Join ASCII and Me for a Great Webinar: Work/Life Balance Isn’t A Myth!

Work/Life Balance Isn’t A Myth! 

Free webinar with The ASCII Group

Wednesday

Dec 11, 2024 

11:00 AM PST

Register Now at: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4000909949767876949

This is a perfect time of year to commit - or re-commit - to work/life balance.

Every industry has stress. But I think IT has more than its share. We maintain and fix the most important resources our clients need to be successful and profitable. The more technology a company needs, the more pressure there is for it to work perfectly. Which is impossible. That's the world we live in.

Over the last three decades, I've seen thousands of stress-filled businesses. And one of the key components of stress is the constant crush of activities on the “to do” list. This presentation gives you and your team a set of practical tools you can use to manage stress when the workload continues to grow more and more each day. 

If you’re paralyzed and frustrated because every task is high priority, we'll show you how to manage the workload – and get more done!

This seminar will give you some key habits of success that will literally change your life in the next 30 days!

Free. Please register today!

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4000909949767876949

:-)

Goodbye to the Portland Technology Wizards - and Thanks for the Gift!

I was extremely honored to get an email a few weeks ago from Walt Bell, the board secretary of the Portland Technology Wizards - offering to make a large contribution to the NSITSP.

Technology Wizards is one of the oldest and most successful SMB IT professional groups. They started, as did many, as and "SBS" user group, focused on Microsoft's Small Business Server. When it was clear that that product was going away, they reorganized on what their members really represented: Professional IT Services for the SMB Market. 

I had met some of the key players (Walt, Ken Shafer, Matt Wilson, and others) at SMB Nation. But the first time I ever heard of the group was from Harry Brelsford, who gave them as an example of a group that doubled down on professionalism from the start: They charged businesses to be members and didn't let strangers just show up for all their meetings.

Technology Wizards was organized as a 501(c)3. Now, after twenty-three years serving the IT professionals of Oregon, they are dissolving the group. Membership has dwindled with all the competing organizations and technology. But, as a chartered non-profit, they cannot disperse the money between members: They have to transfer it to another non-profit with a consistent mission.

Walt was emailing me to inform me that the board had decided to donate their remaining funds (just under $2,600) to the NSITSP.  I am saddened by their dissolution and honored that they see the NSITSP as an organization continuing the work they started.

My personal history with the group goes way back. 

When I first started traveling to groups with Harry Brelsford - to promote his books, my books, and one we wrote together (The SAN Primer for SMB), the Portland group was always on the list. Early on, from those tours, I realized that there were groups who always had a good turnout. Portland was absolutely in the top tier. I spoke there many times.

I was honored to be a speaker at their 10th Anniversary festivities in 2013, along with Steven Banks, President of the Seattle user group.

Here's Steve with Tech Wizards President Ken Shafer. 

If my memory serves me right, Steve's wife made an anniversary cake for the occasion. That's a perfect example of how this group was also very involved in the broader SMB IT Community.

In the flurry of emails that preceded the gift above, I exchanged several nostalgic emails with Walt, Ken, etc. Time and time again, they expressed gratitude to Amy Babinchak, Steve, Harry, and others for always being willing to drop by their meetings when they were in town - or close.

Portland has always been a technology hub in the shadow of Redmond, WA. Intel and Nike are headquartered there. Microsoft maintains a nice office there, and that was the home of the Technology Wizards.

And so, for more than twenty-three years, this group has contributed to our industry and community at the local, state, and national levels. Of course, many of their members will continue to be active. So when you see them, thank them for everything they've done - and for the gift to the NSITSP.

Note: I also wrote a short "announcement" blog post on the NSITSP blog, here.

You can learn more about the mission of the NSITSP - and how you can get involved - at www.nsitsp.org.

... And if you want to contribute $2,500 - we'll take it!

:-)

Common Sense Calculations - That are 100% Wrong

Common Sense Calculations - That are 100% Wrong

Lessons Learned Episode 7 - Common Sense Calculations

This is the story of three money calculations I used early in my consulting, and what became of them. 

First calculation: How much could I make? 

This starts with, what to charge per hour. As with most new businesses, I had no idea what to charge. My background included large, high-end businesses and selling my services to one full-time client at a time. So the world of "trading dollars for hours" was new to me.

I did some basic calculations. And for no good reason whatsoever, I started charging $100 per hour. This wasn't based on anything except it was a nice round number. This was Northern California in the late 1990's. I didn't know that basically no one charged that much.

So - How much could I make? My foolish calculation was:

At $100 per hour

and 40 hours per week

That's $4,000 per week

Times 50 weeks is an easy $200,000

Uh huh. You may have made the same foolish calculation. It took me a long time to make $200K - and that's not how I made it.

What's wrong with that calculation?

First, billing forty hours is nearly impossible, especially for the owner. Busting my butt, I sometimes managed to bill twenty hours. But I didn't charge for sales meetings, for drive time, or for all the time I took figuring out how to source hardware and software. And, of course, I didn't charge for the time I spent marketing and dealing with the overhead of running a business. 

Second, I made the same mistake many of you made by discounting larger projects. I should have added ten percent for all the hassles. Anyway, my average billing rate was closer to $80 on many jobs, and probably $90 on average.

Still, I *did* bust my butt and found lots of little jobs. I made about $60,000 in labor my first year. But it was very hard work. And the cash flow was irregular, so quarterly taxes were a bit painful.

Eventually . . . I learned to never discount my hourly rate until I was prepaid for blocks of hours. That included prepaid project labor. I limited discounts to 15%, and stayed with a standard rate of $100. Therefore, the lowest actual rate was about $85.

Second calculation: How much can I spend?

It takes money to run a business. And every once in awhile, I would look at printing or marketing programs, and I needed to determine whether I could afford them. My big mistake was to look at each individual purchase and say to myself: "That  only costs me one hour of labor." In other words, how much do I need to bill to make this purchase?

