A blog for Small Business IT Consultants and the vendors who serve them. It contains Opinions on business success, News in the consulting community, and Information on what I'm up to. All material Copyright (c) 2006-2024 by Karl W. Palachuk unless otherwise noted.
It costs money to be in business. We all know that. Some people place a great deal of value on having the "the best" software, equipment, and supplies. Others value a few things, but are happy to get by. For example, you might be willing to spend a little extra for a great printer, but believe that any kind of paper is fine.
Price and value are subjective. As are the concepts of "best" and "good enough."
I was writing an email to a friend about a specific kind of software, and got to thinking about the things I'm happy to spend money on (e.g., the Microsoft Office suite), and those I'm less happy with. And that's when I realized that there are actually things I've bought over the years that I resent. I pay the price but I don't like. On a bad day, I hate it.
Traditionally, the king of all resentment-based products is QuickBooks by Intuit. We all know people who skipped three, or five, or maybe ten years worth of upgrades because (like me) they don't use any functionality that's needed to be changed since the first version I ever bought. I only upgraded QB when I had to. When I needed three licenses, I "saved" some money by buying a three-user license. But that led to spending even more money when it could no longer be used on the newer version of Windows.
Again and again and again, I felt like I was continually re-buying a product that 1) Was over-priced in the first place, and 2) Didn't need an upgrade! It just need to work when I got a new computer.
A close second for me is the Adobe suite. I bought Adobe products for designers, admins, and myself for a couple of decades. Individual products, ever-changing bundles, and upgrades without end. If you've gone down that road, you probably know how I feel: Like I've bought the exact same product over and over.
Where does it end? For me, when I needed to have my financial package used by three people in different locations, moving to the hosted version made sense. But the hosted version is (even today) very clunky compared to the desktop version. I love keyboard shortcuts and can be lightning fast without a mouse . . . until I have to use the hosted version.
Once the clunkiness was built in, Intuit lost their edge. There are lots of clunky programs that cost a lot less and provide the functionality I need. So we moved to Xero. It's less expensive than QB, but not necessarily "cheap." But I feel no resentment when I pay my monthly bill.
Microsoft was on the border of resentment-based pricing for all the same reasons. And they floundered for more than a decade before they figured out a cloud money that works. Now, at $99/year, all the resentment has faded. Yes, it's still paying for something I wish they'd stop changing for no good reason. But the price is quite reasonable for me.
Now consider: How do your employees view your pricing? Are they happy to pay your monthly bill? Is it fair? Is it good for their business? Is it just another expense?
Or is it consistently higher than they'd like? Is it just on the other side of what they think is reasonable?
This is important. You should talk to clients about this. And maybe dig a little to make sure you've gotten to their true feeling. Because resentment grows when it's ignored. One day, a resentful client will make one too many payments and feel just a little more resentment than they'd like. And that's when they're open to looking at other options.
There's Good News
If you have reasonable pricing (with a reasonable profit), you're probably fine with most clients. But there are many companies who are being nudged to constantly increase prices - a lot. Ten and fifteen percent increases work once in a while, or when you need to get in line with the market.
But non-stop large increases will inevitably lead to resentment.
Who would do such a thing? Companies that have merged and merged again, gobbled up a bunch of small businesses, and are now funneling money out of the business and into the pockets of the investors without regard for the health of the company or the strength of the client relationships.
As long as you're not one of those companies, you probably don't have a lot of resentment from clients when they pay their bills. And, best of all, you can go to market by targeting disgruntled prospects who are just about ready to give up on their overly-greedy IT service providers.
Sadly, we're seeing resentment-based pricing in many industries, primarily driven by investors who absolutely don't care about the industry, the businesses, they own, or the clients they serve. So, clients and prospects are seeing this with business office pricing, and with many services they buy. That includes IT services.
You need to know that this is happening and decide how you're going to respond. And, ironically, the less-greedy IT service providers are going to be gaining clients who have finally gotten fed up with over-greedy ITSPs.
2. Go to LinkedIn and search for yourself, your business, or both
3. Go to your web site
Read the About page
Then read the front page without scrolling ("above the fold")
Then poke around and read more
For the most part, that's you. That's your business. That's what a stranger sees when they check you out on the Internet. After you meet someone at a networking event, or they see your ad, or they receive your postcard, they're probably going to start looking to see what you're all about.
Similarly, when you put out an ad for a new technician, they are likely to check out your web site. Some are looking to research you so they can do well in an interview. Others are trying to determine whether they want to ask for an interview at all.
So, how's your first impression? Will it set you apart for prospective clients and employees?
Note: You need to own the fact that you created your presence on the Internet, either intentionally or by happenstance. Either way, it's your LinkedIn profile and your web site.
If it's great, and you're attracting the right clients and the right employees, congratulations.
If you think you could make a stronger impression - and attract clients and employees who are a great fit for your organization, join me for an all new webinar . . .
Most people start out struggling. And while the survivors spend a lot of time talking about their success, about eighty percent of businesses don't survive their first five years. The reasons are pretty predictable to anyone who has survived ten or fifteen years.
Every once in a while, I find myself in a conversation about the things I did "wrong" when I started my business. The short answer is, almost everything. And almost everyone else has the same experience.
I was lucky to get a few things right, based on my business experience before I jumped into IT. I had managed large computer systems across several states. I had multiple jobs where I had managed a staff of twenty-five or more. I had managed budgets and projects.
