SMB Community Podcast: Business Advice for Small MSP Owners

John Armato – Think Inside the Box

John Armato is a Senior Vice President & Senior Partner, and Creative Strategist for Fleishman-Hillard International Communications.

John helps companies set strategy, shape messages, and develop programs to inspire people, sell products, solve problems, promote causes, and avert crises. He has won dozens of awards and worked with more than 100 clients, including Hallmark, H&R Block, Visa, E. & J. Gallo Winery, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Egyptian Tourism Authority, and the University of Oregon.

John is in demand to lead "big idea" sessions and to coach others on the creative process. He has been called "one of the most accomplished presenters in his field" and his keynotes have been featured at clients, colleges, and conferences around the country.

In this podcast, John talks to us about creativity and how the "idea" process works. I think you'll find this a very engaging discussion. It also ties in well with the presentation John will be making at the SMB Online Conference next month.

John's presentation is entitled "Think Inside The Box." He'll be discussing the creative process, communications, and living a life of ideas.

John's Web Site: : www.thinkinside.biz

Twitter: www.twitter.com/@armatoj

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnarmato

See the press release on this topic here: Creative Strategist Says Stop Thinking Outside The Box.

The theme of this year's SMB Online Conference is IT Business Reboot – We'll cover a variety of topics related to re-building your business as if you were starting over today.

Here are the topics for Day Three – June 27th:

9:00 AM PST Karl's Keynote (Karl W. Palachuk)

10:00 AM Brian Sharp – How to Take Back and Turn Around Your Small Business

11:00 AM John Armato – Think Inside The Box

1:00 PM Rayanne Buchianico – Understand Your Financials – Use Data to Make Decisions

2:00 PM Special Presentation

(all times are Pacific)

For more information on the conference, visit www.SMBOnlineConference.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.

Rayanne Buchianico

Rayanne Buchianico is an Accountant and MSP Business Consultant.

At the SMB Online Conference in June, she'll be talking about Understanding Your Financials: Three Mandatory Monthly Reports and What They Are Telling You.

We talked last week about how you can use QuickBooks and your financials. She gave some great information – which is why she has TWO presentations at the SMB Online Conference next month. Listen to the podcast … then check out the conference.

Rayanne has over 25 years of accounting, tax and business experience in the SMB sector. She specializes in working with IT Professionals and MSPs to improve profitability through accounting systems, financial reporting, and PSA integration. She was awarded the 2012 Jim Locke Memorial Community Award (formerly "SBSer of the Year") by SMB Nation and SMBTN and was named to the SMB 150 list by SMB Technology Network (SMBTN) and SMB PC magazine in 2011 and 2012. She partnered with Bigger Brains to provide the QuickBooks 2013 video training course. She is the founder and leader of the Tampa Bay IT Pro Group, and is the past Treasurer of the Global IT Community Association for both the North American Board and the Global Board.

Rayanne is the owner of ABC Solutions, LLC in Clearwater, Florida. ABC Solutions provides accounting, tax, and accounting systems consulting services to SMB IT companies throughout the United States.

Web Site: www.abcsolutionsfl.com

Blog: http://abcsolutionsfl.wordpress.com

See the press release "Demystifying QuickBooks – What I.T. Professionals Need To Know" here: SMB Online Conference Press Room.

The theme of this year's SMB Online Conference is IT Business Reboot – We'll cover a variety of topics related to re-building your business as if you were starting over today.

Here are the topics for Day One – June 25th:

9:00 AM Karl's Keynote (Karl W. Palachuk)

10:00 AM Chip Reaves – Better Sales Through Better Education

11:00 AM Rayanne Buchianico – Understanding Your Financials: Three Mandatory Monthly Reports and What They Are Telling You

1:00 PM Manuel Palachuk – Five Tools That Could Transform Your Company Overnight

(all times are Pacific)

For more information on the conference, visit www.SMBOnlineConference.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.

Manuel Palachuk

My brother Manuel is an author, business coach, and outsourced CIO. He worked at KPEnterprises for six years, half of it as President. In this presentation he talks about the five tools that can transform your company overnight.

He has over 25 years of business, management, and training experience in the computer and electronics industries. He is an expert of process, systems, and their efficiency who is driven toward continuous improvement in all aspects of business. Manuel is the co-author of the Network Migration Workbook, an expansive document covering the complete processes and checklists required to migrate your network with zero downtime. Manuel is currently writing Getting to the Next Level: A Blueprint For Taking Your Managed Service Business To The Top.

Manuel speaks on Day One – June 25th. In this 25 minute interview he gives an introduction to his talk. In the full presentation, he'll talk about cash flow, communications, people processes, working in real time, and monitoring backlog. All of these, he says, are All inter-related.