Of course, humans are supreme at justifying decisions they want to make. Do you see the mistake I already made? I was telling myself that I needed to sell one or two or three hours to justify a purchase - at $100 per hour. But we just saw that many hours were not sold at that.

I also didn't keep track of the promises I'd made myself. Four hours of labor buys a good printer. One hour buys a mailing. Half an hour buys a book. Seven hours buys a conference.

I need to keep a running tally of the one-time and recurring expenses. I do now, of course. But not at the beginning.

I realized that it was easy to over-justify how many hours I could bill on a whim!

It is always a challenge to truly determine whether you should buy something for your business. It gets easier over time. But the real cost, and the real ability to pay for it, are still based on a certain level of speculation.

Third calculation: Profitable markups

This was a hard lesson. But once I learned what works for ME, I never had to re-do it. 

I started out paying attention to the price of things being sold to the general public. For example, if a printer sold for $400, then I thought I had to be at that price or lower. But guess what? Distributors wanted to charge me *more* than that because I don't have bulk pricing. How do I compete with Office Depot and other big box stores?

My early calculation was to only sell hardware if it was combined with labor. That way, I'd try to get my margin out of the labor. But that means that 1) I was lowering my labor rate once again, and 2) I didn't account for the labor it took to research, find, buy, and deliver the hardware.

Luckily, my tax advisor was a pretty good business advisor as well. He made the separate hardware and software from everything else in QuickBooks - on both the revenue and expense sides. This way, I could see at a glance the total hardware sales and the total I paid for hardware over the year. These numbers were almost identical, which meant I had no effective markup.

At this point, I knew a few other consultants and asked them what they did with markups. Some claimed to charge 100% markup. But they also admitted that they got pushback from some clients. Some charged 20%, some 30%, and some charged the MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) and made their profit by beating up their distributors.

Eventually, I realized that 1) I can charge whatever I want as long as 2) I accept that some people won't buy from me. I decided on a simple calculation: I charged roughly 25% than I paid for an item, whether hardware or software. Thus, if I paid a distributor $100 for a product, I sold it for $125. And, thus, 20% of the final price was my margin or profit.

Note: This hard, fast rule allowed me to completely ignore MSRP. If I paid $1,000 for a desktop computer, I sold it for $1,250. Period. If the client could buy it somewhere else for $1,100, that was not my problem. I stopped looking and comparing prices. Sometimes I was above MSRP and sometimes below it. 

On VERY rare occasions, a client would ask about pricing. I simple tell them,

1) I do a lot of research to sell you the right thing

2) I only sell business class equipment with a three year warranty

3) I guarantee that what I sell you will be trouble-free. That's the business we're in.

On VERY rare occasions, clients bought things on their own. Almost every time, that resulted in a great story to tell friends over beers one day.

-- -- --

Ultimately, you need to make same mistakes and find a pathway that's sustainably profitable. And somewhere along the way, you'll realize that it's a complete waste of time to worry about what other people charge. All the time and attention you put into learning about your competition is time that should be spent on your existing clients!

Stay tuned for the next installment: The Absolute Truths about Backups!

:-)

Available Now - Newsletter Starter Kit

Just posted in my store - https://store.smallbizthoughts.com/product/newsletter-starter-kit/.

The Newsletter Starter Kit

Perhaps the most powerful marketing tool you will ever have is your monthly client-facing newsletter – But too many small businesses never have one! This handy guide shows you how to create an easy, useful, and low-maintenance newsletter that will serve you for years to come.

This “kit” takes a building-block approach, which makes it very easy to build a quick but effective newsletter month after month. This should be very small task, not an overwhelming challenge. We show you how.

The two greatest pieces of advice that I can give you on marketing are also the two most ignored pieces of advice I ever give.

1. Building your mailing list. Start anywhere. Start with one or two or ten people. Grow it over time – for the entire life of your business. This can be the single greatest asset in your business. Really.

2. Have a regularly monthly newsletter. The people on your list want to hear from you. Be a resource for them. Keep communications open. Give first, and promote a little along the way. This is the best long-term play for bringing money into your company. Really.

Buy Now - only $19.95. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

Why is this advice almost universally ignored? To be honest, it’s not fun, there’s no direct connection to making a sale, and it looks like additional work on top of everything else you’re doing.

This starter kit is intended to give you a simple formula that will help you:

• Produce a good quality newsletter
• With minimal work
• That keeps you in touch with clients and prospects
• And that you will execute on a regular basis
• With a “bonus” section that just might help you increase sales to existing clients!

NOTE: Many of you have seen my weekly newsletter. That is NOT what I’m going to ask you to do here. My newsletter is long and complicated and serves a very specific purpose with a very specific audience, and it would NOT be appropriate for small and medium-sized business clients.

Try this simple, manageable approach. It might just be exactly what you need to create a good, ongoing, sustainable marketing program - Your newsletter.

-- -- -- 

NOTE: Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community members can download this right now for free in the Community. Log in and go here: 

https://www.smallbizthoughts.org/member-content/newsletter-starter-kit/

You might also appreciate the Newsletter Setup and Tune-Up Checklist:

https://www.smallbizthoughts.org/member-content/newsletter-setup-and-tune-up-checklist/

This is part primer and part checklist/workshop. Delivered as an 8-page PDF.

:-)

Lessons Learned - Easing Into Break/Fix

Episode 06: Easing Into Break/Fix

(See the index to the Lessons Learned Series on the Lessons Learned Page.)

I was very lucky to have a great boss for the last fulltime consulting job I had. He allowed me to move from five days a week to four, three, two, and one over time. This allowed me to prove to him that there would be a smooth transition and that other folks could take over my duties.

It also put me on a strict timeframe. I had a countdown to getting additional clients. After all, I had a family to feed! I'm sure everyone reading this knows what that feels like. So, here's what I did.

First, because it was the 1990's I committed myself to getting businesses connected to this new fangled thing called the Internet. I was so committed to this path that I listed my business in the Yellow Pages as "Internet Consulting by KPEnterprises." I thought I was super clever. There were no other "Internet" listings. So, if someone called the operator (that was a thing) and asked for the Internet, they'd get ME.

