SMB Community Podcast: Business Advice for Small MSP Owners

Topic One: Grrrrr . . .

Topic on Reddit (not a great article, so no link) asked the question, "What jobs have the highest income with the lowest requirements?" Proposed answer is Managed Services!!!

From time to time, some magazine asks the same question and suggests that IT services are always paying well and easy to get into. We are not pleased with this. And, as always, we suggest what we think this means for our industry.

Hint: You need to be a consultant, not an amateur.

Topic Two:

Is it fair to blame a vendor when someone fails to secure their product and finds themselves splashed across news sites worldwide?

Related link:
https://www.crn.com/news/security/connectwise-tool-used-as-entry-point-in-texas-ransomware-attack

Note: “ConnectWise is hardly alone when it comes to falling victim to hackers. Webroot, Kaseya, Continuum and NinjaRMM all have MSPs that have been hit and their products hijacked by bad actors who have flipped ill-gotten credentials to cash.”

Dave rants splendidly on this. This is silly click-bait rather than news. Details inside.

Topic Three:

What are the security implications in the era of AI? Are we entering a dystopia?

The bad guys are now using 1) Knowledge of the managed service model, and 2) artificial intelligence to attack MSPs, the channel, and our clients. They have no reason to stop. It can be pretty depressing!

But of course we have good news - even though it means you have to do the hard work.

All the details inside the podcast!

:-)

It's always great to catch up with my old friend Vince Tinnirello.

Vince Tinnirello

Vince is the Managing Director of Anchor Network Solutions, a Denver-based managed IT service provider, founded in 2002. He is the immediate past Chair of the CompTIA Managed Services Community, and very passionate about the IT Services industry and the service Anchor delivers to its clients. Vince lives in the foothills of Denver, and when not working enjoys skiing, climbing, mountain biking and golf. He recently completed his goal to summit all of Colorado's 55 mountains above 14,000 feet and to ski in Japan.

After spending many years with Marriott, Vince moved to the IT industry and realized that lots of technicians aren't very good with the personal side of business. So he went to work training and guiding his employees to support his brand.

Vince tells a great story about climbing all the major mountain peaks in Colorado (some more than once). Of course that leads to a discussion of relaxing your brain and recharging your batteries.

Vince is also a big advocate (and member) of Peer Groups. Even with a three million dollar business, Vince finds value in meeting with other business owners to talk about their challenges and victories. Here he talks about the peer session tracks that he manages for DattoCon.

In general, we have a fun conversation about client engagement, employee management, and peer level relationships.

About the SMB Community Podcast: Weekly business advice for small MSP owners from Amy Babinchak and James Kernan of the Small Biz Thoughts community — MSP sales, MSP pricing and agreements, hiring and leading an MSP team, MSP operations, selling your MSP, and AI for small MSPs. Produced by MSP Radio. More for MSP owners at smallbizthoughts.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Topic 1:

Boom! Attorneys general from 48 states plus Puerto Rico and Washington, DC have joined together in a huge antitrust investigation of Google. (California and Alabama are not joining them.)

We have a lively discussion about this, where it came from, and where we think it's going.

Check out these links:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/09/texas-attorney-general-leads-google-antitrust-probe.html

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/technology/tech-investigations.html

Topic 2:

McDonalds is buying their third tech company to use AI and voice at the drive thru. Dave takes a victory lap on voice interfaces.

We talk about the implications for AI, digital transformation, and business generally.

Relevant Link:
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/mcdonalds-to-use-ai-voice/

Topic 3:

Apple had an announcement that we ignored last week. We extend that by ignoring it this week. Instead we talk about Apple turning into a services company. The new phone is . . . fine. But the real story is Apple getting $400-500 per user per year in service revenue. Taking on Netflix in a price war.

And then we wander off into Netflix, HBO, Disney, and entertainment competition generally.

As always, we have fun and try to draw some conclusions for all the IT Pros out there.

:-)

Since selling his Managed Service Provider business, Richard has helped dozens of MSPs to grow their own companies. He works with the owners of IT businesses to help them free up their time, concentrate on doing what is important and making more money. In his interactive presentations, Richard offers some practical advice on how he would run a great MSP today — including his tips for selling MSP services.

Richard has a great book called The IT Business Owner's Survival Guide. It really is a good guide to getting out of your own way and thriving as a small business owner. Check out the reviews on Amazon. Whether you're new to the IT industry or you've been at it for awhile, this book will help you out!