Listen to this interview and find out why Time is your widget.

For more info on Manuel:

Visit www.ManuelPalachuk.com

and just look for ManuelPalachuk on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

See the press release here: SMB Online Conference Press Room.

The theme of this year's SMB Online Conference is IT Business Reboot – We'll cover a variety of topics related to re-building your business as if you were starting over today.

Here are the topics for Day One – June 25th:

9:00 AM Karl's Keynote (Karl W. Palachuk)

10:00 AM Chip Reaves – Better Sales Through Better Education

11:00 AM Rayanne Buchianico – Understanding Your Financials: Three Mandatory Monthly Reports and What They Are Telling You

1:00 PM Manuel Palachuk – Five Tools That Could Transform Your Company Overnight

(all times are Pacific)

For more information on the conference, visit www.SMBOnlineConference.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.

Brian Sharp

Brian Sharp is a great motivational speaker/trainer. He runs a company that helps small business owners learn to use speaking and presenting as a means to expand their company and make sales. His company is called Go Big – http://www.gobigcompany.com/. As you'll hear in this interview, Brian does not like the "pitch fest" approach to motivational training, which is very popular these days.

We did a press release recently on Brian Sharp's appearance. See the press release here: SMB Online Conference Press Room.

Brian helps businesses understand where their business and how it can grow. Very much inline with our "IT Business Reboot" theme, Brian will be talking about How to Take Back and Turn Around Your Small Business. As you will hear on the audio, Brian is very excited to be presenting this material.

A few sites mentioned by Brian: PresenterBox.com and BrianSharpOnline.com.

The theme of this year's SMB Online Conference is IT Business Reboot – We'll cover a variety of topics related to re-building your business as if you were starting over today.

Here are the topics for Day Three – June 28th:

9:00 AM Karl's Keynote (Karl W. Palachuk) / Absolute Rules of Success

10:00 AM Brian Sharp – How To Take Back & Turn Around Your Small Business

11:00 AM John Armato – Thinking Inside The Box

1:00 PM Rayanne Buchianico – Understanding Your Financials – Use Data To Make Decisions

(all times are Pacific)

For more information on the conference, visit www.SMBOnlineConference.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.

Strategies for a Post-SBS World

"June 30th isn't that far away."

Kevin Beares is the Community Lead for the Windows Server and System Group at Microsoft. Kevin is in charge of driving community interaction for the SMB space.

I caught up with Kevin at SMB Nation Spring at the Microsoft Conference Center. Kevin gets props for putting himself on stage and letting the entire crowd put their toughest questions against him. It was supposed to be an hour, but Kevin stayed more than two hours and was accompanied by Microsoft MVPs Steven Banks and Cliff Galiher, who did a good job of representing both the Microsoft perspective and the partner perspective.

One of the first things Kevin pointed out to me is that there IS a product team that is still focused on the SMB space. The Home Server and Small Business Server products have been re-jiggered and the current SKU is Server Essentials. But the team still exists.

He did not say this, but the comment "Read into that what you want" allows me to read into it that there will be a new product or perhaps product line.

It's kind of funny. Just a couple days ago I reported on the Small Biz Thoughts Blog that Frank Shaw from Microsoft was irritated by the negative feedback they've received over Windows 8. He basically said that feedback is good, but not too much.

I have always found that Microsoft is very willing to take feedback. Sometimes they sound a bit defensive and really just want to explain their position. But they do listen and they do take the message back to the development team.

Kevin Beares is doing a great job listening to the community and gathering their feedback. He is fully engaged on the Facebook Group that is discussing changes in SBS. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/131473643614130/. And rather than simply defending past decisions, Kevin did a great job on stage echoing back to the community: "I understand your concerns about pricing …." He also offered up a configuration strategy for putting Server Essentials and Exchange on the same box.

Listen to the interview and engage Kevin here:

https://www.facebook.com/kevin.beares

or

[email protected]

– Download the Interview with Kevin Beares from Microsoft here.

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.

Better Sales Through Better Education

Chip Reaves from Bigger Brains is going to be one of the featured speakers at the 2013 SMB Online Conference.

We did a press release recently on Chip's appearance. See the press release here: SMB Online Conference Press Room.

In this podcast Chip talks about some research he'll be presenting in his June presentation. Here's a very good tidbit: When asked what they need in a consultant, the Number One requirement is knowledge. Clients want to have someone they can trust to give them advice . . . and that person needs to speak business as much as technology.

Chip's talk will address several ways you can improve your sales and bottom line by adding internal and external education to your business. Download the interview to read more.

The theme of this year's SMB Online Conference is IT Business Reboot – We'll cover a variety of topics related to re-building your business as if you were starting over today.