But I still got a lot of stuff wrong. My previous experiences didn't lead me to a philosophy on how money flows inside a business (I only managed one isolated piece of the puzzle). And virtually all of my experience as an employee led me to value workaholism in search of a reward.
But the ultimate lesson of workaholism is: The reward isn't as big as you'd hoped, and the goals will be increased next year. Ultimately, the result of workaholism is that you'll burn out and be tossed aside for someone will to kill themselves and destroy their family in search of rewards that never quite arrive.
Luckily, most of us learn quickly once we start our business. Unfortunately, we learn that through hard lessons. I call this an education with tuition paid in full. There are no discounts.
Here are the most common things almost everyone gets wrong when they start out. Note: Most people have stopped doing these things ten years later, if they survived. Some continue the bad habits simply because they have become strong habits.
- We offer "terms" without even thinking about it. This means we do the work first, then send a bill and wait for payment. I have no idea why this is the norm. I did it. Most small businesses do. Today, one of my absolutely unbreakable rules for success is that we get paid in advance whenever we can.
- We work on a "handshake" instead of a contract. I think this comes from a natural tendency to think that other people are like us (good, noble, honest, etc.). Then we get clients who are unreasonable or don't pay their bills. I avoided this one. I came from a world where everyone signed contracts. But most people just start working without the guardrails in place.
- We work on a break/fix basis. This is almost universal. I started out taking jobs to fix networks, document networks, update systems, etc. I had come from a world of scheduled monthly maintenance, so I quickly got back to that. But it was still on a month-to-month basis and invoiced after. I got it right after a few years, and after finding the right clients.
- Workaholism. I think this is a universal human tendency. As I mention in my book, Relax Focus Succeed, we naturally act as if more work will always result in more output. But we also know that's not true. If you work to the point of exhaustion, much of your work is horrible and has to be thrown away. Then you get sick and fall asleep and have to recover. Reset. Got back to overwork.
- Workaholics push un-balanced behavior from the top down. When bosses overwork and have no work-life balance, they push employees to overwork and have no work-life balance. If they're lucky, they notice that they are forcing people out the door - resentful of the experience. Most don't notice.
- Don't take credit cards - But do give clients credit without a credit check, and sometimes never collect from those who owe the most. I didn't take credit cards for a long time because I begrudged them the three percent fee. But after a few bad experiences with clients who didn't pay their bills, I realized that getting paid in advance by credit card eliminated collections completely.
- Some people are greedy and short-sighted. Oddly enough, this is standard operating procedure with large companies. But it can happen in small companies as well. They take any money they can get now and let tomorrow take care of itself. Building long-term clients and long-term revenue streams is always better in the long run. But you have to have a vision that extends more than a few months.
- Capping sales commission. I've never done this or understood it, but I see it all the time. Like credit cards and being short-sighted, capping sales commissions just limits your future sales. When a sales person reaches their max, why should they sell more? There's no benefit to them. And you lose all additional revenue from additional sales. Makes no sense, but almost everyone is tempted to do it.
- And the newest behavior on the list is: Insisting that employees be onsite instead of remote. Unless you're in manufacturing or a job that requires people to physically be someplace, this is just a sign of bad management. When we can all be effective working remotely, there is zero reason to force people into the office except to keep an eye on them. In IT this is basically never necessary.
Eventually, we learn! We read books and blogs and advice. And we ignore them for a long time. But that tuition is always paid in the form of "lessons learned." Some learn sooner. Some later.
What else would you add to the list?
And WHY do new business owners just "naturally" do things that are not good for their business?
One of the most annoying ongoing habits of Microsoft is to continually dumb-down Windows (and their software). They had a real move at one point (long ago) to make every function available with keyboard commands. Now they are reversing that and making it more and more difficult to figure out how to do many things with key strokes. Or they are adding additional keystrokes, so something that use to be a simple two- or three-key combo is now a series of three to five keystrokes.
My current frustration is their continuing move to make the right mouse click essentially useless. This post will show you how to fix this.
Note: This is not a "permanent" fix because you'll need to re-apply it about once per year. From time to time, Microsoft releases an update or upgrade that eliminates this important productivity function.
My bias is: I use computers and office software for productivity. Primarily, I am writing. But I also might be doing a bit of graphics, a bit of scripting. I do a lot of moving data/text from one place to another. And I do a fair amount of moving and working with data.
In all of that, I use the right mouse click (the context sensitive menu) a lot. Ultimately, no matter what program you're using, copying data to a flat text file (e.g., Notepad) and then copying from there and pasting in the final location is a powerful tool. It removes formatting. It eliminates hidden text and executable code. And once you are in the habit of doing this a lot, it is very fast.
Until Microsoft changes things to make you less productive.
You may use the right mouse click for other reasons. If you use it a lot, you have probably noticed - and been frustrated by the fact that there's fewer and fewer useful options all the time. Here's how to restore the full menu. (Actually, this process stops the dumb-down command and reveals the full menu.)
Restore old Right-click Context menu in Windows 11
While logged into Windows 11, the context menu in the File Explorer shows fewer items compared to the Legacy Context menu. Depending on your Windows update version, you may be able to access the longer context menu by clicking Show More Options at the end of the list or pressing Shift+F10.
