SMB Community Podcast: Business Advice for Small MSP Owners

I think I met Jamison about 2006 at SMB Nation. Since then, he has bought a few companies, built a few companies, and sold a few companies. Even today he owns a few companies.

He calls himself a serial entrepreneur, but I consider that a parallel entrepreneur. Personally, I think all small business owners should have at least two companies. But that's another story.

Here we chat a bit about TimeZest, a calendaring add-on for ConnectWise. Then we move to EOS - the Entrepreneurial Operating System - as described by Gino Wickman in his book Traction.

There are many, many books filled with advice for business owners. Jamison likes the EOS model because it is most easily applied to small business. In fact, as he says, it can be self-applied without a coach.

But there are some obvious advantages to having a coach who can help you have those difficult meetings and keep things moving when you get stuck in the weeds.

Jamison has been a "serial entrepreneur" for over 20 years. He has a wealth of experience in several areas include: Founding and operating companies in the SaaS and IT Services space; participating in and moderating professional peer groups (HTG & EO); advising organizations in the SaaS and IT Services verticals; speaking on a range of topics from Cloud to M&A to People, and implementing EOS®.

Links: - www.jamisonwest.com - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamisonwest/

Listen here:

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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.

Ryan joins us again . . . from a remote location.

THE topic we felt had to start with is Microsoft's announcement that they are putting an end to "internal use" software rights. We look at Microsoft's move generally, why we think they're doing it, and what it means for channel.

For those who haven't been in the "partner" program or Action Pack program, Microsoft has historically granted partners the ability to run their own (internal) business with the software they access via the partner program. Partners will still be able to use licenses for testing, demonstrations, and customer-facing proof of concepts.

Related links:

https://www.channele2e.com/channel-partners/program/microsoft-ends-iur/

https://channelnomics.com/2019/07/07/microsoft-eliminating-partner-internal-use-rights/

Next up . . . We look at Google and drill down into the question, "Is Google Evil?" The notes on their shenanigans are here:

https://gizmodo.com/genius-claims-it-busted-google-stealing-by-hiding-a-sec-1835582388

and the that they can’t fix it:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-youtube-is-too-big-to-fix.html

Finally, we look at 5D Storage - 3,000 times more data than fits on a CD - and it lasts for thirteen billion years! See:

https://futurism.com/videos/glass-future-data-storage

https://industrydailyobserver.com/5d-data-storage-market-2019-to-witness-excellent-long-term-growth-outlook/163665/

Of course we're enamored with the technology itself. But more imporantly, how does this help us figure out where we're going.

All in all: Another fun conversation.

Please give us feedback. Drop questions below. And share with your friends on social media!

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I met Allen Edwards all the way back in April of this year. I've already seem him at events in two states. We even shared a beer (or two) in Albuquerque. Allen help IT Professionals create great processes.

Allen Edwards began his I.T. career in 1994. He founded his first I.T. company in 2002, and in ten short years led his firm through a transition from break/fix to MSP, from custom ticketing to AutoTask before moving to ConnectWise Manage, and a final sale of the business.

A sought-after MSP and Process expert, Allen helps Business Leaders and their teams while building meaningful, growth-centered relationships that support next level performance.

Link: https://EurekaProcess.com

Enjoy the video interview:

Download Audio:

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.

In 2008, Brooke Ferguson, MBA packed up her business consulting practice and moved it online. Her objective was simple: keep growing her business while she saw the world.

Brooke spent a number of years traveling, while keeping Thailand as her "home base." Eventually, she realized that she wanted to make beautiful Krabi, Thailand her home. She has since set up her business beachside, and helps others from around the world discover their own personal and business alignment.

I don't normally post photos this grand, but look at that landscape!

Here we talk about Brooke's newest book – The Levels. This is, basically, her approach to using the laws of the universe to understand our personal universe AND how we can use this understanding to influence our success. She uses the language of physics to describe our relationships, our business, and our general activities.

Then she connects this to the world of self-awareness and even meditation.

Best quote: "No one's going to argue with the person who's angry and wants to take a few minutes."

Follow along with Brooke's journey at https://www.businessbackpacker.com and get on her mailing list for upcoming deals and discounts for her new book, The Levels

Enjoy the video interview:

Download Audio:

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.