Result: For all the time I had that listing, I never got a legitimate client. I did get several calls from confused people who wanted to know what their password was. Of course, I had no idea. And they were not businesses, but merely the first generation to get lost on the inter-webs.

Second, I went to a local print shop and ordered the cheapest business cards they had. It turns out, these had some kind of raised ink. I'm not sure what the process was, but it made them shiny and slightly 3D. I liked the feel, and actually got a lot of comments over the years. I bought enough to last a couple years. Maybe 1,000.

Third, I put a put an ad in the local Business Journal. It was about one inch in a column and didn't say much except computers, the business name, and my phone number. That DID get me a few small jobs. So now I had people who paid my going rate (more on this in the next episode). And, I determined to call each of them once a month just to check in and see if they needed anything. It was irregular, but it was money.

Fourth, I used the listings from the Business Journal articles to find names of businesses. For example, they listed the fastest growing businesses in the county, the youngest business owners, the top suppliers of something or other. Whatever the list, I got a person's name and a business name. I looked up the address in the phone book, and sent them a letter and a business card. The letter was super basic and just bragged a bit about my recent experience. I promised amazing service and asked them to keep me in mind.

Fifth, I joined the local Chamber of Commerce. I refer to it now as the big business chamber of commerce. I've since learned that the Sacramento, CA area has local chambers for several surrounding towns, plus the Asian Chamber, the Black Chamber, the Hispanic Chamber, and more. At the time, there was also a Small Business Chamber, which was eventually consumed by the big business chamber.

Anyway, I met someone at the Chamber new member breakfast who invited me to drop by her office and talk to the folks there. They became my first good-sized client. I'll call them Peabody Insurance. They sold primarily group health insurance plans for small businesses.

With this early win at the Chamber, I was sure I'd hit a gold mine. I was a member for five more years and never got so much as a nibble out of them again. Oh well. Peabody Insurance was a client of mine for more than fifteen years.

Their situation turned out to be a very common scenario. They had spent a huge amount of money (like $30,000 in 1997 currency) on a network, a server, and all the software it took to get them all connected. AND they had a huge customized DBase IV database that needed updating. We forget today, but that was very common in the pre-Internet era. 

They also had the experience that the folks who sold them all of that completed the job, cashed the check, and disappeared. They could use everything, and had passwords for most of it. But there was no documentation. Most of the paperwork that shipped with equipment and software was gone. What little they had was stored in the box that the server motherboard shipped in. 

A few scraps of paper. That's it. No warranties. No password lists. No explanation of how anything worked. No documentation.

BUT I was steeped in TCP/IP, Novell IPX/SPX, and network architecture. So I told them I could document everything. And I'm sorry they have to pay to have everything documented as it should have been from the beginning, but I can't work for free. 

They bought a block of ten hours at $100 per hour and I was officially launched with my first real client. After renewing the block of hours several times, they signed a contract for ongoing services. I think I got the outline of the first contract from a general contractor book. It was not a great fit for IT services, but $500 at an attorney made me feel like my personal finances were safe from any bad stuff that might happen.

And just for a kicker . . . Their backup was failing every single day, and they did not know it. The backup system they had was the old-school standard at the time. It used three tapes in rotation. This was called a grandfather-father-son backup. Every night, it was supposed to do a complete backup. And the tapes got switched. So you always had last night's backup and the two previous nights. 

I was slightly horrified as the backup I managed at the HP plant had a 365-day rotation. It included a full backup every night, and the tapes went offsite for 364 days. Tapes were not reused endlessly, and a full restore to any day in the last year was possible.

Unfortunately for the folks at Peabody, their backup required a complete, full, successful backup. Only then did the script complete and schedule the job for the next evening. At some point, for some reason, a backup had not completed. They had been switching tapes and never getting a backup ever again after that. Of course they had no way of knowing this. We'll return to this topic in Episode Eight.

Thus, my first real client in the new business arrangement was a model for future endeavors for many years to come:

1) They needed a specific thing. I fixed that and they learned I was a good guy to work with, and competent.

2) Nothing was documented and there was little or no paper trail. So I documented everything. Thus begins my obsession with documentation. I'd always done it. Now it was from a very different angle.

3) If they had a backup, there was a 50% chance it was not working. I fixed and documented it.

4) After selling a few projects/blocks of time, I signed a contract. With each client and each request for little changes, the contract got better over time. Eventually, I ended up budgeting about $1,000 per year to have the attorney review my "standard" contract a few times.

And all of that became the basis for my regularly monthly maintenance, which I'll describe in a future episode. Recall that I started by calling clients every month to see if they needed anything. Now, I scheduled monthly visits (often just one hour) to take care of some needed maintenance. I billed them for at least an hour. And then I asked if they needed anything else.

Peabody would buy a great deal of database programming and additional services from us. They were one of the models for my maintenance-based approach to monthly services. Over the years, they paid us well over two million dollars. It was a truly great relationship and I was lucky to have such good people as an early client.

One More Early Client Story

Another early client was HiTech-Z. They had been listed in the Business Journal for some high-tech fast growing list and I sent them my standard letter.

The guy who actually contacted me and asked me to come in was Jeff, the network administrator. He was a super duper Novell network administrator who was struggling to move to Windows and TCP/IP. But this was a very serious high-tech company that employed a warehouse full of programmers and did manufacturing for the control boards they sold. Their systems we an integral part of the NASA shuttle program.

Jeff called me it to see how much I knew, and how quickly I could help him fix some specific problems. As long as he paid the bill, I was happy to share all my knowledge and teach him the gospel of Microsoft networking along the way. So we got along well.

They did have some big, complicated, confusing problems. But many of their problems were related to a reliance on old protocols, old processes, and the limitations of certain old hardware. Time and time again, the solution was to sell them new stuff. A lot of it, they didn't buy from me because I couldn't get a competitive price. But I got to design the new systems and implement things whenever Jeff hit the wall. 