To always have access to the full context menu, you will need to add a registry entry. Here how:
Right-click the Start button and choose Windows Terminal
Copy the command from below, paste it into Windows Terminal Window, and press enter
Technobabble for those who understand: The registry change masks the new COM object that executes the compact menus with the "Show more options" entry. Once you create this registry entry, you should have the full context menu.
Now: Either bookmark this post, or copy the text into a TXT file and save in a place where you can find it. Someday, a Microsoft update will mess up the right-click option again.
I welcome your feedback, tips, and tricks. How do you stay productive?
Over on my YouTube channel, I posted the video below. It's long, but I think it's filled with vital information for new IT consultants.
The five things you need to know are summarized as: Three things to do, one thing you must not doing, and an important tip to guide you through the first year.
The big challenge is: Keep your business alive for the first year. Plan and execute. Be deliberate and intentional. Okay. Sounds good. HOW do you get started as an IT service provider without going out of business the first year?
Most businesses, in general, don't survive the first five years. Eighty percent of them go out of business. For many of them, it's not a big bang. They just wither away and use up all their resources, and then they're done.
Here are four options for you to think about and one huge tip that will help you with your mental approach as you go through the first year of your business.
1. Free Stuff (Really)
The first thing to dig into is the treasure trove of free stuff. More than almost any industry I've ever seen, we have an industry filled with massive free information. This information falls into several categories: blogs, podcasts, videos, free events, and more.
Every vendor has (or should have) a training program to help you learn about their products and services, sometimes in great detail. You can find out about a lot of stuff before How do you spend any money.
On the education front, I personally love blogs, and I know a lot of people think, "Oh, I don't want to do all that reading." Videos are awesome for quick access to content. Podcasts are a bit slower than videos, but also have lots of great content. Neither videos nor podcasts (both of which I produce) are truly random access.
A blog is much easier to index and therefore to search; to have lots of rich keywords; and you've got an entire title full of keywords. Plus, blog are a wonderful permanent URL for great information.
Our industry has many - many, many - free channels on YouTube, on podcasts, on web sites, and in blogs. They're all over the place.
And then there's a whole bunch of people, myself included, who have free products. You want a white paper on this or a checklist for that? It might just be available for the a low price of your email address.
You can always unsubscribe to any list you get added to. I recommend that you be a good citizen: If you're going to unsubscribe, just click Unsubscribe. Don't block them or report them as spam. You got something for free.
At least be nice about it if you're going to leave the list. But there are people who log on, download, unsubscribe, all in a matter of seconds. So don't worry that someone will notice that you unsubscribed.
Among the free things you'll find are great webinars. Many webinars are sponsored. Some people give free information in a webinar so that it's the lighter version of what you know to be the sales pitch at the end, and they're going to sell you into a bigger program.
But if they're good at what they do, they have true educational value so that you realize they are giving you something first before they ask for money. Those are the truly best webinars.
Some webinars are sponsored by vendors. And for the most part, you're going to get 45-50 minutes of education and five minutes of commercial. And that's normal.
Again, nothing is free. There's no free lunch. So the price of admission is, you've got to sit through a commercial. But very frequently, especially with the vendors that I deal with, the information is going to be about how to run your business most effectively, followed by, "... and this is brought to you by a company."
I don't tend to do webinars where we do a deep dive into cybersecurity sponsored by a cybersecurity person. I do stuff like that in interviews. In a webinar, what you're going to find is, "Here's true content sponsored by..." and that's it. No heavy sales.
Now, vendors will also have their own webinars where they basically say, "Let us show you how to use our tool to improve your business."
The first question, the most important question that I ask in a podcast interview is always, How do How do we make money if we give you some of ours? If I sign up for your service, if I buy your stuff, if I resell your products, how do I make money as an IT consultant?
The very best vendors, and the very best vendor webinars, are going to be the ones that give you actual education or training. (Not walking you through their menu options and the latest and greatest color scheme for their new Whiz-Bang feature with all the newest buzzwords.
Bottom line: You'll want to constantly be searching for good channels that give you lots of of free education. The cost is usually an email or some contact information.
A cautionary note about free trials. This is a personal irritation of mine.) Some vendors seem to think that free trials are actually free.
They want you to sign up, use the tool for 30 days, and then become a reseller. But that's not free to ME. If it's a really good product, I'm going to have to spend those 30 days installing it, configuring it, securing it, making sure that I don't mess anything up, making sure I don't punch holes in my own security, learning the tool, trying to figure out.
So, while I'm running a business, I have to take 30 days, and the clock is ticking to figure out whether or not I want to use your product. There has to be a better sales proposal.
Time and time again, I've been asked, "Can you do a 30-day this and a 30-day that?" For me, the answer is no - I'm not in the business of test-driving your stuff. That's my personal bias.
For the most part, unless you've already decided that you're probably going to buy something, I wouldn't waste my time going through the 30-day free trial just to decide that you're not going to do that. They need to figure out a better way to sell you on how you can make money selling or using their stuff. Then, when you click the big buy button, you are already sold on their product or service.
I have many websites out there. Most of my free stuff is either at https://mspwebinar.com or store.smallbizthoughts.com. I do have many things that you can download, free educational materials that you can take advantage of, in addition to blogs, podcasts, and videos.
When you look at my blog, over on the right side, you're going to see a blog roll of my other favorite blogs. These are some of the most popular blogs in our industry that I actually pay some attention to.
In my weekly newsletter, I have a list of other people's stuff that you can get access to. I'm a big believer in sharing information and links, and hoping that other people will share my stuff as well.
