A Few Hours Left to Save on Autotask Live and SBS Migration Conferences

There are plenty of events in the SMB space this spring, and I give all the details in my weekly SMB Email, which you can sign up for at the Great Little Book web site.

But I want to make special note of two events whose prices go up tomorrow:

Two big conferences end early registration tonight. Save yourself a bunch of money and break out the credit card now.

I'll be attending both of these and hope to see you there. After all, I want to share a vendor-sponsored beer!


1. Autotask Community Live

MAN we had a blast in Nash-Vegas last year. Tons of content. Great atmosphere. Very educational.

And before the price goes up, I got my registration for Autotask Live at only $295. You can too!
The big live event is April 18-20 in Miami, FL.
Visit Autotask Community Live for registration details.

Plan on the big Pre-Day festivities. April 17th all day. You'll need to come a day early. We're right on the ocean and there are all kinds of hotels just a few blocks away, but AT has made arrangements to get the excellent conference rate a day or two early. So plan to arrive a day early and do the pre-day events.


2. Jeff Middleton's SMB IT Pro Conference in New Orleans

The SMB IT Pro conferences, sponsored by SBSMigration.com, is being held May 28-30 in New Orleans. We're at a great hotel literally on the edge of the French Quarter. If you were at the first SMB IT Pro conference in NOLA, this is the same hotel. Jeff Middleton always does a great job and this will be another wonderful gathering of international talent in the SMB Space.

The price goes up $100 tomorrow and is only $295 today.
Visit SBSMigration.com for all the details.

I bought two paid tickets to this event and will be bringing at least one hanger-on. I'm leaving May 31st (Memorial Day). I look forward to seeing you there.

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Whether the economy "is" recovering or "will" recover, you can certainly afford to invest a little something in your career. These conferences are a great opportunity to come up to speed with what others are doing in your profession, how they solve problems, and how they make money.

I've never attended a gather of I.T. professionals that wasn't a great, educational experience.

See you there!


:-)

Join Karl for a Zero Downtime Migration Seminar New Orleans, March 17th Miami, FL, April 17th

Use Tiny URLs Strategically

I'm sure you're familiar with Tiny URLs. You go to http://tinyurl.com, enter any web address, and it returns a very short redirect URL that brings up your much longer location. For example: http://tinyurl.com/yf7t292.

One of the coolest features is one that I rarely see used. Instead of the random location (/yf7t292) you can request a specific address. If it's available, it's yours permanently.

Obviously, this is very handy for URLs that you use multiple times when posting to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Tiny URLs are also great on PowerPoint slides -- especially if they're customized.

For example, here are some custom Tiny URLs I have registered:

http://tinyurl.com/cloudsr
This goes to the Cloud Services Roundtable free public broadcasts page.

http://tinyurl.com/sactech
This is a client-facing meetup.com site for KPEnterprises.

http://tinyurl.com/sacspeak
A shortcut to the Sacramento Speakers Network, a group of successful speakers who meet every month.

http://tinyurl.com/kpe2010
Points to KPEenterprises.com (Sacramento's premier Microsoft certified Small Business Specialist), the consulting business I run.

http://tinyurl.com/smbemail
Points to the email sign-up page for Great Little Book / SMBBooks.com. When I encourage people to sign up for my weekly consulting email, this is the URL I use.

http://tinyurl.com/smbquiz
I did a Twitter-based contest in December and created this URL for that. Note that this one is very reusable. Because the URL says quiz and the landing page actually says quiz, I can reuse this for any quiz I happen to put up.

http://tinyurl.com/cdsample
Points to a specific blog post about ordering a free copy of the SMB Books sampler CD.

http://tinyurl.com/sacsmb
Points to our user group, the Sacramento SMB IT Professionals.

http://tinyurl.com/smbnew
Points to the "What's New" page at SMBBooks.com.

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Blog Fodder

Whether it's for the SMB consulting community or your end-user client audience, I hope you have a folder somewhere with Blog Fodder. That's what I call all the clippings and notes and stuff that I might some day blog about.

I keep a small file there called !Tiny URLs.txt. It lists all the reusable Tiny URLs I've created over the years. It starts with ! so it's at the top of the file listing and makes it very easy for me to copy and paste these URLs into Twitter, etc.

As you can see, it's pretty easy to create your customized Tiny URLs. I've been very pleased with how many are available. Apparently, not many people use this feature or my life would be a lot more difficult.

Try it.

:-)

Now Available: Win a free pass to the SMB VOIP Conference Las Vegas March 1-3 Compliments of SMB Books. Free to enter. Join me in Vegas, Baby!

