Sunday, December 30, 2007

The Smartest Blogs on the Internet

In the world of technical consulting, there are two sides of the office: Those who deliver technical solutions and those who figure out where the business is going and how to get there.

Michael Gerber (The E-Myth Revisited) labels these as "working in the business" vs. "working on the business."

In the smallest I.T. consulting firms, these are the same people. In a one person shop, the owner simply does everything. But with just a little growth, the division emerges quickly.

I believe both sides of the office need to read material directed to both sides. Technicians need to understand the business side of business. And owners and strategists need to keep connected with the technology.

To that end, let me recommend two blogs that are absolute must-read material for both sides of the office.

For the technical tips, tricks, updates, and just plain useful information, you need Susan Bradley's Blog (http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/default.aspx).

Susan's blog is filled with no-apologies technical stuff about 80% of the time (and no apologies other stuff the other 20%). It really is must-read material. Many consultants in the small biz space go to Susan's blog first when they're looking for a solution. A quick search brings up only the information related to this space. After that you can check out technet.

On the business side of your business, you need Vlad Mazek's Blog (http://www.vladville.com).

You may not agree with everything he says, or the way it's presented, but for an analysis of the business you're in, Vladville is the smartest blog on the internet. Just look over his posts for the last week! In fact, this entire post was inspired by his article on Arthur Miller and the Death of an SMB Tech Salesman.

My complete reaction to that post this morning was "Damn this is good. Thank God someone's thinking about this stuff."

I suspect that these two blogs are particularly useful because neither author is exactly in our space. Neither of them is a consultant with a shop on the corner. Both of them interact with SMB consultants and clients all the time. So they get to see us in a little different light.

I read about ten blogs consistently and check out another half dozen from time to time. No one can keep up with everything, and I'm sure I'm missing some great stuff. But to keep the two sides of my brain tuned up at all times, I keep up on Susan and Vlad.

You should, too.

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