2. Join Communities!
The second big treasure trove of information that you should access in your first year of business is communities. Some communities are paid and some are free. Either way, there are massive resources inside of communities.
I know every industry has people who help each other out, and I've seen it time and time again. Technology is unique. Some new technology might be invented right now, as you're reading this. It will grow to its peak in a few years, and it will reach an amazing threshold and great success. You've seen this a thousand times.
And after a few years, that new tech is old tech, and it will begin to fade out, to be replaced by the next big thing. Think about what that means. Somewhere between three and five years from now, someone reading this blog could be the the single most talented person in the world on that technology.
Somebody is going to be. The absolutely brand new technology is going to go through that regular cycle we all know about. Someone will be the greatest at that technology in the entire world, and somebody will be in the top 10%. You get to be one of those people.
You could go from entry-level to best-in-the-business in that technology. But the march of time continues. That technology will be replaced. There's a constant refresh of technology in our industry.
And as a result of this never-ending trend, we are constantly having to learn, we're constantly having to have an open mind. This gives successful technical people a mindset of growth, a mindset that fundamentally says, "I can learn new things. I can get good at things I'm not currently good at. I can use that to improve myself, my business, my skillset, my company."
And so that growth mindset, that fundamental belief that we can grow and expand and learn new things, means that we approach everything with a certain openness. We approach our business, our family, our clients, our employees, and each other with a belief that we are learning, everybody around us is learning.
Everybody around us hasn't seen this new technology before.
Everybody around us has gone through some hurdles to get here.
Everyone around us is going to go through more hurdles to get to the next level.
And we can help each other get there.
We all know we're going to learn faster if we get a bunch of people together and talk about something that we're all challenged with.
This industry has so many community opportunities. They're on Reddit; they're on Facebook; they're on LinkedIn. They're all over the place. Some of them are paid, some are free.
If you were only going to join a handful of communities, I would say everybody should be a member of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community. (https://smallbizthoughts.org) Yes, it costs money.
Everybody should be a member of Ascii. (https://ascii.com) You can attend a whole lot of stuff for free, but it's not that expensive, and you should just join because what the heck, right? You're going to get so much out of it.
Everybody should join Comptia. (https://comptia.org) For the most part, Comptia has programs for people who pay. but you can do an awful lot of stuff without having to pay.
All of them have opportunities for you to meet people.
All of them have opportunities for you to get involved.
And when you decide that you're going to be a professional in this industry, then you need to join the National Society of IT Service Providers. (https://nsitsp.org/join) Your entire company can join for as little as $150 a year. That's the place where you can meet people who are interested in having this be their profession and to elevating everybody in the industry to the next level.
When you do join a group or community, participate! Jump into a conversation, ask a question, post up your challenges. Some groups are open to everybody and are not quite a free for all, but anybody can ask anything about anything and you're free to do what you want. Of course, there are community guidelines.
Other groups are very tightly controlled, and they're really a front for a sales proposition. That's fine, too. Just know what you're getting into. You may need to sit through a certain amount of self-indulgent behavior, and then you get a whole bunch of stuff for free.
There's only so close we can get to a free lunch.
We share information for lots and lots of reasons.
We share information so that we can grow, so we can help other people to grow, so that our team can grow, so that we have a community view about how we operate and how this industry should operate.
All of those are things that you can get in the community. And some people will say, "I don't want to share my secrets with the competition."
Well, first, you have no secrets. After you've been in an industry for a short time, you'll learn that. Second, nobody is your competition until you decide you're going to compete with them for whatever reason.
We live in an expanding universe, and especially in IT, the amount of industry knowledge in existence expands every year. The number of clients and prospects expands every year. The amount of money in this industry expands every year. It continues to grow and grow and grow.
In thirty years, I have never met anybody that I consider actual competition. It's simply never the case that, if they get a dollar, I don't get that dollar. That's an absurd way of looking at the world.
I'm sorry, if you believe otherwise, that's okay. You have the right to be wrong.
It is great to get together in a group, whether that's five people, ten people, or 100 people. It might be in person or online. And then you can share your knowledge, share your challenges, and see how much people are willing to help you grow and improve your business.
There are groups that specialize in certain technologies, certain operating systems, certain vendor programs, certain sales programs, certain marketing programs.
There's a community for everybody about everything.
There are many places to participate for free, but most of the paid programs also have real value. You should have some budget. You should consider what you can afford, and allocate a budget to communities.
Of course, don't pay more than you can afford. If you need to go to a monthly program, do that. If you need to start out for free in a program program that allows that, and get as much as you can for free before you join at a higher rate, you should do that.
If you're not sure what communities to join, start with the list I mentioned here. Then, ask some people, join those communities, join other communities, poke around, see what you can find.
About five years ago, I stumbled onto a community I'd never heard of. They were people who had just gotten into this industry. They'd somehow found each other on Facebook. They started their own little group.
They didn't even know that the broader, already-connected community existed. Once they were exposed to it, all of them jumped in with both feet because they had a taste of what it's like to share information and to be connected and to help each other out.
They all became more successful because they found the bigger, broader community, which is not just inside one city or one country or one continent. It is worldwide. I am not exaggerating when I say that.
Yes, this is a bit of a commercial. You can skip this if you scroll down to #4.
But I promise you it's worthwhile. I put this community together to make you as successful as possible.
