SMB Community Podcast

I had a great chat with my old friend Nigel Moore from Australia about his new book, Package Price Profit.

(You can buy it on Amazon in paperback or Kindle edition.)

This book is a great overview of pricing and bundling options in the IT service industry. I particularly love his analogy about so-called All You Can Eat: Everything at the buffet is included. If you want us to make a special dish for you, that's not included!

Of course Nigel is also the founder of the Tech Tribe - www.thetechtribe.com. So we chatted about that a bit.

The official book site is www.packagepriceprofit.com.

:-)

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I had a great chat with my old friend Nigel Moore from Australia about his new book, Package Price Profit.

(You can buy it on Amazon in paperback or Kindle edition.)

This book is a great overview of pricing and bundling options in the IT service industry. I particularly love his analogy about so-called All You Can Eat: Everything at the buffet is included. If you want us to make a special dish for you, that's not included!

Of course Nigel is also the founder of the Tech Tribe - www.thetechtribe.com. So we chatted about that a bit.

The official book site is www.packagepriceprofit.com.

:-)

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This is a great interview with Jennifer Fields of ASTEK Marketing. I have worked with Jennifer for 2+ years now. She's the real deal.

ASTEK Marketing is based in Kenosha, WI. They have an office there for doing call-downs and follow-ups on the marketing services they provide.

ASTEK specializes in marketing for MSPs: strategic planning, direct marketing, executing call-downs, and more. They have a new office in Kenosha, but it's populated with people who have been with ASTEK for several years.

We cover a lot of territory in this podcast, but the my favorite part was the discussion of MDF – Marketing Development Funds that are available from many vendors. In addition to simply helping you spend the money, ASTEK actually helps you apply for the funds and makes you they are distributed.

The bottom line is that they provide a very technology-specific marketing. Everyone understands your offer. AND they understand the context of what you do. So if you're doing VOIP or security, their team understands all those other options. So they can pick up on opportunities that a non-technical marketing team would miss.

Overall, a fun conversation. Check it out and post your questions below.

(Jennifer is also a community leader in the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community.)

Find Jennifer at: www.astekmarketing.com.

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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.

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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

:-)

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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

:-)

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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

:-)

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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/

:-)

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Jay McBain is Forrester's Principal Analyst, Channels, Partnership, and Alliances.

He's always fun to talk to. And get ready to listen to this one two or three times. Jay drops numbers all the time. So go get a pencil before you hit "play."

You can connect with Jay at:

• https://go.forrester.com/blogs/author/jay_mcbain/

Jay is one of the most visible thought leaders in the global technology channel. He was named to the Top 40 Under Forty by the Business Review as well as numerous channel media top influencer lists, he is often sought out for industry guidance and future trends. He has spent his 25 year career in various executive channel sales, marketing, and strategy roles within IBM, Lenovo, Autotask, and ChannelEyes.

A few quick stats: Jay counts

• 54 Channel magazines
• across 200 countries
• 150 tradeshows
• A dozen associations
• Plus peer groups
• 80 LinkedIn groups
• 30 Facebook Groups
• and about 600,000 channel service companies overall

The conversation covers a lot of ground. I promise you'll get a "bigger" picture of the world you compete it.

:-)

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I caught up with Rayanne Buchianico from Sell My MSP (http://www.sellmymsp.com). She gave us the big update on their 2019 Refresh.

It's more than a web site update. They've got a new valuation tool and more.

Rayanne Buchianico

Rayanne owns ABC Solutions in Clearwater, FL. She help MSPs get their finances straightened in order to run their company most efficiently. As you can imagine, this includes some great skills that will help MSPs as they start looking at selling their companies.

ABC Solutions is a public accounting firm in Clearwater, FL. They focus on helping MSPs with accounting and bookkeeping services.

Rayanne created the very cool valuation tool you'll find at sellmymsp.com. That tool is newly reconfigured to look at Gross Revenue, Gross Profit, or EBITDA prices. Rayanne discusses this a bit in the interview.

We cover a lot of territory here, including both the buyers' and the sellers' perspectives. We also talk about the practical side of cleaning up your profit and loss statement so you're ready to go on the market.

Yes, we discuss fees with complete transparency.

Of course Rayanne will help you with the work of fixing your P&L if you need that. Such services are not included in the listing fee, of course.

My favorite surprising note from this interview: Even if you're not profitable, your clients might be worth something! Obviously, there's more money with more profit. But your business is probably worth something even if you don't make a big profit!

Disclaimer: I have used Rayanne's Company (ABC Solutions) to help me revise, update, and "fix" my QuickBooks accounts. I receive no money or even a tall beer if you spend your money with ABC Solutions or Sell My MSP. Also: The FTC has no idea how business works in the real world.

Side note: Rayanne is teaching a class on maximizing your financials starting August 6th. It's called Financial Services for the IT Services Industry. See www.greatlittleseminar.com.

Another favorite note: There are two types of business owners. One maximizes tax deductions and shows no profit on the bottom line. The other maximizes profit and ends up paying more taxes. ONE of these is far more valuable on the day you sell your business.

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