Nothing
Happens
by Itself
Copyright © 2023 Karl W. Palachuk
|
|
Greetings!
Did you hear the news? Turns out, there won't be a recession in 2023.
As the economy growth for Q4 was faster than expected, Goldman Sachs and some others are now saying that there's a 65% chance we will not have a recession. I mean, we might. But the "most likely" probability is that we won't.
Unless we do.
:-)
You don't control the economy, Russia, politics, or taxes. But you DO control the service you provide to clients. You control how often you meet with them, how you nurture relationships, and what you do to help them improve their business.
You also control how you interact with employees, vendors, and suppliers. So, no matter what the economy is doing, you have a great deal of influence over your personal economy (or business economy).
Obviously, we can all benefit from keeping track of our finances. But don't freak out because a bunch of media monkeys are repeating each other into a never-ending echo change.
A great, related example of this is the recent reporting on tech layoffs. I've discussed this on both the Killing IT Podcast and the SMB Community Podcast. Two key data points are important with regard to tech layoffs.
First: ALL (100%) of the layoffs are among companies with more than 500 employees. Small companies are still hiring at a great rate. See the ADP Employment Report. All categories of smaller companies (e.g., your clients) are hiring at a good pace. |
|
Second: The recent spate of layoffs come after "big tech" went insane with hiring during the pandemic. The most dramatic of these is Amazon. See the chart from Yahoo Finance.
Amazon hired 746,000 employees during the pandemic. And then laid off a fraction of them. Everyone else is less dramatic, but the hiring far outpaced recent lay-offs.
-- -- --
ANYWAY: The point is, do not get too freaked out about the economy. Chances are, "the" economy is not your economy.
Run your monthly reports this week. How's YOUR P&L (profit and loss)? How's YOUR cash flow? How are YOUR sales?
Focus on what's actually going on in your company and respond to that.
Just my two cents. kp
|
|
Update: Harry has verified that the discount code here is working.
Harry Brelsford is working with some folks in Chicago to put on his MSP Rescue event:
MSP Rescue
February 17th
Chicago
The standard price is $99 - but you can save $50 (more than half price) with the coupon code KARL. So your final price is only $49.
Information and Registration at:
|
|
IT Service Provider University News
Two items of note.
FIRST: Coach James Kernan has a brand new course that fills a great void at ITSPU - and in our industry. See below.
Leadership and Management Principles for MSPs starts on Valentine's Day - Feb. 14th. So we know you'll love it. This course is only $299 and features five hours of live, interactive instruction, plus a complete workbook each week. Today's a great day to register. www.ITSPU.com
SECOND: The cost of courses is going up to $399 starting March 1st. But you can save money by registering now for any courses you want. You can see the full list of this year's live courses at https://www.itspu.com/schedule/. |
|
All classes are available not for only $299. So if you register before March, you can lock in that price.
And don't forget - Members of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community always get all of our courses FREE with their active membership. So if you're thinking of taking several courses, that might be a good option.
Questions? Send me an email.
|
|
Sneak Peek: SMB Online Conference 2023 |
|
We haven't finalized everything . . . but we have the site up. You can register now for this great event at smbonlineconference.com.
May 17-18
Please check it out and let me know if you have any questions.
-- -- --
Note: If you're headed to the ASCII event in SoCal Feb 23rd, please look for me. I'm going to be attending and wandering around.
Have a great week!
:-)
|
|
All New Course from James Kernan! |
|
Sign up now.
Leadership and
Management Principles
for MSPs
Learn the industry’s best practices on managing, leading, and growing your business. These sessions will be focused on leading people and teams while connecting them to your vision and goals.
Taught By: Coach James Kernan
All New Course
- Five Tuesdays: February 14 March 14, 2023
The Leadership and Management Training Program will include five live training sessions delivered in 60-minute classes. Designed for technology business owners, executives, directors, and managers, this training program covers industry best practices for managing and leading your teams.