I've written over twenty books, most of them focused 100% on helping IT consultants be as successful as possible. I've done hundreds of videos, thousands of white papers, tens of thousands (maybe even 100,000) pages of supplemental materials, videos, podcasts, audio programs, trainings.
Oh, and lots of classes.
I bundled it all together so that you could buy it in one big program. I don't know what you think that's worth. If you bought it all separately, it'd be in the range of $15,000 - $20,000. But we provide that information on a subscription. The entry-level community membership at the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community is only $799 a year.
That gives you access to everything, all the materials, all the downloads, all the checklist. If you wanted a starter kit on what you need to run an IT consulting business, this is it.
At that level, you also get one of the five-week classes for no additional charge over at IT Service Provider University. (https://www.itspu.com) Those classes are focused 100 % on running your IT business.
The next jump up is the Community Plus membership, which includes all of that. PLUS, you get access to ALL of the classes over at IT Service Provider University. That's 25 classes, which sell for $399 each. That is literally a $10,000 value on top of all the material inside the community.
Both memberships also give you access to me, to the community meetings that we have, the breakouts that we have, the marketing programs that we have.
So there's lots of juicy good stuff there.
Here's my challenge to you.
Join for one year.
Jump in with both feet and get as much value out of it as you possibly can.
Engage me as much as you can. I challenge you.
Read all the books. I challenge you.
Download all the podcasts.
Download all of the audio programs.
Download all the training materials.
Download all the checklists and the calculators and see if you can put them all to use.
Do not overwhelm yourself.
But pick a few things. Pick the first thing that you need. Schedule a Zoom meeting with me, and I will help you figure out where those resources are.
Download the resources, put that in place, move your company to the next level. Then pick one more thing and go from there.
The bottom line is, I encourage you to try one year of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community. And if you do that, and you jump in, and you get as much value as possible, I'm betting you'll want to renew your membership. I'm betting that you want continued access.
There's also a team membership. I won't go into that in great detail now, but if you need your entire team to have access, and you have three or more people, you absolutely should look at the team membership.
4. (The Killer) DO NOT Buy Everything Right Away
Even if you came to this industry because you got a bunch of money (You won the lottery, or you retired and took a severance pay, or you inherited a bunch of money from your grandmother), Do Not sign up for everything all at once.
Just because you have a bunch of money doesn't mean you should spend it all at once. Here's the key to success.
When you start out, even if you have a bunch of money in the bank, you can only change one thing at a time. That might be to hire somebody. That might mean to double the size of your business. Then you can do two things at a time. Great.
That takes money and that takes time, and you have to figure out how to do it right.
I highly encourage you, do not take your big bankroll and sign up for all the great tools and programs you hear about. Many people take this path:
- I have to have a remote monitoring patch management system (RMM). I'm going to sign up for that. I'll commit to a year and enough license to get a price break.
- Oh, wait, I need a PSA. I'm going to buy into that at this level. And now I have another big expense, and I'm going to sign up for a year of that at this rate.
- Repeat for marketing programs, security tools, and widgets galore.
So far, you have zero clients! Or maybe you have one client. Or maybe you have a couple of clients. They're probably not on managed services, which means you have no recurring revenue. So, your expected revenue next month is ZERO dollars and zero cents until something breaks, and then you get to make some money.
Do not go buy everything you could buy. Don't sign up for all the programs you can find. Don't sign up for big, expensive training.
Plan to spend a few hundred dollars a month, period. Why? Because that's how much you can consume when you are just starting out in this business or any business.
Buy into that. Then go get yourself a client!
Do not commit yourself to more expenses than you have revenue. We all do that from time to time. And you'll do it more than once over the course of the next twenty years of your career. But don't start out by buying everything when you have no clients, no revenue, and no signed contracts.
In Managed Services in a Month (https://www.managedservicesinamonth.com), I have a formula. Do this, this, this, this, this. It will get you where you need to go. Make sure that you have a plan. Prioritize the steps.
I would say that RMM is the first thing you need to buy. Then, get a good financial package (e.g., Xero or Quickbooks). A PSA is the third thing you need to buy.
And you do need to join some vendor programs. If you're going to be reselling Microsoft, you need to go join that program. If you're going to be reselling other products and services, you may have to pay money for those programs.
You may need some training. If so, buy training.
Take one step at a time and try as hard as you can to stay below the level of your current revenue. Yes, it takes money to make money, and there will be times when you will need to spend money for good reasons to expand. Sometimes you're going to have to spend a little extra with the assumption you're going to get a client.
But don't go spend twenty or thirty or fifty thousand dollars with no clients.
The reason I'm making a big deal out of this is that I've seen it more than once. I've had people who came to me for coaching, and I practically begged them to stop doing this.
Go get a client.
Go get a client and come back to me.
As soon as you have a client, we'll talk about the next level. But if you don't have any clients, then this is all just a great intellectual exercise. Nothing wrong with intellectual exercises, but if you also have to feed your family, and you intend to grow your business, you have to go get clients.
Focus on the basics. Focus on the fundamentals. Go get a client. Then buy the tools that you need today.
Early on, it is absolutely okay to pay the highest price "per desktop" to support one client so that you do it right. You want them to give you a good positive thumbs-up so that you can go get another client, and then another, and another, and another.