One of the coolest things I learned from that company was that Michael (the Best Boss Ever from episode five) was not alone. There are good bosses in all kinds of businesses.

One day, after Jeff and I had worked on several issues, we were just hanging out and talking when all the lights flashed off and on - in a huge manufacturing and production building with a hundred employees. I asked if something is going on and Jeff calmly explained. "It's five o'clock and we like to remind people that they should go home and spend time with their families."

In a world where some bosses treat employees like machinery that gets old and abused, and then replaced when it wears out, it was really great to see a company that built systems around work/life balance. It gave me a flashback to my last real job and how horrible work can be for some people. It was heart-lifting to see that some bosses actually believe that their employees will be more awesome in the long-run when you treat them well day after day.

. . . Oh . . . and Jeff became one of my first employees when it was time to grow my business. But that's another story.

Next time . . .  Common Sense Calculations - That are 100% Wrong.

-----

How to follow the "Lessons Learned" blog series: 

1. Follow this tag: "Lessons Learned" - the link is https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/search/label/Lessons%20Learned

2. Be sure to subscribe to this blog. Over on the right-side column, you'll see the Subscribe by Email link. Just remember to white list the first email you get. And if you filter, put them all into one folder so that you can find new installments.

3. Subscribe to my weekly Small Biz Thoughts newsletter. Go to https://smallbizthoughts.com/newsletter/. That will get you some news, some commentary, and links to this and all the content I create.

:-)

Lessons Learned - The Best Boss Ever

Lessons Learned Episode 5: EDI and the Best Boss Ever

(See the bottom of this blog post to follow the whole "Lessons Learned" series.)

When we last left off, I was driving down the highway saying to myself, "I love this job!" And I did. Then began a long period of being courted by a genius who would become a client for many years and influence my business through the Y2K rollover.

One day, on my way to the job I loved, I got a call from a former co-worker. He was now a customer service manager at a software company, and he wanted to introduce me to his boss. We organized a dinner meeting, which was quite unusual for me. I had a little daughter and I generally worked a long, but basically normal day (7AM until 5PM, plus commute).

The dinner was arranged and I met with my friend Rob and his boss, Michael. After a few formalities, Michael asked me a series of very specific technical questions. He wanted to know my understanding of data transfer and manipulation at a detailed level. 

For example, he asked me how modems created the most stable handshake. I had recently left a job where a glass wall separated me from a rack of modems that were the heart of a multi-million dollar operation. And we had a separate fax-on-demand system with 100 numbers on a DID line. I knew excruciating detail about how this traffic moved.

Then he asked about data packets, how they're constructed, and why SPX requires IPX to be routable. Again, I came from a background where "technical" people knew that kind of thing by default. Then he wanted to know whether a very specific problem of data transmission was possible with extremely small, mission critical files in a TCP/IP environment. And so forth.

And the big question was, how could he get an always-on Internet connection that didn't break the bank. Believe it or not, this was a legitimate question in 1996. I happen to have a friend, George, who owned a local ISP. So I agreed to assist. Of course, George didn't believe this could be done without a Unix box, and Michael thought everything had to work on Novell.

George supplied the T-1 and I sold Michael his first Windows Server. And then the courting began.

Michael asked to meet with me regularly, on Wednesday evenings. He would supply dinner and pay me my exorbitant consulting fee. All I had to do was to show up and answer questions. There were no questions that came close to revealing confidential data. He just wanted to understand everything possible about the technical side of the Internet. This was a very lucrative job.

Michael was a sponge, and one of the few absolute geniuses I ever met. He understood the technical side of Novell better than his Novell engineer. He was mediocre programmer, but understood the technical side of C and Delphi programming at a detailed level. And he understood programming well enough to manage the programmers and their projects. He consumed knowledge quickly and integrated it into his existing knowledge almost instantly. It was a joy to feed him more and more data, faster and faster. 

These meetings continued. And I did some occasional work for Michael for special projects. He had a fulltime network admin in-house. With about fifty employees, his company employed twenty programmers. Pretty much everyone and everything in the company existed to make the programmers happy and productive.

One of the coolest projects I was ever a part of was reconstructing the programmer offices so that everyone had a "cubicle" - with four-foot walls. In other words, everyone could see and hear everyone else. They were extremely interactive all day long. This virtually guaranteed a higher level of team work.

It was cool for me because these good sized "cubicles" were also wired with fiber optic network connections. To the desktop. In 1996. Why? Well, as Michael explained, "When a programmer hits compile and it takes thirty to sixty seconds, they stand up and start wandering around. When it takes three seconds, they take a sip of coffee." Of course, there were beefy servers to make it work.

Each station was also designed for comfort and productivity. Almost all of the electrical, phone, and network outlets were installed above the desk level. So you could get to them! And they each had a shelf with gaming toys.

Michael encouraged programmers to kick off by six o'clock, and often provided them with pizza or some other food. Then he let them play multi-player games on the fiber network late into the evening. If you're not an old nerd, you may not realize how freakin' cool that was. The team identified as a team. They worked as a team. They played as a team. They worked hard, but they did not over-work. And most of them DID realize how lucky they were to have such a boss.

Eventually, Michael lured me away from HP because 1) I had reached the targets set for me in the contract, and 2) he had a challenge too big to turn down. Plus, I felt like I needed to have one client, not two. In service to my family, I notched down my workload once again, but increased my income significantly.

Michael's business developed a point of sale and inventory control software. He had recently been working on the next level of this: EDI or Electronic Data Interchange. Specifically, X12 EDI, which works great with XML and phone line connections. My challenge: Make this work on the Internet. The big players, including IBM Sterling, had put hundreds of millions of dollars into their modem-based communications. So they were not quick to consider the Internet as an alternative.

Michael's inventory system was modem-based and proprietary. But he realized that if he moved to the X12 standard, he would have the knowledge to then add Internet-based EDI traffic and potentially be first (or early) to market. The biggest challenges were that the data packets were extremely small and had to be completely secure. So I was hired to create a packet design that was secure, as small as possible, and as reliable as modem connections.