Richard Tubb

One tip Richard shares that I am totally on board with: Turn you phone OFF at night and don't sleep with. Don't jump out of bed and grab the phone. Technology is awesome, but we should maintain control.

Another great tip: Richard has a world-class out-of-office email process. He describes this in some detail. If you want a copy, wait until the weekend and send him an email. You'll get a great example almost immediately. I particularly like the tip that you do not include information on how to interrupt you since the phone interruption has failed. (Richard gives his email at about 20 minutes in.)

Lots of great tips in this podcast. Give it a listen.

Links

• www.tubblog.co.uk
• Newsletter: www.tubblog.co.uk/nl
• Books: https://www.tubblog.co.uk/books/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/tubblog

:-)

About the SMB Community Podcast: Weekly business advice for small MSP owners from Amy Babinchak and James Kernan of the Small Biz Thoughts community — MSP sales, MSP pricing and agreements, hiring and leading an MSP team, MSP operations, selling your MSP, and AI for small MSPs. Produced by MSP Radio. More for MSP owners at smallbizthoughts.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Topic One on this episode is Jim Cramer's recent "Primer" on cloud stocks.    See:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/21/cramers-primer-on-cloud-stocks-know-the-company-if-you-want-to-own.html   We don't give investing advice, but we go deep on what it means for IT service providers. We need to pay attention to the big picture and where we fit in it. There really is a lesson here on how to follow the money and change your approach in order to grow.   Our conclusion: Focus on the actual consulting opportunity.   . . .   From there we move to an update on Artificial Intelligence. Where is it now and what does it mean for business?   Is your intelligent home very intelligent? Can it draw a leopard? And more importantly, where are the opportunities for IT professionals? If nothing else, we should be teaching clients about best practices with regard to AI. But where do we start with that?    And how can we use AI inside our own companies to improve the customer experience?   Our conclusion: Focus on the actual consulting opportunity.   . . .   Finally, as this show airs, Apple is making a big announcement. So we're not talking about that, but about big announcements in general. Dave's questions: What?s your biggest bust of an announcement memory, and what is the one you missed the importance of?   Of course our take is to look at this from the angle of business strategy, while having fun.   :-)

Today's guest is Mr. Tim Taylor, author of How to Start and Run a Successful I.T. Company - Without Using your Shirt, available on Amazon, Amazon Kindle, and Audible.

Tim is from Memphis, TN. He has always worked in the IT field. When he was 40, he started his own practice out of the trunk of his car. Today, he runs a multi-million dollar practice in Florida and employs over 15 people.

Tim Taylor

Tim likes to help people just starting out or struggling in their MS practices. He specializes in helping people turn around their companies and making them profitable.

Links:

• www.timtaylorconsulting.com
• Facebook

:-)

About the SMB Community Podcast: Weekly business advice for small MSP owners from Amy Babinchak and James Kernan of the Small Biz Thoughts community — MSP sales, MSP pricing and agreements, hiring and leading an MSP team, MSP operations, selling your MSP, and AI for small MSPs. Produced by MSP Radio. More for MSP owners at smallbizthoughts.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Topic 1: Is a reckoning coming for MSPs?

Ransomware attacks are getting worst - and getting broader coverage. We take on the topic head-on.

Links mentioned:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/us/ransomware-attacks-hacking.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

- https://www.channelfutures.com/mssp-insider/texas-ransomware-attack-presents-opportunity-for-mssps-other-providers

What do you do? How should you change your practices? Will the free market take care of this? We discuss lawyers, governments, insurance companies, and more.

A VERY timely topic.

Topic 2: Karl declares a mastermind roundtable.

In the spirit of the Innovator’s Solution . . . how can IT service providers be successful in the next five years? Is there a task we can sell into? Is there a need that we can fulfill? What can IT providers provide that competes with "No Purchase" and the current provider?

Can you claim to be a generalist and wipe your hands of security? We have some thoughts . . . leading back to the perrennial topic of consulting and the business discussion.

And what do you sell when everything's in the cloud? How do you solidify your success going forward? We have thoughts.

Topic 3: Has the Day of the Chromebook arrived?

Related link: https://www.crn.com/slide-shows/mobility/dell-unveils-the-latitude-chromebook-enterprise-5-things-to-know/2

Dave recently acquired a new Chromebook . . . and he's impressed.