It's literally been twenty years since the first time I told people, "I will not buy remote monitoring licenses a thousand at a time." Why? Because, on the day that I need them, I might need to deploy ten, or I might need to deploy twenty. That leaves me with over 900 unused licenses that I'm paying for and I don't have any clients to support.
It's okay to not get the best price on everything on day one. You're starting out. Act like you're starting out. Be frugal with your money so that you can get to the next level, and the next level, and the next level.
It takes time, it takes effort, it takes perseverance, it takes education, it takes taking advantage of those free things, joining the right communities, investing where you need to.
You have to juggle the balance of all of those things.
5. The Big Tip: Do One Thing At a Time!
I mentioned this a bit earlier. Do one thing at a time Get one client at a time.
If you don't have clients, or you only have a handful of clients, go through a short exercise. I call it the ideal client process. You can find that term on this blog. Or just search, "Palachuk ideal client" on the Google machine. If you're a member of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community, search for it under resources.
Once you've identified your ideal client, go find one person that looks like that, or gets close to looking like that. Make a deal with them, sign them up, get a contract. That contract will probably be small ($500-$1,000 per month). Great. Let's say you have $1,000 per month.
Now relax a little bit and go get another "ideal" client.
And here's a winning strategy I would encourage you to adopt your first year. This will make a huge difference your first year: Spend one hour a day - every day - doing something related to marketing.
There's only one exception to that rule. If you're going to spend time on a sales meeting or something related to sales, do that first. You are then absolved from your marketing hour.
If you spend two hours doing a sales meeting on Monday, that's two hours you don't have to spend on marketing. But the, on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you go back to doing your marketing. One hour a day.
When you get to the point where you have enough clients, you can say, you can adjust this a little bit. With luck, though, it will be a habit you will continue.
Too many people go into business and they start out organizing the office, getting their stationery together (which nobody uses anymore), and building the perfect web site, and creating the perfect marketing material, and finding the right tools, and increasing their output of money for tools and programs.
And they don't have any clients. They don't have any money coming in. They don't have a revenue source. They certainly don't have recurring revenue, which which means they don't have a foundation on which they can build the rest of their business.
It is hard to be in business, and if you don't do it right, you will absolutely fail in the next five years.
That does not have to happen. There's so much free stuff. There's so many great communities. There's so many opportunities for you to engage. You should not fail.
But it means you have to put in the hard work. You have to reach back into that growth mindset that got you here in the first place.
And then you need to say, "Okay, how can I learn? How can I grow? What can I do to take my business to the next level?" Figure it out.
And if you know what? Here's the best news: If you can't figure it out, engage your community. Post something online, post something on a forum, post something inside of one of the communities that you've joined.
Ask people for help. Ask them what you should do. Ask them for ideas. You may not take their ideas exactly and precisely the way that they give them, but it's a great place to start.
Again, I remind you of all those books. You want managed services in a month? Read Managed Services in a Month. You need to figure out cloud services? Cloud Services in a Month.
You may not do everything in those books. You certainly may not do it the way I do it. But they will give you ideas. Books will put stuff into your brain and help you think about problems. You will see new ways to look at your business, how you might change things for your clients, or change your offering. You might even change your attitude, or your goals for the universe.
But remember, "One thing at a time." Don't overwhelm yourself. Don't buy three fire hoses and stick them in your mouth. Instead, go to the water fountain and sip what you can consume. Refresh yourself.
Go to the next level. One thing at a time. One change at a time. One client at a time. One sale at a time. One improvement at a time.
Rinse, repeat.
Go through this process with intention and you will be successful. And you have an entire community worldwide who will help you. All you have to do is engage with intention.
I know that's a massive amount of information, but please, if you have any comments or questions, put them down below. I would be very happy to engage with you, give you all the details from my perspective, and help you where I can.
I really do with you the best of luck in everything you do.
National Society of IT Service Providers elections are under way!
All paid members: Please Vote!
As a member-focused organization, YOU get to choose who will serve on your board of directors, and all of the committees.
Log in at www.nsitsp.org and click on the big yellow Elections button.
Everyone standing for election this year will run for a full two-year term. (We elect about half of each committee each year.)
Not a member? Today's a good day to join!
Not sure who to vote for? Check out the candidate profiles. Just click on Meet the Candidate and read their profiles.
AND you can discuss candidates and campaigns in our election forum. To access the forum, click on "Get Involved" on the top menu and click Forums. You can subscribe to a discuss so you'll be updated whenever there's a new post.
Voting closes Monday, October 23rd. But don't delay. Take 60 seconds and vote now!
Managed Services in a Month is the best-selling guide to turning your “computer consulting” business into a recurring revenue machine!
This course is designed to walk you through the process outlined in the book. AND your registration includes a free copy of the book in e-format.
Updated Information on Tools, Cloud Services, Per-User Pricing, Creating Bundles, and MORE!
For more information on the book, see www.managedservicesinamonth.com.
It’s not too late! YOU can get into Managed Services — in a month.
Even if you decide not to become an MSP (managed service provider), this course will help you establish some great best practices when it comes to running your IT business.
Whether you’re a new “Computer Consultant” or an experienced Managed Service Provider, you need to create successful processes that will propel your company forward. Nothing is more critical to making profit than having the right processes and procedures in place!
Descriptive Video:
You will learn:
Computer Consulting in the 21st Century
What’s Different About Technology Consulting Today?