Without going down a nerdy rabbit hole, all of this was completed in less than six months. In the meantime, we were working with brands like Nike and Wrangler to move them to EDI. The world of EDI grew in big spurts whenever a major player (manufacturer or distributor) forced partners to use it. For example, when K-Mart adopted EDI, every small supplier had to get in the game. When Nike adopted it, all resellers had to move to EDI. Back and forth it went.

That business took off, and I was honored to play a role in it. Michael spun off a company just for the EDI product. We even won a Microsoft Retail Application Development Award for it. I still have that.

Gradually, that job morphed into being a network administrator and responsible for more and more of the network - and their transition from all-Novell to all-Microsoft. Luckily, the Novell administrator saw the writing on the wall before I got there. He was eager to learn all the new technology and go get trained and certified in Windows Server and networking.

But with those changes, my job became less and less interesting. I loved the big challenges. I thrived on Michael's genius and absolute commitment to the best technology. As the fiber incident made clear, there was no budgetary limit if the outcome was worth the investment. 

One important lesson I learned was that business owners like Michael exist. When I started taking on new clients, I worked hard to find these people and help them to be successful. That has served me well.

The Best Boss I Ever Had

Cynical people might say that Michael was just another business man taking advantage of employees. But I promise that was not the case. He did many things to keep his employees happy, healthy, and productive.

We had one person in charge of all the programmers. His job included travel to Europe (Eastern and Western) to recruit. Recall that Eastern Europe was still struggling to get to its feet after the collapse of the Soviet Union. So, we hired several programmers whose first language was not English. Michael helped them find places to live. He hired English teachers to come in and help them learn English.

On the holistic side, he paid a chiropractor to be in the office one day a week. Anyone (programmer or not) who wanted to see the chiro could just sign up on the sheet. Michael paid for it. And there were little things, like unlimited supplies of vitamin C tablets at convenient locations around the office during the winter months.

I remember two employees who had extended illnesses. One was out for more than six months. Another (the lead programmer) was out for more than a year. Both of them were paid their full salary in their absence and welcomed back on a gradual basis when they were ready. This is not required by any laws. This is the behavior of a boss who understands the value of his employees and works to make sure they know he has their back.

Michael was also the embodiment of Management by Walking Around. He would occasionally just walk up and down the halls, stopping at every single office and every cubicle. He talked to every employee no matter what their position. It could be just a common hello and note about the weather or sports. But if anyone had a complaint, concern, or new idea, they would mention it and he would get involved. 

Everyone felt valued. Everyone felt heard. Everyone felt like they were part of the team. Everyone was recognized for their contributions. And everyone felt like they were doing something that mattered to the team. 

Was Michael a perfect boss? No. But he was certainly the best boss I ever had. He truly embodied the belief that your employees are your greatest asset.

The Wind Down

As I mentioned, I loved that job. But when it got to the point that I was maintaining systems, applying patches, and upgrading backup systems, it was a lot less interesting. So, after much thought, I went to Michael. He was afraid to lose me and tried to talk me out of it.

So we made a deal. I would notch down my work (and pay) to four days per week. Then three. Then two. Then we'd discuss what the future looked like. And so, I transitioned from being a contractor who had one big client at a time to the model most of us practice, with several clients.

I was lucky to have met Michael. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. And I was lucky that he agreed to let me transition slowly. It gave me time to start attracting other clients and move to the SMB IT industry that I have loved for so many years.

And I was lucky that Y2K was just around the corner.

BTW ... Michael sold the "lite" version of his point of sale system to Intuit and it became the first QuickBooks point of sale system. He eventually sold the EDI company to St. Paul Software, one of the premier players in the small business side of EDI.

I have always tried to be a good boss. But after working with Michael for a few years, I gained a "gold standard" against which I could measure my performance.

Next time . . . How I Moved from "Corporate" to SMB IT.

-----

How to follow the "Lessons Learned" blog series: 

1. Follow this tag: "Lessons Learned" - the link is https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/search/label/Lessons%20Learned

2. Be sure to subscribe to this blog. Over on the right-side column, you'll see the Subscribe by Email link. Just remember to white list the first email you get. And if you filter, put them all into one folder so that you can find new installments.

3. Subscribe to my weekly Small Biz Thoughts newsletter. Go to https://smallbizthoughts.com/newsletter/. That will get you some news, some commentary, and links to this and all the content I create.

:-)

Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community - Member Benefits Change January 1st

We are 100% committed to making you as successful as possible.

Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community - Member Benefits Change January 1st

Last year, we introduced a new membership level in the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community. In January 2025, we're adding additional member benefits to the PLUS tiers.

Traditionally, members received three free certification exams at our sister site, IT Service Provider University. Beginning January 1st, all Community Plus members will receive 

• Five free 5-week courses (a $1,995 value) 
• PLUS five free certification exams (an additional $995 value) 

• Teams Plus members will receive this "5+5" benefit for each team member - up to ten members. So, the value of that is off the charts.

Because of our relationship with IT Service Provider University, we can combine their offering with our member benefits. It's a real Killer Combo.

Sign up today at smallbizthoughts.org.

Of course, the core of the Community remains our massive resource library and the Community meetings. We continue to add resources to the library, and all the books and events I produce are free to Community members before they are made available for the public to purchase.

Note: Your membership price is locked in and will never go up! We do add benefits, but you pay the price you started with. Here's a summary of the programs.

Join Today!

See notes below.

Why 5+5? 

The 5+5 combination was created with a specific goal in mind: Advanced certification. ITSPU has several pathways you can choose from. These include 

• IT Management
• Technician
• Sales & Marketing
• Service Manager
  and
• Front Office

See https://www.itspu.com/certifications/.

One certification exam earns you an ITSPU Certified Professional designation. Five certifications within a specific pathway earns you a Certified Specialist designation.