Let Me Buy You a Ticket to the VOIP Conference in Vegas

I struck a deal with HarryB and the good folks at SMB Nation. I bought one of the early registration tickets for the first-ever SMB VOIP show in Vegas March 1-3.

And I want YOU to win it!

Win a FREE ticket to the SMB VOIP Conference in Las Vegas
SMBVoIP2010


The contest is super simple. Go to SMB Books and fill out the form. From among all the entries, we'll pick three winners and announce them in the weekly SMB Email on February 15th.

• First Prize: Admission to SMB VOIP Conference - A $595 value! (early registration $495)
• Second Prize: $50 Coupon at SMB Books
• Third Prize $25 Coupon at SMB Books

The rules are very simple: Please only enter once. Open to all residence of the known universe. No purchase necessary. Contest ends at 11:59 PM on Saturday February 13th (Pacific time). Prize does not include hotel or airfare. No substitutions please. Must be human to win.

What have you got to lose?

Find out more about the SMB VOIP conference at Telephonation.com

Good Luck!

:-)

Donate to Haiti Earthquake Relief and Get a Bootcamp Seat from Robin Robins

Even if you ignore the news, I'm sure you're aware of the recent earthquake in Haiti that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, devastated the island, destroyed virtually every building, and left over a million people homeless.

You can't go there even if you want to. The Red Cross and other disaster relief agencies and encouraging donations rather than adding more people to the island.

Now you can contribute to Haitian relief and get something valuable for your company in the process. Robin Robins (of Technology Marketing Toolkit fame) is holding an amazing boot camp April 14-17 in Nashville. And she's making a special offer to encourage donations to Haitian earthquake relief.

If you make a donation, Robin will give you a free seat to the boot camp. Just the food, handouts, and materials are worth several hundred dollars, so

1) This has real value

2) You should give as generously as you can to the Red Cross or your charity of choice

For more info and the official announcement, see Robin's Site: How To Get A Free Guest Ticket To My Boot Camp While Helping Out a Great Cause

:-)

Channel Partners Conference & Expo Partners With SMB Nation

Press Release from Channel Partners and SMB Nation

Meet me in Vegas Baby! March 1-3:

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Publishers Colocate Solutions Provider Events in Vegas, March 1-3

PHOENIX – January 22, 2010 – Virgo Publishing LLC, a business-to-business information services company, and SMB Nation, a small and medium business technology partner community portal, are pleased to announce a partnership to colocate their respective events for voice and data communications solutions providers. Under the agreement, the Spring 2010 Channel Partners Conference & Expo and SMB Nation’s 2010 VoIP Workshop will be held concurrently March 1-3 at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas.

The events will conduct separate conferences with a joint exhibit hall, featuring suppliers of voice and data communications products and services and attracting more than 3,000 attendees. As a bonus, full conference attendees will be able to participate in the education programming for both events at no additional charge.

“Colocating these two events is simply an outgrowth of the cross-pollination that already has begun in the marketplace,” said Mike Saxby, group publisher for PHONE+ magazine, host of the Channel Partners Conference & Expo. “The Channel Partners Conference & Expo has a long history of serving agents and VARs selling voice communications products and services while SMB Nation is a must-attend for computer resellers and data VARs. Changes in technology, such as cloud computing, managed services and VoIP, are bringing these channels together on a more frequent basis, making a joint event a natural.”

“Literally every conversation in our community right now concerns integrating voice services into data networks. It seems like the ‘much talked about’ convergence of voice and data is finally occurring with the robust economic recovery underway and small business increasing its technology spends,” said Harry Brelsford, CEO for SMB Nation. “The opportunity to team with the Channel Partners Conference & Expo really allows us to elevate the voice and data conversation into immediate actionable outcomes. We really appreciate the support of Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and others in helping us build out our impactful SMB VoIP workshop.”

About Virgo Publishing
Virgo Publishing is a dynamic information services company specializing in communications through print and electronic media, trade shows and special events, education and training, and value-added business services. In general, each print magazine serves as a platform to create communities through the integration of publishing, events and the Web. For information, visit www.vpico.com.

About Channel Partners Conference & Expo
The Channel Partners Conference & Expo (www.channelpartnersconference.com) is the communications industry’s only event exclusively for indirect sales organizations – agents, VARs, systems integrators, interconnects and consultants – focused on transforming their businesses to become converged solutions providers. Produced by PHONE+ magazine (www.phoneplusmag.com), the event is produced twice annually in the spring and fall and features future-proofing advice from thought-leading speakers and how-to courses on best practices, technology and strategy. Topics range from hot technologies and new opportunities to partnering, diversification, sales tips and skills building.