Dave was off to New Zealand when we recorded Episode 13. So Ryan and Karl took on three topics on our own. Dave will be back next week.

We kick off with a discussion of social media moderation. In particular, why does one social media outlet (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) leave material up while another one takes it down? In addition, we touch on the spectrum from obviously fake to deep fake content. How much can AI help Facebook and others deal with content moderation? AND is this a free speech issue? And if so, does Facebook have the right to regulate our speech?

Feedback welcome (form below).

Speaking of Facebook, we moved to a discussion of Libra, FB's new cryptocurrency. With 1.7 billion users without bank accounts, FB is hoping to be the "best" way to exchange money. Can we trust Facebook with our money when we can't trust them with our data?

There are many good things about the new FB currency model . . . but also some serious questions.

Speaking of security . . . Ryan poses the question of whether it makes sense to have an MSSP (managed security service provider) that is not an MSP (managed service provider)? At what point is this just "outsourced IT?" Or perhaps we're all MSSPs. Or maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle.

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I caught up with my brother Manuel after he returned from a triumphant tour of Europe and the UK. He's got some cool things going on the second half of the year, including a big Coaches Mastermind event at CompTIA's ChannelCon.

We talked about Manuel's coaching and consulting, and then did a deep dive into a few topics.

First up: Culture!

How do you create culture on purpose? And what happens if you let it grow by itself? I love Manuel's assessment that it has to grow from the top down . . . or else it will grow from the bottom up.

Second: Manuel is organizing a "Coaches Mastermind" opportunity at ChannelCon – Free to attendees. This is a limited event due to the size of the room. First come, first served. To make sure you don't miss it, sign up for Manuel's newsletter here: https://manuelpalachuk.com/

Enjoy the video interview:

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.

We start off arguing about whether to investigate and breaks up some of the big online services. Listen for Dave's challenge to the listeners!

Next up, we jump into the following article from the MIT Technology Review: Revising DNS to include Blockchain.

Questions include: Is there a problem that needs to be solved? Does anarchy and secrecy create additional issues? Perhaps the for-profit market can fend off these issues.

Finally, we revisit the question of whether a pizza (or burrito) will be delivered to our homes first by robot or flying drone. The referenced article is about Amazon's announcement that Prime members can expect drone deliveries "within months."

See https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/amazon-debuts-its-new-delivery-drone-says-it-will-begin-n1014371

Where do you stand in the bet of Drone vs. Robot?

Well, we think it's more interesting to debate whether we're creating more jobs than we're eliminating.

. . . Just another fast-pace podcast. Please give it a listen and leave us your comments and questions.

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Topics here include technology in schools, Windows 7 EOL, and SpaceX.

Technology in schools has become more important than ever, but the "digital divide" is getting worse. Some districts have amazing, cutting edge programs while others are struggling to teach basic skills. As a consultant, it's easier to sell into the education market. But finding people to help people learn the tech remains a challenge.

From there Dave rants on technicians who are irate about the end of life for Windows 7 - TEN YEARS after it was introduced. That leads to a discussion of transitions in general and expectations in particular. We finish with the surprising note that Microsoft is more interesting today than it has been in a very long time.

Our final topic is the coolness of SpaceX's launch of 60 satellites at once, and the future of their low-orbit Internet offering. The potential goodness from this venture includes universal access to the Internet and all the cool stuff that comes from massive bandwidth. Once again, access with bring opportunity to developing nations. And the badness? Well, 12,000 low orbit satellites will be visible to the point of interfering with star gazing.

Please give it a listen. Share with your friends. Subscribe. And give us your feedback below.

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A follow-up to the topic we started last week.

We kick off with a discussion about ethics in emerging technology. Ethics need to be both internal and outward-facing. And the sooner ethics enters the discussion, the better.

Inventors don't normally consider the evil possibilities in their creations right from the start. At what point should they?

Referenced article: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/tech/tech-morality-max-levchin/index.html

Are you have these kinds of high value discussions with clients and vendors? One point of view: You only need to do that if you want more money!

From there we pivot to charitable giving by high tech entrepreneurs.

Finally, we take a look at subscription services that are delightfully surprising. What subscription services you are surprised by?

Dave notes that subscribers will only subscribe to a limited number services. This is a huge argument for bundling your services!

Please give it a listen. Share with your friends. Subscribe. And give us your feedback below.

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