We designed the Plus membership to basically give you all the resources you need to become a Certified Specialist in one area. Our courses are all 100% focused on the the skills you need to run a successful, profitable IT consulting business. And the pathways are designed to train your entire company on the best practices for running a modern, profitable business.

Year-end Roll-Over Bonus

For all of our tiers, these courses and exam opportunities roll over on the calendar year. This means that you can sign up now, use your training coupons to register for courses, and then you get new coupons in January. So now is the once-a-year opportunity to get a double bonus.

Current Plus members will be elevated automatically to the new PLUS membership AND continue to have their original membership price locked in for life. 

Note: To take advantage of this, you must use your existing coupons by December 31st. They will expire if not used. 

Actions Needed

Current Members: Do nothing. You are automatically upgraded to the new Community Plus membership. Your price will stay the same . . . forever.

Non-Members: Check out the SBT Technology Community. If you join now, you get all the regular benefits and the one-time opportunity to get the New Year roll-over bonus.

Who is “just right” for the $799 Community Membership level?

The Community membership level is perfect for members who need the content in the community but are too busy to take advantage of dozens of hours of training and certification.

• Investment is only $799/year 
• Includes One 5-week course at IT Service Provider University
• Includes one free certification exam at IT Service Provider University

Of course, you can always buy additional courses and certifications at a huge discount when you are an SBT Community member.

Who is “just right” for the Community Plus Membership level?

This level is perfect for members who want to take several courses to to improve their business, and for those seeking a Specialist Certification. And, really, if you plan to take three or more courses per year, then the investment is a no-brainer. 

• Investment is only $1,299/year or $129/month (12 month commitment)
• Includes FIVE 5-week courses for one person at IT Service Provider University
• Includes FIVE certification exams per year

Of course, you can always buy additional courses and certifications at a huge discount when you are an SBT Community member.

All tiers also include 

• All of my books, audio programs, checklists, and members-only events
• Unlimited courses for your staff at huge discounts
• Weekly calls, community forums, and special group Breakouts
• and more!

-- -- -- 

Join Today - and start saving immediately!

If you have more questions in the meantime, please just ask. We can't wait to see you inside the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community.

-- -- --

Notes: 

1 – Rate locked in for life. We will occasionally increase benefits, but not your rate, as long as you maintain your membership.

2 – IT Service Provider University, our sister site, is operating separately. We provide discount codes to be used for free and discounted courses.

3 – Coupon codes renew each year. So, your first year, you can use them immediately and they will refresh January 1st.

:-)

We Just Launched a "James Kernan Sales Coach Store" - Grab the Massive Kick-Start Bundle

 We Just Launched a "James Kernan Sales Coach Store" at Small Biz Thoughts!

We've been working with sales Coach James Kernan for a long time. James manages the the SMB Community Podcast (posted every week with co-host Amy Babinchak). He also teaches several 5-week courses at IT Service Provider University.

Now we're happy to launch a "James" section inside our store at store.smallbizthoughts.com. 

We'll be adding more products each week for a while. Here's what we have so far:

Ten Step Guide to Super-Charge Sales 

• The One Guide to Read before You Create Your Sales Team and Department (PDF)

Kernan QBR Checklist

• Everything you need for a full Quarterly Business Review meeting with your client (Word doc)

Sales Playbook

• 35 pages. A great, customizable sales and execution template (Word doc)

M & A Due Diligence Checklist

• Whether you're thinking of buying or selling your business, start here! (PDF)

Annual Marketing Plan Exercise

• Huge twelve-month Excel spreadsheet for tracking marketing campaigns and ads (Excel)

One Page Business Plan Exercise

• Define your goals, strategy, mission, and unique selling proposition (PDF)

AND we have our first James Kernan combo pack!

The James Kernan Massive Kick-Start Sales Bundle is only $99.99 and includes all of these is one great bundle.

This bundle includes the six products above, including PDF documents, Word docs, and an amazing Excel marketing plan exercise. Checklists, information, strategies, and more. 

Great for owners, managers, and the sales department. In all, 47 pages worth of docs, plus the Excel exercise.

This bundle is worth $130 – but you can buy them all for one low price!

Grab the Massive Kick-Start Bundle Now!

:-)

Lessons Learned - The HP Way

Lessons Learned Episode 04: The HP Way

(See the bottom of this blog post to follow the whole "Lessons Learned" series.)

In October 1995, I left my last real job and entered the world of consulting as an independent contractor. After much research and many interviews, I signed a contract to become the outsourced Site Manager for PC Software Support for HP's Roseville, California plant. "Roseville" had about 5,000 workers at the time. Between desktops and laptops, my team supported about 7,000 machines.

In addition to my (software support) team, there were separate teams for server support, network support, and hardware support. As a result, one of the challenges was to avoid finger-pointing and focus on getting users back up and running when there were problems.

My team was about twenty-five in total. I also managed the HP-UX (Unix) helpdesk, the onsite backup systems, and ran the memory cage. RAM was so expensive, and the price so volatile at the time, that we locked it into a cage the size of a small hotel room. The cage was filled with file cabinets filled with memory modules. Inventory was tightly controlled as the contents of the cage were worth millions of dollars. An employee was literally locked in the cage and had to be let out for breaks.

I learned a great deal working at HP. And I have many stories about personnel, certification, teamwork, and more. But four big lessons stand out: Hiring, The HP Way, work-life balance, and managing a very large service board.

Hire Slow

The process to get hired into this job took almost two months. Of course there was the formal application process. Then a series of interviews by a variety of different people, some from the agency who held the contract and some from the HP managers I would be working with. And then there was the salary negotiation.

If there's one thing you could guarantee about the process, it was their commitment to taking it slow and making the right decision. They even flew in some folks from another state for one interview. I felt comfortable that I was not settling in any way when we signed a deal. And they were confident that they had not settled in offering me the job.

The HP Way

If you haven't read The HP Way by David Packard, today's a good day to invest in this book. (Full title, The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company.)