About SMB Nation
SMB Nation (www.smbnation.com) is a publishing and events company, targeted at the small and medium business technology consultant and reseller community. SMB Nation spreads the knowledge of SMB technology trends through its books, magazine, online services, conferences and worldwide seminars and workshops. As an active participant in the technology community, SMB Nation has a long history of advocacy and evangelism.

The company was founded in 1999 as Matthew\Brelsford Associates and became SMB Nation in early 2003, to promote the books and consulting services of Harry Brelsford, the author of a successful series of SMB technology books.

Today, SMB Nation conferences, seminars and workshops bring forward-thinking IT consultants, technologies and vendors together, sparking new opportunities in the SMB space. Being THE information source for SMB technologists and Small Business Specialists worldwide, SMB Nation delivers complete business solutions to help them better manage their business, technological and marketing needs. Whether it’s delivered in print, online, or in person, everything SMB Nation produces reflects our unshakeable belief in the power of information to spur a profitable global community.

Contacts:
Mike Saxby
Channel Partners Conference & Expo
msaxby@vpico.com
+1 480 990 1101

Harry Brelsford
SMB Nation
harryb@smbnation.com
+1 206 915 3072

:-)

Hiring Report: New Technician, New Sales Guy

I've written many articles about how much I hate the hiring process. Well we just did some serious hiring. In November we went through the new hiring process I outlined here in November. Basically, the process consists of these instructions:

1) Do not send a resume

2) Send a few paragraphs about why you're passionate about this industry

3) Send a link to your Microsoft transcript

This turned out to be a great pre-screening tool and we hired an excellent technician.

Then in November and December we went through the frustrating experience of Hiring a Sales Person. That was more of a standard hiring process, although I was rigorous about multiple interviews and figuring out the math and logistics of actually paying someone without going broke.

Thanks to Josh Peterson of Taylor Business Group and Erick and Rafael from MSPU for their input on all this.

Anyway, it has not been a full month since we hired the sales guy so I thought I'd give an update on the year so far.

In many ways the Christmas season is the best time to hire a sales person. The first month is a lost cause for sales and all the focus is on training. As a result, you might as well get all that done when there won't be much sales activity anyway.

Today I am happy to report that the new tech, Mike, has performed spectacularly well and is about half way through his 90 day probation period. He's studying for exams and emerging as a leader in the tech bullpen. He is exactly what we were looking for with our revised process. He is passionate about the industry and customer service.

As for sales, Jerry's the new sales guy. He is super full of energy, very good at what he does, and a quick learner. He has made some small sales and is poised to make a big one this week. He is also a good strategist and has a very quick mind.

In fact, both Mike and Jerry have similar personality profiles to mine. The result is that the three of us can move at very high speeds, picking up where the others leave off, totally focusing on one job and still able to switch gears as needed.

I expect we will reach warp 1 in another month or so. It's a great environment for me.

Bottom Line

So the bottom line is that the slow and sometimes painful hiring process has produced a couple of real gems for us. We're continuing to build a great team. Next we need to focus on delivery and execution. Sometimes the hardest part of management is to maintain good processes and culture as the company grows.

We will probably hire another technician soon. I can't have Jerry signing new contracts and no one tuned up to deliver the service.

So far 2010 is headed in the right direction.

:-)

Now Shipping: The Network Migration Workbook: Zero Downtime Migration Strategies for Microsoft Networks

Who moved Stuart Crawford's cheese?

Just in case you've been wondering what's up with Stuart Crawford . . .

Think Social Media.

A few years ago I read a great book called "Who Moved My Cheese"? In this short and powerful read about the importance of consistently keeping an eye out for the changes and how we as technology professionals can remain one step ahead of the curve and also offer the solutions our clients are looking for.

Stuart Crawford has played an important role in the IT channel over the past few years. Stuart first got into technology as a member of Canadian military and over time he became one of the thought leaders in our MSP community. Over the past few years Stuart started to develop a keen interest in Social Media Consulting, regularly blogging about how MSP's can leverage all the social media tools available to expand their circles of influence.

Stuart has decided to jump in with both feet into helping small business and also our technology community understand the importance of social media and also how to become a master social networker. Ulistic is a full service Internet Consulting firm located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada offering social media consulting, search engine optimization, web services, hosted application support and YouTube video production.

