduating; starting a new job; getting married; completing a certificate program.
Professionally, I think we are lucky to be in an industry with so much change. It makes us less resistant as a "default" reaction to change. Just look inside your computer. We update the processor. Then the memory. Then some ports. Then storage, graphics, and sound. And changes often come even faster with software and services.
The main reason this is a great advantage for us is that is makes us more resilient. We're not shocked or surprised by change. ("WHAT? Another kind of memory socket?") In fact, we're used to it and expect it.
Many small business owners, including many of your clients, are not used to change. They are a little surprised, and maybe freaked out, by change. A big piece of your role as a consultant is to help them make changes, accept changes, and profit from changes.
You may not consider yourself a change agent or a change management consultant. But consider the role you DO play in helping your client adopt and adapt. I think you'll find that you play quite a role there.
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ChannelPro finalizes event schedule
Please see the ad/link above. My good friends over at ChannelPro have finalized their event schedule for 2021. Lots of online events. I don't try to post online events in my calendar (Why take on the impossible?). But I have added all their in-person events. One was added since last week.
The calendar has a fair amount of activity in the second half of the year. I suspect we'll be adding several events on short notice.
Please send me your calendar updates on in-person events!
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Acronis reports on the "Pulse of the Industry"
I was given an advance copy of a report to be released Monday, February 1st. I will be blogging about this Monday (today). But, luckily for me, this newsletter comes out on Monday morning. So here are a few tidbits to chew on.
One of the most striking findings is the comparison of actual 2020 sales with projected 2021 (and beyond) sales. The vast majority of respondents reported stable or increasing sales for unified communications, networking, and systems integrations.
Looking ahead, these same respondents project major reductions in traditional onsite maintenance, hardware and software sales, and even remote management. They foresee increases in cloud-based management and managed security services.
One important message in all of this: The source of your revenue is changing - fast.
I promise, I wrote the note above on Change before I read Acronis' report. But that just goes to show you. This is just another year of never-ending change in the IT industry.
What changes are YOU seeing? And are your opinions based on persona experience from 2020 and 2021? Feedback always welcome.
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That's the news for now. Have a great week.
-- Karl W. Palachuk
:-)
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Newly Revised Class for 2021
Position Your IT Firm for Growth or Sale
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Sign up Today
Position Your IT Firm for Growth or Sale - Totally Revised for 2021
5W19
Taught by Rayanne Buchianico, Author and Coach
- All classes start a 9:00 AM Pacific
You're guaranteed to learn something that will make or save you the price of admission!
As your business matures, you want to take control of profits and your financial house. You invested the time to set up your chart of accounts, align income with COGS for easy measuring, and organize your reports and service desk. You have the information you need; this course teaches you how to use it.
This class provides unique content from a unique teacher! Rayanne is a managed service provider from Tampa, FL. She is also an accountant and an Intuit Certified ProAdvisor. In addition to her MSP business, Rayanne helps I.T. consultants to take control of their finances and understand their own business at a deeper level.
Topics for this class include:
- Create KPIs specific to your company
- Benchmark against your peers
- Detailed cash flow management and measure debt against income
- Measure service-level profits and improve profitability
- Identify red flags in your business, make changes before they become problems
- Prepare your company for growth, sale or merger
- Use margins to price your services for profit
- Income Tax Planning and Projections
- Action plans for success
... And More!
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Only $299 per student
Delivered by Rayanne Buchianico, Accounting Professional and QuickBooks Advisor. Rayanne has been an MSP - managed service provider - for many years and advises MSPs on how to get the most out of their QuickBooks and PSA integrations.
Includes five weeks of webinar classes with related handouts, assignments, and "office hours" with the instructor.
This course is intended for business owners and managers. It is particularly useful for the Service Manager or Operations Manager.
A Few Details . . .
- Each course will be five one-hour Zoom webinars
- There will be handouts and "homework" assignments
- Class webinars will be recorded and made available to paid attendees only.
- All calls start at 9:00 AM Pacific Time
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All the Resources That Are Fit to Print |
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Recent Blog Posts, Podcasts, and Videos |
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Small Biz Thoughts Blog:
Relax Focus Succeed:
SMB Community Podcast - New episodes drop every Thursday
The Killing IT Podcast - New episodes drop every Tuesday
The Cheeky Sales Coach Podcast / Video - New episodes drop every Wednesday
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SOP: Why We Do Monthly Maintenance |
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Selected Recent Videos and Webinars:
Note: We started auto-posting the podcasts to YouTube. Those are not listed here as YouTube Videos since they're listed under the podcasts above.
A quick guide to my Playlists:
- Total: More than 700 videos on the Small Biz Thoughts channel
- 275+ SOP videos
Plus . . .