I was vaguely aware of the "HP Way" before I got there. I had been buying and running HP servers, desktops, and HP3000 mini-computers for several years before I got there. And I was amazed, starting my first day on the job, how visible The HP Way was in the culture and daily operations.

Values expressed in the HP Way include:

• Belief in their people, and commitment to letting them do their jobs without interference
• Respect, dignity, and individual self-esteem
• Giving employees recognition and a sense of achievement
• Job security, and developing employee talents
• A team culture that people share benefits and responsibility, and help each other
• Informal, open communications
• A chance to learn by making mistakes, knowing your job is secure
• Training and education

... and more

For a fuller picture, see https://www.hpalumni.org/hp_way.htm.

Words are fine. But I'd seen meaningless words on the wall behind the worst boss I ever had. Corporations often go through lengthy processes to create meaningless documents that are never reflected in their operating culture. HP really was different (at least in the Fall of 1995).

One thing really stands out to me about meetings with managers and others on that job. You could absolutely and definitively assume that everyone in the room was qualified, and that they were among the best people in their field. Network engineers did not question the knowledge or skills of desktop support. The software team didn't second-guess the server team. And so forth. 

We discussed things, and sometimes disagreed. But everyone knew that everyone else was good at what they did, and shared the company commitments and values - or they wouldn't be in the room. It is truly amazing how much a sincere commitment to professionalism and open communication makes the job easier. You can admit when you don't know something, and you don't feel embarrassed or belittled when you defer to someone who knows more.

I had mostly operated along these lines as a manager, and tried to instill this independence and confidence in my employees. But now I got to experience how a major corporation operates on these principles everyday. It was wonderful.

Work/Life Balance

A great of example of how the HP Way worked its way into my division's operation was the commitment to work-life balance. This commitment was so prominent that it was on the footer of every document, every form, every hand-out, and every presentation slide. We value work-life balance. No commas. No exceptions. No parenthetical fine print. We value work-life balance.

As part of the culture, making this commitment so visible was reflected in daily and weekly behavior. If someone was on a break or at lunch, no one badgered them or made them feel guilty for not being a workaholic. We didn't schedule meetings after six. We didn't expect people to kill themselves logging sixty hours per week.

A great example of this was the need for special projects. Sometimes, due to the nature if the network configuration and the limitations of equipment at the time, people were asked to work on the weekend. Every single person was empowered to ask the question, "How does this square with our commitment to work-life balance?"

Anyone in the organization could to pick up just about any piece of paper, point to the footer, and ask, "How does this square with our commitment to work-life balance?" Sometimes the work was moved. Sometimes, people were allowed to opt out (without retribution). Whatever the response, there was an open discussion, and the planning included consideration of the commitment.

Of course, there were times when people needed to work a little extra. But no one was made to feel guilty or "not a team player" if they brought up the question of work-life balance. The team knew that they could count on this cultural value. And these exceptions were rare, not monthly or weekly, let alone daily.

Again, I had believed, but now I saw proof: Your commitment to your culture is visible in your actions. Every week. Every day. Every time. When your commitment to your values is visible, everyone sees it. And when they see a disconnect, that's just as obvious.

Many argue that Carly Fiorina killed the HP Way. You can Google it. I was not at HP when she took over.

Managing a Big Service Board

I had managed service in many forms by the time I got to HP. But I had not managed a service board with 5,000 users and 7,000 devices before. Plus, we had some major projects. For example, I was given the challenge of creating a remote workforce on the new Windows NT operating systems. This was stretching the limits of the COE - HP's Common Operating Environment. But that's another story.

Again, my team was about twenty-five fulltime technicians, many of them in their first real job. And there were thousands of tickets per month. We used a Remedy brand ticketing system, which was unbelievably powerful even in 1995. One of my first challenges was to get the backlog under control. I can honestly say that getting my arms around the open tickets, and getting our service delivery into compliance with our promised service levels, was one of the biggest jobs I've ever tackled.

But I had a great team who just didn't question where we were going or how we were going to get there. I developed a plan, documentation, and an implementation process. We had the double task of working all the new tickets in a timely manner and getting the backlog into compliance. And we did it in just a few months.

Literally everything I learned in that monster undertaking taught me how to manage a service board for any size business. When I developed similar procedures for my own IT businesses, they started with these "lessons learned" at HP. Even today, as a business coach, I have a well-defined process for "massaging your service board." 

In fact, that process found it's way into the Managed Services Operations Manual, AND I teach an entire class on it at IT Service Provider University. 

Executing the lessons learned at HP have helped me earn a lot of money in my IT business. And they continue to inform the teaching and coaching I do with other businesses. To be honest, I'm not sure where my career would be without this excellent experience.

Final Notes

I literally had to drive from one end of the county to another during rush hour every day to be at my desk at 8:00 AM. I allotted more than an hour for the drive. And I have a vivid memory of getting most of the way to work and saying to myself, "I LOVE this job!" I would literally say it out loud in the car.

Day after day, with few exceptions, I said those words as I drove to work. In part, this was the "rebound" job after having the worst boss ever. But it was also just a great job with great people and a great culture. I couldn't imagine a better job.

And then I met the best boss I ever had. I'll tell you about that in the next episode!

-----

How to follow the "Lessons Learned" blog series: 

1. Follow this tag: "Lessons Learned" - the link is https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/search/label/Lessons%20Learned

2. Be sure to subscribe to this blog. Over on the right-side column, you'll see the Subscribe by Email link. Just remember to white list the first email you get. And if you filter, put them all into one folder so that you can find new installments.

3. Subscribe to my weekly Small Biz Thoughts newsletter. Go to https://smallbizthoughts.com/newsletter/. That will get you some news, some commentary, and links to this and all the content I create.

:-)

Three things to know as you watch the CompTIA/Thoma Bravo deal unfold

As you might imagine, my inbox exploded yesterday with questions about the sale of CompTIA to Thoma Bravo and H.I.G. Capital. I don't know any more than anyone else about the deal, but I do have a different perspective.