Stuart is a proven leader when it comes to marketing online. I would highly recommend that you give him a call and allow him to figure out how he can help you with your blogs, being found online, how to use Twitter and anything around marketing your business. Stuart can help you out without any strings attached. Give him a shout at 403.775.2205.

Ulistic will be offering a partner program for MSPs and IT Professionals. Their partner program will extend the entire Ulistic product suite so your business can offer additional services which in all fairness your clients are looking for.

More details at Ulistic and Stuart's New Blog, http://ulistic-opinion.com/.

:-)

Now Available: Introduction to Zero Downtime Migrations Seminar on MP3 Download

Harry Brelsford on The Year Ahead in the Cloud

Where is our industry going? Join a discussion about the emerging cloud services industry with someone who's been guiding the SMB Community for more than a decade.

Please join me and Harry Brelsford today at 9:00 AM Pacific / 12:00 Noon Eastern for the live Cloud Services Roundtable conference call. For more information and registration, visit www.cloudservicesroundtable.com.

We'll cover some of the news in the SMB Cloud space and look to the profitable future for small business consultants and their clients.

The live broadcast is free.

Mark your calendar!


:-)

It's Coming . . . The Best NOC and Service Desk Operations Book Ever! by Erick Simpson Ships very very very soon!

Zenith Infotech Announces Launch of Zenith University

Zenith Infotech partners - and prospective partners - take note. Just received this missive:

Zenith Infotech is pleased to announce the launch of Zenith University – an online Learning Management System (LMS) designed to provide 24/7 interactive training on all Zenith products. Zenith partners and their staff can launch web-based training simulations as well as take certification exams to confirm their product understanding. Zenith University provides three types of content:
1. Basic content which is open to all Zenith Partners beginning with the evaluation period,
2. Managed Services Infrastructure (MSI) content which is unlocked with the LearnMSI enrollment key, and
3. Business Continuity (BDR and ARCA) content which is unlocked by enrolling in the new Zenith Certified Partner Reseller (CPR) program (contact Zenith to enroll).
To begin, navigate to http://www.zenithu.com/. Click the Create new account button in the lower right to create your account and verify your status as a Zenith partner. Once logged in to the system, browse the list of over 35 courses and enroll in any of the available trainings. Contact your Account Management Team for more information about this new learning resource from Zenith Infotech.

Sounds great. Can't wait to see how it takes our product knowledge to the next level.

:-)

Join Karl for a Zero Downtime Migration Seminar New Orleans, March 17th Biscayne Bay, FL, April 17th

Join Me In Vegas March 1-3 for SMB VOIP Conference

Well . . . Harry did it again.

Don't miss the first SMB VOIP event that is focused on allowing you to own the entire SMB stack at your customer sites: Voice and Data.

As we move to cloud-based services, one of the services your clients will need right away is Voice Over IP. Either you sell it to them or someone else will!

This event is primarily two days (March 2-3), but there's registration and reception on March 1st. So plan to come that day and hang out with a whole new crowd of VOIPers and SMB consultants. Who knows? You might even have a chance to buy me a vendor beer!

As Harry says, "If you missed the first SMB Nation in Indianapolis in 2003, this is your chance to 'make good' and attend the first SMB VOIP event and ride the VOIP wave in SMB! Don't miss out!"

http://www.telephonation.com/smbvoip/


Workshop Overview

Attend this inaugural event and experience the opportunity to delve deeply into the SMB VOIP space in this two-day intensive conference. This workshop is designed specifically for two communities:

1. SMB data network consultants/resellers/VARs/channel partners who started with network infrastructure services (e.g. Small Business Server and other solutions) and want to ADD VOIP solutions and consulting services to their customer offerings.
2. Telecom interconnects and agents who want to master the SMB opportunity and implement best practices such as becoming a Managed Services Provider (MSP).

The agenda has been carefully crafted by SMB and Telephony VOIP masters! The content addresses specific real-world actionable go-to-market SMB business and technical advice required by all channel partners seeking to immediately ride the VOIP Wave!

Long anticipated, the convergence between data networks and voice networks is finally occurring in the SMB space. This workshop is well-timed to spur, cultivate, enhance and motivate the new SMB VOIP community. This is your chance to BE THERE from the START!

SMB VOIP is launching inside of the well-established Channel Partners show to bring together the best of both worlds. Telecom interconnects and agents have the chance to welcome SMB technology consultants. And vice-versa. The hidden jewel of this workshop is the “Hallway 101” phenomena where delegates talk to each other and share experiences in the SMB VOIP community.

I'll be walking the halls -- and presenting! Meet me in Vegas, Baby!

:-)