Award winning business coach and trainer, James Kernan is back to educate you on the industry’s best practices on managing, leading, and growing your business. These sessions will be focused on leading people and teams while connecting them to your visions and goals. We will review foundational leadership skills, management tips, recruiting, onboarding, and training new employees and how to connect every single employee to the company’s goals. This class is ideal for any owner, executive, manager, or key employee you are grooming into leadership.
|
|
You will learn:
- What does leadership look like in the workplace?
- How to lead and motivate your team
- How to hold your team accountable
- What is the difference between a BOSS and a LEADER?
- Learn key skills and fundamentals that will help you gain trust with your entire team.
- Basic leadership fundamentals and skills
- How to lead though challenging situations
- Motivating and management of employees
- How to overcome and deal with conflict
- Create a recruiting process
- Create a recruiting presentation
- Fine tune your onboarding/training plan for new employees
- How to screen candidates based on your core values
- Create your Culture Plan and Core Values
- Positive vs Negative Leadership styles
- Why recruiting specific staff is important
- Communication/Meeting Schedule
- TEAM – Trust, Encouragement, Accountability and Mentoring
- Creating a PURPOSE for each employee
- How to create goals/kpi’s for all staff members
- How transparency can motivate performance
- Rewarding and Recognition of employees
- Creating your Management Scorecard/Dashboard
... And More!
Includes five weeks of webinar classes with related handouts, assignments, and “office hours” with the instructor.
ITSP University Certification:
Meets Certification Requirements for:
- Management
- Service Manager
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 How to connect your entire team to your vision, mission, and goals
Unit 2 How to deal with conflict and overcome gossip in the workplace
Unit 3 How to motivate your employees so they want to come to work everyday
Unit 4 How to hold employees accountable while making work fun
Unit 5 How to attract A-Player recruits, while making sure you have the Right Employees in the Right Seats
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:
.
|
|
Selected Recent Videos and Webinars:
Our YouTube IT Consulting channel now has more than 640,000 views!
Subscribe today and don't miss a thing!
A quick guide to my Playlists:
- Total: Over 880 videos on the Small Biz Thoughts channel
- 350+ SOP videos
- 265+ Relax Focus Success videos
Plus . . .
- Training, Courses, Seminars on Managed Services
- Product Reviews
- and more
|
|
Community News
SmallBizThoughts.org
|
|
Non-Members:
NOW is a great time to join. Here are three great reasons why:
1) Membership price goes up July 1st. Join now and you can lock in your subscription price for life.
2) We will have a two-day amazing SMB Online Conference in May. SBT Technology Community members attend for free!
3) We have more than twenty 5-hour classes over at IT Service Provider University. By the end of this year, we'll have a total of twenty-three classes. Community members can take all these for free. That's more than $9,000 in value!
Plus, all members enjoy weekly member Zoom calls, ALL of my books in all digital formats, and thousands of pages of handouts, checklist, and standard operating procedures.
|
|
February Roundtable: The BIG Tip Exchange
Our February Roundtable has no guest. Or perhaps it has 20 guests. We want YOU to give us your best tips and tricks.
For example, what's the tool that saves you the most time with email or marketing? What cool thing do you do to get invoices out in a timely manner, or get technicians to turn in their time cards on time?
What's you favorite social media tool, or trick for remembering names at a networking event?
We all have different ways of running our businesses, managing employees, working with clients, and figuring out how to be more productive.
Join Us
Thursday, Feb 2nd
9 AM Pacific / Noon Eastern
The Roundtable link is always in your Community Dashboard
|
|
March Roundtable . . .
A rare opportunity to meet the most prolific writer in the SMB IT Community - Rich Freeman.
You've certainly read MANY articles by Rich as he's been the Executive Editor and principle author at ChannelPro. He's been on stage at their events, and one of their podcast hosts for many years.
Now you can meet him and ask questions about the state of the industry and more.
Details in the community.
-- -- --
Finally, don't miss the February Community News video:
|
|
Snapped this after dinner the other night.
Not a great parking job. But I'm very pleased with the picture quality on the new Pixel 7 phone!
