Command Control Power: Apple Tech Support & Business Talk

-We welcome Jon Brown of Grove Technologies. Jon is a long time VIP supporter of the show.

-Jon recalls attending a WWE even with the CCP crew, thanks to Joe’s sister.

-Starting a new business proved to be challenging initially. He talks about his learning curve and experiences building his current business.

-Jon has a concept like Uber for Tech Support.

-Grove Technologies is going to offer its internal SaaS based tool for other businesses and industries. There are integrations built for other tools like Addigy, Watchman, Jamf, etc.

-Working with others as a sub contractor can help broaden your area of expertise as a company.

-Hiring remote technicians has proven to be useful to Jon’s business model.

-Should you increase your onsite rate vs remote?

-Do your clients care if you or your staff make onsite visits to their offices?

-Grove Technologies has put their stake in the ground about being a remote only support company.

-People still don’t seem to grasp the concept of password management or Multi-Factor Authentication.

-Cybersecurity training for end users can be incredibly useful. It can also provide some discounts with insurance.

-Malwarebytes for Mac proves to be less powerful than the Windows version. 

-Hook Security and Breach Secure Now are two big services to help with employee training.

-Jerry has some recommended security methods for his clients.

-Customers have a tendency to conflate security terms like VPN vs firewall.

-Jon wants you to become a sponsor of the show!

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-Joe ponders the question, what about requiring a monthly plan?

-Everyone debates the merits of a managed services only approach.

-One of Jerry’s customers mistakenly deleted mass amounts of Gmail data synced with Apple Mail. Retrieval wasn’t a simple solution due to how Google “labels” items in comparison to folders in Apple Mail.

-One of Tim’s clients that stored everything in Apple Mail had a catastrophic issue.

-Is Apple Mail a professional mail client? The ongoing debate continues.

-Backupify offers native server side backups for Google and Microsoft 365. 

-Backblaze affiliate accounts can be an additional revenue stream for consultants.

-Alerting customers to issues that come from services like Watchman Monitoring is one thing. But getting them to take action is another.

-Tim Nyberg joins us as a guest co-host

-Half of Tim’s small business clients have either gone away or gone out of business.

-Tim had to adjust his business to being a “one man show” again.

-The stress of letting people go is tough for any business owner.

-Joe’s latest newsletter impresses Jerry.

-The frequency of newsletters and their purpose is debated and discussed.

-Infusionsoft is Tim’s CRM. He uses RepairShopr as well.

-Another consideration is the ratio of educational vs marketing newsletters.

-Naturally, the conversation begins to shift to sole proprietors vs a small business with employees.

-What questions are you trying to answer in your business model?

-Joe talks about how he used to carry RAM in his bag when he visited clients.

-The Personal Support Plan by Watchman Monitoring was the spark for some consultancies using the MSP model.

-As we discuss the age old question of charging for Watchman Monitoring, Jerry has gone the route of moving clients to a larger package to include Addigy MDM as well. 

-Jerry describes some of his wireless challenges in his house as he moves from Eero to UniFi.  -The UniFi Doorbell G4 is the latest addition to his UniFi suit of products. -Using a headless Mac mini, he utilizes Home Bridge to add devices that are not HomeKit compatible. -Similarly, Sam uses a Chamberlain Wi-Fi garage door opener with a “Home Bridge” device that is extremely unreliable. -“Hey Squirrely” -Hardware availability and keeping devices in stock is a constant challenge and moving target. -Sam tried to get a straight answer out of UniFi support for default settings to enable/disable to improve network functionality. They supplied a support article: https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/221029967-UniFi-Troubleshooting-Connectivity-Issues -The UniFi Smart Plug is a very useful device at an excellent price point: https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-accessories/products/unifi-smart-power -Joe & Sam gush over their Apple Silicon computers and Jerry shares his unhappiness.  -Target Disk Mode and Apple Silicon. Is this still a thing? -Joe prefers using Time Machine backups as a migration source. -Jerry uses Fiverr.com to hire a VoiceOver actor for a customer voicemail system.

Sam struggles with an email migration going from Microsoft 365 hosted by Go Daddy to a straight Microsoft 365 tenant.  -Somehow Sam didn’t lose financially on this extended amount of time.  -Jerry discovered an issue importing an Outlook PST file.  -New Outlook is a “dumpster fire of a product”.  -Joe talks about a method of getting Facebook support by way of buying an Oculus.  -Music Match causes some confusion for a client of Jerry’s.  -Sam’s worst nightmare seems to come true with Harmonizely.  -The Harmonizely incident spawns a bigger discussion about being up front about billing for meetings.  -Jerry misses an opportunity for a snappy comeback.  -A client of Jerry’s unplugs his wireless antenna with surprising results. 

Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.

This week’s episode of Command Control Power will be a patron only feature. You can find this episode if you are a supporter of Command Control Power on Patreon. You can also click on the Support link in the menu above. If you are not yet a supporter, feel free to sign up! We think you will enjoy hearing it. Let us know your feedback if you do. In the meantime, enjoy a highlight from an older episode.

• This week we welcome long time supporter of the show, Tim Pearson of Creative Techs.

• Tim joins us as a co-host.

• He talks about traveling on the ferry to do onsite work.

• The group discusses the wildfires out west.

• Tim shares a story about the time he made a mistake of wearing a Star Wars shirt, causing his meeting to go way overtime.

• The group helps Tim with approaching a mistake he made in his business.

• Jerry’s talks about the “Screwdriver Effect”

• Getting fired by a client is a great opportunity to take another look at how you do things.

• Everyone discusses MSP and contracts with clients.

• How are the group members finding new work throughout the pandemic?

• Sam explains how he started getting referrals from the Apple stores.

• The group talks about the Apple Consultants Network program and its benefits.

• What is everyone seeing regarding to employees coming back to the offices?

• Some people work better in offices and some at home.

• Do you have employees or paid friends?

• Jerry & Joe discuss client credibility.   

• Jerry recently did work with a client who made changed without consulting him.

• How do you build up credibility with your clients?

• Jerry takes photos of projects he is proud of as a method to show his work to other clients.

• What is the most effective way to communicate what you do with your clients?

• Clients don’t always have the same image of you that you have of yourself.

• Joe describes how he uses keywords on his site to appeal to potential customers.

• Photos are worth a thousand words.

• A good URL shortener that Jerry recommends is bitly.com.

• There can be tremendous benefits when there is an inherent level of trust with the client.

• Some clients want to know exactly what you do for the money they’re paying and some just completely trust you.

• When there isn’t a level of trust between you and the client if can make things difficult.

-Jerry shakes Sam’s tree to get the skinny on a fancy pants email signature he has from Wisestamp. -As a part of his updated signature, Jerry includes features like a “pay now” link and social media buttons. -One concern Sam has is including the Harmonizely link to book time. -We continue part of a conversation from a “patron only” episode. -What are the fees of waiting for payment vs a fee of a credit card transaction? -Sam uses Moonclerk, integrated with Stripe for credit card payments. -Harmonizely is now a full part of Sam’s workflow. He is now convincing Matt on his team to do the same. -simplybook.me has acquired Harmonizely and has added to their already impressive features. -Joe talks about a book called “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris. -Sam talks about the mindset he needs in order to be able to take tech support calls. -As part of being cautious with available time, Jerry explains methods used to curate his available time on Harminzely.