I think there are three big things you need to focus on in this deal. But first, a bit of background. 

Please review the press release here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hig-capital-and-thoma-bravo-to-acquire-CompTIA-brand-and-products-302294943.html

and MJ Shoer's clarification of what's actually going on, here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mshoer_comptiacommunity-activity-7259583517200732160-K3La

[Update: The additional press release clarifying what's going on, from CompTIA. https://www.comptia.org/newsroom/press-releases/sale-of-certification-business-allows-greater-focus-on-it-channel-membership-and-expanded-charitable-giving ]

and the 2022 Form 990 (non-for-profit) Federal tax filing here: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/371712758/202313179349305336/full

Much of the confusion over the big announcement is that the CompTIA many of us love is the CompTIA community (the actual community-focused non-profit). But we also know that CompTIA has built their bank account by selling certification exams for about $200-$400 each. That's clearly not a non-profit venture, and goes a long way to paying their top three directors a total of just over $2.5 Million in salaries.

Please keep clear the two CompTIAs. I will refer to them as the certification arm and the community arm.

All non-profits try to create sources of revenue that allow them to operate their organization. Trust me, I know how hard this can be. CompTIA found certifications, and focused heavily (and successfully) on making them an industry standard. So, their money-raising arm grew from there. When it got to be much larger than can be justified by a non-profit, it made perfect sense for them to separate the two.

Based on comments online, it sounds like the community arm (the remaining non-profit) will probably get an endowment out of the deal, so they've have a solid base to move forward. We'll come back to this.

First thing to know: There are currently two CompTIA brands. One has been raising way more revenue than is justified for a non-profit status. This piece is going to the venture capital firms and is one of the tiniest investments among the almost 500 companies they own or control (see https://www.thomabravo.com/companies and https://hig.com/portfolio/).

Remember: Certification arm = for-profit. Community arm = non-profit.

The second thing to know is that this confusion of the brands will be a major piece of the struggle facing the Community arm going forward. Just in the last twenty-four hours, there has been massive confusion about what's being sold and what this means for the Community arm. 

Last year, I mentioned to several people that the two houses (arms) of CompTIA were moving apart and that the for-profit side has to be split off at some point. This is not bad, or scary, or even much of a shift. It seems to me that it's the most natural thing that has to happen. It allows the money-focused arm to focus on profit and the community arm to focus on community.

For about five years now, I've seen CompTIA's community arm lose its clarity of vision and purpose. The certification arm had become the tail wagging the dog. Every decision was about re-organizing and "cleaning house." Reorganize, reorganize, reorganize. That's the behavior of a company whose culture is struggling.

With massive turnover on the community front, they've lost some of the most committed and passionate people. But they've also lost a great deal of institutional memory. The organization has always been run from the top down. I've sat on communities and councils and other bodies that get reorganized year after year. Everyone has to constantly re-introduce themselves to everyone else. 

So, the second thing to remember is that the community arm is going to go through a major re-branding struggle in 2025 and beyond. Will they have any connection to the CompTIA name, or will they be like "X" - formerly known as Twitter. Twitter changed their name more than 18 months ago and almost no one calls it "X" except employees.

If the whispers are correct, the new community arm will start out with money in the bank. That's a very good thing for brand-rebuilding. And you can bet they'll spend time refocusing their mission and vision. Like it or not, they will also have to deal with the criticisms of "selling out" to private equity and the confusion over exactly what happened in the big transaction. See First Thing, above.

The community arm has also made a big deal of being vendor neutral. If their funding is a one-time starter boost, they should stay vendor neutral. If it depends on the profit of ConnectWise, N-Able, and other Thoma Bravo brands, that status may be harder to maintain.

Finally, the third big thing you need to pay attention to is the renewed focus you'll see on certifications. This is a very good thing. In the last several State of the Nation for SMB IT addresses I've given (see https://mspwebinar.com), I've mentioned the need for this industry to get back to education and certification.

Thirty years ago, almost everyone who wanted to be taken seriously in this industry took classes on Novell networks, and many were Novell Certified. Twenty-five years ago, when Microsoft took over the world of small business networks, all that attention moved to Microsoft certifications. Along the way, many people got certs in Cisco, HP, and other hardware.

CompTIA had success through all of that. The workhorses of their brand were A+ and Network+. Today they are Security+ and Advanced Security. They've grown with the times and thrived.

This move will allow the new CompTIA - the certification arm - to thrive going forward. And that may bolster other certification programs. The biggest void, in my opinion, is the actual business-focused side of our business. But today, CompTIA owns the technical training market and mindshare. Their opportunities to expand are wide open. 

Do expect prices to go up. That's the result of focusing on money without regard to mission.

The bottom line for me:

1) The split was inevitable. And it is potentially good for both sides. 

2) After a period of self-reflection and searching for clarity, the community arm could be an amazing and positive force in our industry.

3) The certification arm will make a lot of money, and might bring a greater focus on the need for certification and training in our industry. Yes, it will cost more. But the professionalization of the industry depends on all of us acknowledging and seeking higher standards.

-----

Disclaimers

The reason I got so many emails on this is probably because I run a training company, and I founded the National Society of IT Service Providers. This blog and commentary reflects my personal opinions and beliefs. It does not represent the NSITSP.

Having said that, here are two bonus comments on the two arms of CompTIA.

Since day one, people have asked why NSITSP is necessary and, specifically, "Why isn't CompTIA doing that?" Well, transforming the industry into a profession hasn't been CompTIA's mission. And they opted out of lobbying some time ago. We shall see what the future holds. I hope the two organizations can work well together on common goals.

As for certifications, one of the most important movements inside of NSITSP is Professional Development and the develop of "continuing education units" as a way to move this industry to a stronger focus on continuous education and improvement. Every legitimate profession has some form of this, and we should as well. I sincerely hope that the certification-focused CompTIA will be among our strongest partners to promote their education programs as industry continuing education for all of their IT partners. It is a great fit, and we'll be working make this happen.

All comments are welcome. 

:-)