:-)
|
|
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.
|
|
January
CyberTech Global Tel Aviv
Jan. 30-Feb 1, 2023
Tel Aviv, Israel
:-)
|
|
February
ChannelPro Summit
Feb. 1-2
Dallas (Southwest)
Zero Trustworld 23
Feb. 1-3, 2023
ChampnionsGate, FL
Cisco Live!
Feb 6-10, 2023
Amsterdam
SMB TechFest
Feb. 9-10, 2023
Southern California
MSPExpo
Feb 14-17, 2022
Fort Lauderdale, FL
IOTSSA Cybersecurity Conference and Expo
Feb 15-16, 2023
Phoeniz, AZ
MSP Rescue
Feb 17
Chicago, IL
ASCII Edge 2023
February 22 & 23
Newport Beach, CA
Join Me Live!
MWC Barcelona 2023
Feb 27-March 2, 2023
Barcelona, Spain
|
|
March
XChange March 2023
March 5-7, 2023
Orlando, FL
More info: https://event.thechannelco.com/xchange-march
ChannelPro Summit
Mar. 8-9
Dulles, VA (Mid-Atlantic)
CloudExpo Europe
March 8-9, 2023
London, UK
Gartner CIO Leadership Forum
March 14-15, 2023
Londong, UK
IT Nation 2023
March 20-22, 2023
London, England
Cloudfest
March 21-23, 2023
Europa-Park, Germany
ASCII Edge 2023
March 22 & 23
Atlanta, GA
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Quarterly
March 30-31
Orlando, FL
|
|
April
ItaliaSec: IT Security Conference
April 4-5, 2023
Rome, Italy
The IT Sales And Marketing Boot Camp
April 11-14, 2023
Nashville, TN
HIMSS
April 17-21
Chicago, IL
ASCII Edge 2023
April 19 & 20
Dallas, TX
CyberSecurity Expo
April 20, 2023
Bristol, UK
Connect IT Global
April 24-27, 2023
Las Vegas, NV
RSA Conference
Apr. 24-27, 2023
San Francisco, CA
TECHSPO New York
Apr 27-28, 2023
New York City, NY
|
|
May
ChannelPro Summit
May 9-10
Chicago (Midwest)
2023 SMB Online Conference!
May 17-18
Zoom
Online - Stay Tuned for Details - but mark your calendar now.
Join Me Live Online!
ASCII Edge 2023
May 24 & 25
Newark, NJ
:-)
|
|
June
Cisco Live!
June 4-8, 2023
Las Vegas, NV
IT Nation Secure
June 5-7, 2023
Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center
Orlando, FL
ChannelPro Summit
June 7-8
San Jose, CA (West Coast)
Infosecurity Europe
June 20-22, 2023
London, England
ASCII Edge 2023
June 21 & 22
Tampa, FL
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Quarterly
June 29-30
Denver, CO
|
|
July
ChannelPro Summit
Aug. 9-10
Newark, NJ (Northeast)
ASCII Edge 2023
July 12 & 13
Columbus, OH
CyberSecurity Expo
July 13, 2023
Manchester, UK
:-)
|
|
August
ASCII Edge 2023
August 30 & 31
Toronto, Canada
:-)
|
|
September
ChannelPro Summit
Sept. 6-7
Boston (New England)
ASCII Edge 2023
September 20 & 21
Chicago, IL
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Quarterly
Sept 28-29
Omaha, NE
|
|
October
ChannelPro Summit
Oct. 10-11
Atlanta (Southeast)
Acronis #Cyberfit Summit 2023
Oct. 16-18
Miami, FL
ASCII Edge 2023
October 18 & 19
Washington, D.C.
dattoCon 2023
Oct. 2-4, 2023
Miami, FL
|
|
November
Send me your events !!!
:-)
|
|
December
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Quarterly
Dec 7-8
Phoenix, AZ
:-)
|
|
Note: If you know of any in-person event for SMB Consultants, please send info to karlp@greatlittlebook.com. |
|
Check out all my "Channels" |
|
Share on YOUR Social Media: |
|
Small Biz Thoughts is a subsidiary of Great Little Book Publishing Co., Inc. |
|
View this and previous newsletters at
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