Cloud Computing in the Small Business Space
The Managed Service Model
New Consulting Business vs. Existing Business
Managed Services in a Month
Integrating Cloud Services
Making A Plan
Starting Fresh with No Clients to Convert
Create A Three-Tiered Pricing Structure
Bundling Services
Per-User vs. Per-Device Pricing Models
Putting Your (New) Business Together
Weed Your Client Garden and Finish the Plan
Write a Service Agreement; Have It Reviewed
Overcoming Objections
Desktops and Managed Service
Executing the Plan
Client Sit-Downs
After The Sale
Key Points to Remember for Profit
Running Your New MSP Business
The Right Tools for the Job
Your Standard Offerings (Your Catalog of Services)
Building an Action Plan that works
and MORE!
ITSP University Certification:
MEETS ELECTIVE REQUIREMENT:
Management
Front Office
Technician
Service Manager
This class will be recorded. Each unit is generally posted within 24 hours of the live class. These recorded units will become the On-Demand class and you’ll have lifetime access to it.
If your book is available on Kindle, you can purchase Kindle ads. The cool thing about that is that Amazon doesn't just display the Kindle format. So, for example, Managed Services in a Month is available as a paperback, Kindle, or Audible book. Therefore, the Kind ad points to the combined page, offering up all three formats.
All of that has been going on for some time. Recently, Amazon greatly expanded their ad program. You still can't advertise "anything" on the platform. But if you have an Amazon Store, you can advertise any item, all items, or the entire store itself.
You may have noticed that almost anything you want is available on Amazon. And, if you pay attention, you might notice that many things are not shipped by and from Amazon. They are shipped from specific stores.
For example, you might create a store that includes all the hardware and software you sell. Hardware is probably easier. Consider selling whatever brands you are authorized to sell of:
Desktop PCs
Laptops
Monitors
Web cameras
Cables - (power, network, HDMI, USB, etc.)
Printers - (laser or inkjet)
Lights for videos
Speakers
Microphones
Battery backups
Firewalls
Wifi routers
Network repeaters
Consumables - (printer paper, toner, ink, office equipment, shelving, and whatever else is available through your distributors)
. . . and so forth and so on.
You are (probably) already authorized to sell all these things. And many of them can be drop-shipped, which is awesome. It means you can take orders via an Amazon store and then simply have them drop shipped anywhere you need to. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of a modern, fully-functional platform that gives your business access to an audience far beyond the city where you live.
Amazon makes you easy to find. You can actually send your clients to your store, and give them special discount codes. Yes, Amazon takes more than you might like. But they can also bring you a massive audience you would never be able to build on your own.
Advertising Costs - and Reach
Here's the very good news. As of the end of August 2024, Amazon ads are both cheap and effective. AND you can generate reports of which ads led to specific sales on the platform. So you can literally see how much you sold as well as how much you spent on a specific ad. I don't know of any other platform that makes this so easy and obvious.
Another great feature is that you can use basic graphics or short videos. I've posted the video ads I'm using on my YouTube channel in case you want to take a look:
Note that these show up without sound on Amazon by default, so it doesn't make sense to write a script. If someone enables the sound, you should have something instrumental there.
The final thing to consider is the power of Amazon's search engine. They make money when people find what they're looking for. No one goes to Amazon to find out how to build a table, change a tire, build a computer network. They are looking to acquire something. So, if you're selling that thing, there is some probability that those folks will find you.
Note that you can use your store to post videos, educational material, and the equivalent of blogs to educate possible future buyers. Yes, it involves work. But you can do.
I'm not suggesting that you change your business model. I am suggesting that you expand your business in a way that allows you to increase sales, sell deeper into existing clients, and attract new clients who are not limited to your local geographic area.
I get a laugh when I say, "The best indicator of whether you have bad customer service is that you need a customer service department." But this is not a joke. For most businesses, the entire is business is built as needed. Products and services are defined. Delivery systems are put in place. Maintenance programs, sales programs, and financial management are all built up.
And then one day, when service failures are large enough, companies quietly admit failure in service delivery by bolting on a department dedicated to address the failures of the organization. This after-thought department is normally called Customer Service.
For company owners that have drunk too much of their own marketing Kool-Aid, the department might be called Customer Success. The irony is overwhelming.
It's a long, winding path from building a company that works to bolting on a department to deal with your failures. If your company is headed in the wrong direction, there is a simple test to determine whether you have taken your eyes off your customers. Answer one question.
If you deliver less service, will you make less money?
For most people reading this, service IS your business. It's the primary thing you deliver. Service is your product. Service is everything in your business. And, therefore, service is the profit center of your business.
That’s not true for many businesses, or any big businesses. For Apple or Microsoft (and every other large corporation on earth), customer service is a cost center for them. And when they need to cut costs, they might cut customer service from time to time.
Don’t gloss over this point. Large companies often have bad service because service is a cost center. When they cut service, they increase profits (at least in the short-term).
If you cut service, you cut revenue. In fact, when you increase the level of service you deliver, you can charge more money. Many (many) IT consultants I talk to describe their service with terms such as "white glove." They are proud of the service they deliver. In fact, they use it as a primary selling point for new clients.
Truly service-focused and customer-centric companies will always reduce their revenue (and generally their profit) when they cut service. Conversely, companies that are profit-centric have to view customer service as a cost center. And, therefore, it is as likely to be chopped as any other department when the company needs to increase profit.
Think about your suppliers, partners, and vendors. Many of them brag about service in their marketing. But when the time comes to make cuts, they cut the service (or customer service) department. They make more money when they give less service.