Should we be deploying these (inside our offices and to our clients)?

:-)

 

After a 20 year career as a commercial general contractor and 25 years as a small business consultant and IT provider, Bob Nitrio made two major decisions. The first was to move from California to Arizona for family purposes. The second was to move way from managed services and concentrate on his partnership with a software developer who had some amazing ideas for how mobile phones could be used by businesses and organizations.

Bob Nitrio

As a result, Bob now creates marketing resources that explain SmartConnect Apps by LogicTree It Solutions. As Bob say, "This incredible platform literally transforms mobility into productivity." The mobile apps created with this platform are designed to solve gaps in the way information is acquired and used by both clients and businesses. The evolution of the company's focus is an interesting story in itself, one with many business lessons.

There are many businesses and organizations that don't know that they actually have a mobile workforce - their employees who own smartphones! Smartphones have paved the way to change business outcomes by making it easier for people to exchange information. If you can do that without extensive training or investment, you can creatively acquire data, report and manage it , and control workflows and outcomes.

Now there is a way for IT professionals to offer a mobility solution as a service that can be customized for a broad cross-section of clients service without the need for a significant investment of time or money. If you can determine your clients' pain points, there just might be a way to solve them using the underappreciated smartphone. We can show you how to add mobility to your solution stack quickly and easily.

Web Sites: - www.smartconnectapps.com - www.logictreeit.com

Video Channels: - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsw4M6M0oXYbKUIbemqJJ9A - https://vimeo.com/logictreeitsolutions

:-)

About the SMB Community Podcast: Weekly business advice for small MSP owners from Amy Babinchak and James Kernan of the Small Biz Thoughts community — MSP sales, MSP pricing and agreements, hiring and leading an MSP team, MSP operations, selling your MSP, and AI for small MSPs. Produced by MSP Radio. More for MSP owners at smallbizthoughts.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This Killing IT Podcast takes a different format from our previous posts. Here we take a focused look at an important webinar that was recently posted. A tip of the hat to Joe Panettieri Paul Dippell!

ChannelE2E published Paul Dippell's Service Leadership Mid-Year Report here:
https://www.channele2e.com/webcasts/jul2019/?utm_source=E2Ewcpage&utm_campaign=jul2019wc

A few data points discussed here:

- Profitability of product-focused vs. service-focused industries.

- How much "hustle" does it take to make the same profit in a product-centric business versus an MSP?

- Operational Maturity Levels. In particular, slide 14.

- A solid 1/4 of MSPs doing great with regard to OML. But that means 3/4 have lots of room for improvement.

- We spin that in the direction of opportunity to do more, do better, and make more money.

- Slide 16: The faster you grow, the higher your profit. A nice counter-intuitive point.

- How does this affect your need (desire) to hire a sales person? [Insert notes from Ryan on sales compensation strategies.]

- Slide 13: "There is no empirical data supporting the worry that either cloud or commoditization (or both!) is depressing financial results of MSPs."

- In fact, there's no evidence of profit erosion! Profit is growing.

Bottom line: There's lots of good news here if you're a Managed Service Provider. Note also that you can also make lots of money on products! You literally have to choose which direction you go.

I caught up with Terry Hedden from Marketopia for this podcast. Normally, I see Terry on the road, but we're going to miss each other for the next few months. AND he's got a big sales coaching event coming up while I'm down in Australia.

So, it was good to catch up on the podcast.

Terry started out as an IT service provider. He built and sold a 49 person MSP in 6 years. Now he runs Marketopia, the largest demand generation firm for MSPs.

Marketopia provides outsourced marketing and outbound lead generation. As Terry says, they are most successful when an MSP lets them run the lead generation based on their proven process. In other words, when you try to do it differently, you are likely to be less successful. :-)

This interview has a lot of detail on the services Marketopia offers (including some very good pricing information).

In October, Marketopia is putting on a training event called 4U2Grow - see https://www.4u2grow.com/ for more information. The conference is October 8-11.

Primary web site: https://www.marketopia.com/

:-)

About the SMB Community Podcast: Weekly business advice for small MSP owners from Amy Babinchak and James Kernan of the Small Biz Thoughts community — MSP sales, MSP pricing and agreements, hiring and leading an MSP team, MSP operations, selling your MSP, and AI for small MSPs. Produced by MSP Radio. More for MSP owners at smallbizthoughts.com.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.