Karl's SMB Email November 8th

Nothing Happens by Itself

Join Me In Vegas!

SMB Roadshow 2021

December 14th

Courtyard by Marriott Hotel

3275 Paradise Road

Las Vegas, NV

We had a great time in Providence . . . but that was on the other side of the country. It's often easier and cheaper for folks to make it to Las Vegas. Please join us. This is guaranteed to be a great event.

Topics include:

Game show! Educational and Entertaining
Running Successfully in the 2020's
Post-Pandemic Clientele and Offerings
Building YOUR Absolutely Unbreakable Rules
Looking Forward to the next normal

If you are a member of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community, you get in FREE.

If you're not a member, please consider joining.

If you've had a bad year, email me and we'll figure something out.

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Check out our new sponsor: Field Effect

Field Effect works to bring simplicity to a complex process of delivering top-notch cybersecurity. Their primary product is Covalence, which brings great security monitoring from a wholistic approach. Rather than deploy a variety of detection/response tools, Covalence monitors all traffic on both your on-site and cloud networks with one portal.

I had Toby Nangle from Field Effect on the SMB Community Podcast a few weeks ago. Check that out at https://www.smbcommunitypodcast.com/2021/10/field-effect-helps-you-build-a-successful-managed-security-practice/.

Their web site also has some great resources. Click on the Resources tab.

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Send me your calendar updates!

More and more events are locking down in-person events for 2022. If you find out about solid dates, please drop me a line.

Have a great week. - Karl P.

:-)

NSITSP Meeting Scheduled!

Mark you calendar and join us

NSITSP General Membership Meeting

November 17, 2021

9:00 AM Pacific / Noon Eastern

There has been a LOT of activity. We have a very active Board of Directors and three active committees. We might even have a fourth committee by November 17th.

In this meeting, we'll introduce the Board and the Committee chairs. The Board will report on the state of the organization, where we are, and what we hope to do next.

And, of course, we'll have an open Q&A session.

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NSITSP on Social Media

We have created pages or accounts on the following social media. These will be used to broadcast news and get the word out. Please take a minute to follow each of these and share them with your friends and contacts.

Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/National-Society-of-I-T-Service-Providers-108845781574908

LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-society-of-it-service-providers/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/nsitsp

And, of course, you can always find the NSITSP home page at www.nsitsp.org.

NOW is a great time to do this.

Thank you.

:-)

Do You Have a Phrase Bbook?

I was talking to a coaching client the other day and realized that they had a word-related disconnect inside their company. If you have a sales person or sales team, you may have seen this: Sales people sell things that the service department don't deliver.

In the biggest picture, sales people sell security, comfort, and piece of mind while technicians deliver specific processes, procedures, hardware, and software. On a more specific level, a sales person might an "Absolute Security" option, but your company doesn't actually have anything with that name. You have Comprehensive (what the sales person probably means), Corporate, and Essentials options.

This is not just a matter of semantics.

[Side note: Have you notice how people dismiss semantics as if it's simple and unimportant. Major world-class universities confer degrees in semantics. You can spend your life studying it. It's not something simple. Semantics matter.]

I highly recommend that your team adopt a common phrase book. It might seem simplistic, but it goes a long ways to managing client expectations and service delivery. The "thing" that get sold by the sales person must be the thing that gets delivered by the technicians - and it must be the thing the client thought they were buying.

Here's a basic from from a project. An item on a proposal should flow to the project deliverables and become one or more executable tickets for the technicians. Fluffy phrases list "all you can eat" just don't cut it.

As a rule, clients do NOT expect to get a bunch of stuff for free. They know that everything has limits. But they're not in your business. So the limits may not be obvious to them. It is your company's responsibility to take charge of the language used, and to use it consistently through the sales and delivery processes.

We've all seem poorly written software documentation: One word is used in the program and a different word in the documentation. In addition to making the job take longer, it adds a level of frustration.

Don't repeat that kind of mistake inside your company.

:-)

Rayanne's Always-Awesome Finance Class!

You only missed three weeks. Sign up now.

Catch up and join us live tomorrow.

Financial Processes for the IT Services Firm

Course 5W07

Taught By: Rayanne Buchianico

Five Tuesdays

October 19 - November 16 - Register Now

All classes start a 9:00 AM Pacific

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

There are few things more important than the finances of your business. But most technology consultants didn't get into business to run balance sheets or figure out cash flow.

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:

Learn to read and understand your Balance Sheet and P&L Statements
Create a chart of accounts that makes sense for your business
Separating out information on the P&L for management decisions
Entities and tax considerations - understanding how your entity is taxed. Handout is a tax projection worksheet for this year's taxes
Cash flow forecasting - Handout is a cash flow projection spreadsheet to forecast revenues and expenses
Understanding margins and ratios - Deep dive into the P&L and Balance Sheet to understand how the numbers work together to make decisions. Handout is a worksheet on calculating and understanding the ratios & margins.
Use margins to price your services for profit
Calculate billing and burden rates
Action plans for success

. . . and More!

Week One: Introduction to Your Company’s Finances

Week Two: Cash Flow Forecasting

Week Three: Margins, Ratios, KPIs, and Breakeven points

Week Four: Jobs, Budgeting, and Internal Controls

Week Five: Planning for Taxes

For the week-by-week agenda, see www.greatlittleseminar.com

Only $299

Only $299 per student

Delivered by Rayanne Buchianico, Financial Coach 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 webinars with related handouts, assignments, and "office hours" with the instructor. All classes are recorded for download. All classes include suggested "homework" that is totally action-focused and intended to move your company's marketing forward.

This course is intended for business owners and managers. It is particularly useful for front office and financial managers.

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

Questions? Email concierge@smallbizthoughts.com

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

The Cheeky Sales Coach Podcast / Video - Final episode posted !!!

National Society of IT Service Providers News Blog

Relax Focus Succeed:

SOP - Co-managing Customers and Employees

Selected Recent Videos and Webinars:

A quick guide to my Playlists:

Total: More than 770 videos on the Small Biz Thoughts channel
315+ SOP videos
100+ 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

Small Biz Thoughts Community News

SmallBizThoughts.org

Members: Grab Your Downloads!

How can we help you have a great year-end?

One of the benefits that all members enjoy is a Zoom call with me. All you have to do it email Kara or me and request it.

If you're looking for specific resources in the Community and not finding them, send us an an email on that too. Or post in the forums.

Our monthly newsletter went out a week ago Friday. Please check it out for discounts on training, roadshow, and more.

Friday. If you're a member and it's not in your inbox, contact us and we'll figure it out.

The video is here for everyone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Ia3athCCM

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Remember your massive class discounts! Whether you're a monthly or annual subscriber, do yourself a favor and sign up for classes over at Great Little Seminar. You save 3x or 4x the cost of your membership, depending on your plan.

:-)

Picture of the Day

A Fun Outing . . .

Sacramento has a place called Rock & Brews. I went there with a meetup group.

It's a sports bar with two mini-golf courses and a batting cage. It's great to be getting back out in the world.

:-)

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.