Here are the topics for Day One – June 25th:

9:00 AM Karl's Keynote (Karl W. Palachuk)

10:00 AM Chip Reaves – Better Sales Through Better Education

11:00 AM Rayanne Buchianico – Understanding Your Financials: Three Mandatory Monthly Reports and What They Are Telling You

1:00 PM Manuel Palachuk – Five Tools That Could Transform Your Company Overnight

(all times are Pacific)

For more information on the conference, visit www.SMBOnlineConference.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.

At the SMB Nation Spring Conference, I talked to Laura Shafer, Director or Product Marketing at StorageCraft. StorageCraft and their ShadowProtect product are very well known.

Now StorageCraft has a new cloud-based disaster recovery program called StorageCraft Cloud Services. This product was in beta during "Super Storm Sandy" and performed admirably. Now it is in general release.

For more information, visit www.StorageCraft.com – There's a Partner link on the right side of the page.

Contact Laura at [email protected] or ping the partner program at [email protected].

– Download the Interview with Laura Shafer of StorageCraft here.

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 week Chip Reaves from Bigger Brains announced a great new offering for managed service providers. I talked to him about Bigger Brains and the new offering – Computer College.

Chip is the founder of Computer Troubleshooters in the U.S. (It was originally an Australian company.) Computer Troubleshooters grew to 480 locations in 33 countries. After selling off his interest in that franchise, Chip still owns a Computer Troubleshooters business in South Carolina.

Bigger Brains was created to provide e-learning systems to Chip's clients. Training is a natural addition to what we do for a living. In fact, many of us offer some kind of O.S. or software training in our managed services offerings already.

Bigger Brains now has two levels of offerings.

First, the "Bigger Brains" brand is a training service that you can resell. It has lots of courses and sells for about $17 per user per month. That's end user pricing. You can make a very healthy profit on that (details in the audio).

Cources include Excel, Word, PowerPoint, online marketing, sales, productivity, and many more. Right now there are fourteen courses but more are in production. This service can be billed to the MSP or to the end user, depending on what you want.

For more information, visit www.Bigger-Brains.com – There's a Reseller link at the bottom. Second, Chip has just announced Computer College – a new service that is a lower cost version of Bigger Brains – specifically designed for MSPs to include in packages.

Computer College includes Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and QuickBooks.

Your cost is only $30 per client per year. That's not per user: $30 for the entire company! You can resell individually or include in your managed service packages.

The new service is billed 100% through the channel. Only available to MSPs. Bigger Brains (Computer College) bills you and you then bill the client or simply include in your offerings.

The client-facing portal is at www.ComputerCollege.biz. Notice that there is no reseller information there.

Reseller info is at www.biggermsp.com.

Best way to get started: Sign up at Bigger-Brains.com and sign up as a reseller. That will start your interaction with Chip.

[email protected] – Download the Interview with Chip Reaves of Bigger Brains here.

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.

I had a great talk with Michael Siggins, Publisher of ChannelProSMB.

Among other things, he brought me up to speed on their big live event scheduled for April 10th: Channel Pro SMB Forum. This day-long educational event will be in beautiful Long Beach, CA. The weather is expected to be perfect!

Channel Pro Forum will be a jam-packed, one-day affair with great content, great food and great networking opportunities. Sessions include: o Adapting Your Business to the Cloud o Winning Sales and Marketing Strategies for MSPs o Where the Money Is in Mobility o Today's Hottest Trends in Hardware o CompTIA Training: MSP Partners Trustmark

And of course you, I will be there on a panel.

The event is FREE.

For more info and to register, please go to www.ChannelProForum.com.

Michael also mentioned that ChannelPro magazine is holding its Reader Choice Award voting.

This is a program designed to identify the most SMB-specific products, solutions and services for ChannelPro readers and their customers. They are accepting votes at least through the end of February and will announce the results in the springtime.

You can cast your vote for our Reader Choice Awards at www.VoteChannelPro.com.

And of course you can alwasy check out ChannelPro SMB magazine at www.Channelprosmb.com.

– Download the Interview with Michael Siggins from ChannelPro here.

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.

For several years now, I have presented my "State of the Nation" address for small business IT consultants.

I never pretend that I'm unbiased. But most of my writing is pretty matter of fact. And most of my interviewing is intended to coax information out of other people.

But once a year I dust off the soapbox and give a 45 minute "State of the Nation" address.

This year, I talked about . . .

• Highlights (lowlights?) from 2012
• The Death of SBS
• Cloud Services
• Economy
• Rebooting Your IT Consulting Business in 2013

– Download Karl's 2013 State of the Nation Address for Small Business I.T. Consultants here.

Here are some of the web sites listed in this broadcast.

• www.SMBBooks.com
• www.smbonlineconference.com
• blog.smallbizthoughts.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.