- Training, Courses, Seminars on Managed Services
- Product Reviews
- and more
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Small Biz Thoughts Community News
SmallBizThoughts.org
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2021 is well under way . . . |
New members - join us for the weekly meetings every Thursday.
The link is right at the top of your Dashboard. We'll see you at 9:00 AM (Pacific) Thursday.
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Our next big Roundtable is this Thursday and features Jay McBain. The link is at the top of your Community dashboard.
Join us and feel free to ask questions!
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Major New Content - Remote Sales Whitepaper!
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2021 is a year for tremendous opportunity for MSPs. One of the challenges is learning to effectively sell without visiting clients in their office. Remote Sales can be conducted by Zoom, Teams, or another remote meeting tool. In this white paper – written exclusively for the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community – Carolyn Heinze addresses this challenge head-on.
Topics include making remote appointments, getting comfortable with the remote process, helping clients with remote meetings, executing the sales call, follow-up, and more. She concludes with a “Get Started” checklist and a note on securing the sales call.
Check it out:
Do not put off sales until the pandemic is over. That’s never a good strategy, especially in an economic downturn!
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If you haven't seen the January News video yet, please check it out.
Also . . . Coming This Week:
- The "first Friday" Newsletter goes out February 5th
- The February News video will be released on Friday as well.
- New Security Sales workbook sill be published this week. Keep your eyes on the "What's New" section.
As always, our goal is to help you to be as successful as possible!
If you need something, please post a question in a forum or email Kara (your Community Manager) or me.
:-)
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A Sign of the Times
On my way home from taking my daughter home from the hospital, I stopped by a Big Lots store just for the heckuvit. (I don't get out much these days.)
I found this sign. 1/3 of what I need for "Relax Focus Succeed."
I have a couple of Relax signs. It's just a matter of time before serendipity shows me a Focus sign.
:-)
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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.
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February
If you know of in-person events we should list, please let us know.
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March
XChange +
March 7-9 / Live + Virtual event
Orlando, FL
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April
If you know of in-person events we should list, please let us know.
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May
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Hybrid Event
May 6, 2021
Chicago, Il
SMB Roadshow - Vancouver
May 11th
Tentative . . . but count on it!
Join me Live!
SMB Roadshow - Toronto
May 13th
Tentative . . . but count on it!
Join me Live!
SMB Roadshow - Montreal
May 18th
Tentative . . . but count on it!
Join me Live!
ASCII Success Summit
May 19 & 20
Bethesda, MD
SMB Roadshow - Providence, RI
May 20th
Tentative . . . but count on it!
More info: https://www.smbroadshow.com
Join me Live!
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June
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Hybrid Event
June 9, 2021
Houston, Tx
ASCII Success Summit
June 16 & 17
Cincinnati, OH
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July
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Hybrid Event
July 8, 2021
Raleigh, NC
ASCII Success Summit
July 21 & 22
Chicago, IL
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August
SMB Roadshow - Manchester, UK
August 10th
Tentative . . . but count on it!
More info: https://www.smbroadshow.com
Join me Live!
SMB Roadshow - Cardiff, UK
August 12th
Tentative . . . but count on it!
More info: https://www.smbroadshow.com
Join me Live!
SMB Roadshow - London, UK
August 17th
Tentative . . . but count on it!
More info: https://www.smbroadshow.com
Join me Live!
ASCII Success Summit
August 18 & 19
Raleigh, NC
SMB Roadshow - Amsterdam, NE
August 19th
Tentative . . . but count on it!
More info: https://www.smbroadshow.com
Join me Live!
SMB Roadshow - Berlin, Germany
August 21st
Tentative . . . but count on it!
More info: https://www.smbroadshow.com
Join me Live!
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September
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Hybrid Event
Sept 2, 2021
Boston, MA
ITBOG (Business Owners Group) Cruise Conference
Sept. 3-6
Departs Miami
ASCII Success Summit
September 22 & 23
NY / NJ area
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October
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Hybrid Event
Oct 6, 2021
Atlanta, GA
SMB IT Professionals National Conference - Australia
Oct 15-16
Surfer's Paradise
Join me Live. I'm going to do my best to be there!
ASCII Success Summit
October 27 & 28
Orlando, FL
I'm hoping there's a trip to the Gold Coast in my future. Stay tuned.
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November
ASCII Success Summit
November 3 & 4
Houston, TX
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Hybrid Event
Nov 4, 2021
Los Angeles, CA
ChannelPro SMB Forum - Hybrid Event
Nov 16, 2021
Los Angeles, CA
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December
ASCII Success Summit
Orange County, CA - December 8 & 9
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If you know of in-person events we should list, please let us know.
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Note: If you know of any in-person event for SMB Consultants, please send info to [email protected]. |
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