Service Does Cost Something
It does cost money to deliver services. And it generally costs more to deliver better service. It's never free to hire good people, train them, and provide them with the tools they need to deliver your services. And you might save some money here and there with tools and training.
But cutting service delivery is always a red flag, because it's always a short-term savings. Cutting service delivery will always result in lower customer satisfaction in the long run, and to lower profit in the long run. Large companies address this by increasing sales without regard to capacity or service delivery.
Perhaps the greatest example of the last fifty years is companies that sell connectivity and internet services. AT&T and Xfinity, for example, are famous for horrible customer service. They "make up" for this by simply hiring enough sales people to provide a never-ending flow of more customers to piss off and disappoint.
And it's a never ending story when these companies have a bad quarter: They start laying off workers. This gives them an immediate increase in profit. And please note: It's not just the customer service department that gets cut. ALL of the people who deliver services are cut, across all departments.
This is also why companies purchased by private equity investors cut services almost immediately. It saves them money - almost immediately. Some of them wait a while to cut services, but this is only so they can make other cuts first.
For example, the immediate reduction of development and investing in the future is an easy place to cut. That long list of new features on the development map? That gets frozen right away. New (especially expensive) initiatives? Gone. Anything that would make clients happy? LOL.
This Is Real - Even in Small Business
Don't think your company is immune because you run a small, customer-centric business today. The shift away from a customer-first attitude is slow and gradual. You grow, and make excuses about being behind. You take on more clients than you can serve with the historic levels of attention. You might train folks faster. You might outsource one too many things.
Gradually, over time, companies morph from customer-first to focusing on saving and squeezing pennies. And then one day, the idea is floated that you need to hire a customer service rep.
This move FEELS like an attempt to increase customer service. It is not. It is an attempt to increase customer satisfaction. Those are not the same thing!
Increasing customer service will always increase customer happiness with your company and the service you deliver. By definition, you have increased the service they can expect.
Customer satisfaction is a reaction, an after-the-fact attempt to make someone happy after you have failed to deliver the service they expected. This is one reason that customer satisfaction scores are generally useless and lead down an entire path of focusing on the wrong things.
In manufacturing, you cannot fix the design after the product comes off the assembly line. You have to redesign it and build a new product the right way from the start. When you do this, there is no need for bolting on a fix after the manufacture is complete.
Service is the same way. Building service in from the start - and maintaining it at a high level - will always produce better service than bolting on a department at the end and calling is "customer service."
Action Step: Take time every quarter to example the service you deliver by design. Is it where it should be? Is it what you imagined when you designed your service? If not, fix the service. Don't gather CSAT scores, admit defeat, and bolt on a customer service department.
Mark your calendar for October 2-4 in Vegas, Baby! A brand new event - ScaleCon - will focus 100% on helping you grow you business.
Nigel over at the Tech Tribe has offered my readers a $50 discount on the price of registration. See the details at www.scalecon24.com.
The Tech Tribe has joined forces with MSP Camp to create a new MSP Industry Conference called ScaleCon. ScaleCon is solely focused on helping MSPs grow their MSP, focusing only on Sales, Marketing, and Account Management.
From their marketing info, it looks like you should attend IF ...
You are tired of spinning your wheels trying to get leads for your MSP
You have great success closing referrals leads, but a lot less success when you generate leads
You have thousands of dollars of potential recurring revenue hiding in your current client base, but you’re not sure exactly how to unlock it
This event event is NOT about "all things MSP," but focused entirely on Marketing, Sales, and Account Management. These are key elements for growing you managed service business.
Check it out today - and save $50 at checkout with code
This four-volume set is the definitive guide to Managed Services. From the front office to the tech department, we cover it all. Every computer consultant, every managed service provider, every technical consulting company - every successful business - needs SOPs!
When you document your processes and procedures, you design a way for your company to have repeatable success. And as you fine-tune those processes and procedures, you become more successful, more efficient, and more profitable. The way you do everything is your brand.
How to Deliver Successful, Profitable Projects on Time with Your Small Business Clients
Small Business project management is simply not as complicated as project management in the enterprise. But small business projects have the same challenges as enterprise projects: They need to achieve their goals effectively, on time, and within budget.
They also face the same primary challenge – staying inside the scope of the project!
This great little book provides a simple process project planning and management process that is easy to learn and easy to teach to your employees, fellow technicians, and sub-contractors. You’ll learn to track any project, explain all the stages to clients and employees, and verify that everything is completed on time and under budget.
The authors show you a great technique for making sure that scope creep is a thing of the past! Make every project a successful and profitable project!
Great for new I.T. Consultants or anyone who wants to transform your break/fix business to a profitable Managed Service practice in 30 days or less. (Really)
Includes chapters on cloud services in the Managed Service world.
Order NOW and get started on a path to recurring revenue!
I make every attempt to honestly state what I believe and enjoy the freedom of posting whatever I feel like on this blog. This is a big complicated world and I have many interconnected personal and professional relationships.
I may in some way receive money or other benefits from any of the products, services, or companies mentioned in this blog as a direct or indirect result of my actions on and off this blog. Any experience mentioned here is just my experience and I have no knowledge about whether it represents a typical experience with any products, services, or companies mentioned.
Whenever it is possible to have both an honest and a misleading interpretation of my statements, please assume honesty.
