Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Do You Own Your Business or Does It Own You?

If you've been working "on" your business for any period of time, then you'll really enjoy our next SMB Conference Call.

Our guest is technical business coach George Sierchio, author of BYOB: Build Your Own Business, Don't Be Your Own Boss.

In addition to the general topic of freeing yourself from your business, we'll talk about what George calls your "Self-Imposed Glass Ceiling."

We're going to talk about the limitations to your success -- and the role you play in building and keeping those limitations in place. Scary stuff. But remember: growth takes place when you acknowledge your areas of weakness and address them.

George is one of the featured speakers at SMB Nation, later this week. If you're going to Seattle, be sure to connect with George. If you can't make it, be sure to catch this call.

Also, drop by Booth 100 as George will hang out there from time to time.

Join us on Wednesday, Oct. 1 at 9:00 AM. Details are listed on the SMB Conference Call Page.

Or you can just register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/206888466

George's Info:
- See www.actionbusinesspartners.com

- Email: [email protected]

- Blog: http://georgesierchio.blogspot.com

- Other fun stuff: http://www.freebizanalysis.com

:-)

Empowerment Bundle To Grow Your Business

Naseem Saab and the folks over at Results Software have gone crazy! Whacko. Seriously looney.

Way beyond "Cuckoo for Cocoa Pops."

Maybe the Big Award has gone to their heads. But . . . WOW.

Over the last few days Naseem has been working furiously to put together a bundle that will only be available to the attendees at SMB Nation 2008. So he started poking around . . .

The Premise was: How much value can we jam into an extremely exclusive deal?

He did not want to ask every vendor at the show to throw in something because they're all going to be pushing their own stuff. So he contacted three partners and asked for a little something.

The result is pretty amazing.

First, Results Software -- The QuickBooks Killer App of the Year -- is putting up almost $1,600 worth of software and training.

Then Erick Simpson from Managed Services Provider University threw in a month of membership with a face value of $99. Of course it includes ebooks, audio programs, videos, and webinars that are literally worth thousands of dollars.

Then Jim Locke from SMBTN threw in three months worth of business membership. Again, face value of $108. But with member discounts and benefits, also worth literally thousands of dollars.

So I felt guilty and threw in a copy of my most popular book ever -- The Network Documentation Workbook. Face value $79, but in my head I think it's worth millions.

Summary

Naseem is calling it the Empowerment Bundle. An amazing starter-kit for technicians who want to get going with a huge step-up is tools, resources, and best practices.

- Results Software's VAR/Consultant Partner program ($395 value)

- 15-25% Partner discount on all future Licenses

- Full NFR of Results CRM & Business Suite ($495 Value)

- Full NFR of Results for the Web ($150 Value)

- NFR Site License of Results QuickBooks Integration ($345 value)

- All Results Add-Ons. Includes: Outlook Quick-Add, Outlook Integration, Timesheets & Options Pack

- One Year of Results Customer Care. ($198 Value)

- Karl Palachuk's Network Documentation e-Workbook ($79 value)

- 30 day Premium Subscription to Erick Simpson's MSP University ($99 value)

- 3 months free business membership with SMBTN (with purchase) ($108 Value)

Roughly $1,869 of value immediately. If you take advantage of discounts through Results, MSPU, and SMBTN, you could literally save thousands more.

And how much will this cost you?

What would you pay for this bundle?

$10,000? -- NO

$1,000? -- NO

$500? -- NO

$250? -- NO

$100? -- NO

Your price is only $95 ! ! !

Now, that's a Ducking GREAT Deal!


The $95 price is only good at SMB Nation. Only good at Booth 100.

Only good until the meds wear off.

Will This Bundle Make Your Rich?

No. Only you can do that. But it will be a lot easier with the tools in this bundle. If you want an amazing collection of resources that will give you a boost up, there really isn't a better deal anywhere.

You will need to work hard to take advantage of all the offers, resources, and opportunities in this bundle. But in these tough economic times, this $95 investment in your business is absolutely the best buy you'll find this year.

- - - - -

Thank You to Naseem (the true brains and motivation behind this), Erick, and Jim.

It is always a pleasure to do business with people who

- Get excited about working together

- Are willing to put some "skin in the game" for partners

- Have a generous heart

- And who come through for you when you ask


PLEASE don't get the impression that these are the only three people like this in our community. We're actually blessed to be overflowing with people like this in the SMB Community. I'd start naming names, but I'd surely forget someone. Two dozen names pop to mind. And if I think just a little while it's more like 100, from all over the globe.

Yes, there's some commercialism going on here. But it's sure great to do business with nice people.

See you in Booth 100.

:-)

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Results CRM Wins 2009 QuickBooks Award

We heard some great news Friday from our Friends at Results Software.

Results CRM has won the prestigious "2009 QuickBooks Awesome Add-on" award!

Congratulations to Naseem, George, Michael, and the whole crowd.

Looks like we'll have to make room for a shiny award at Booth 100 at SMB Nation!

The 2009 QuickBooks Awesome Add-on Award has been given to only 7 products of over 300 QuickBooks add-ons, that are now a part of the Intuit Developer Network. Results Software is the only one awarded to a CRM and Business Management software.

The award comes from the Sleeter Group -- a MAJOR Consulting partner with Intuit that has 600+ membership of QuickBooks advisors. Sleeter explains why Results CRM won this award:

    Results CRM, has been named to this list for a number of reasons:

  • The product shows superior design, implementation, and features.

  • The product has superior integration with QuickBooks. It passes data to and from QuickBooks using best practices of the QuickBooks SDK programming interface.

  • The product uses appropriate transaction types and field population for recording data into QuickBooks so as to preserve and/or enhance the standard reporting features in QuickBooks.

  • The product conforms to good accounting and operating practices.

  • Results company has shown outstanding customer support. They provide the highest level of support to both end users and consultants. This area is a key element to the overall satisfaction of an add-on product.

The Sleeter Group also noted that Results CRM, and the company behind the product, are unique in providing products and services that are focused at both the VAR and the end-user. Results doesn't just provide a product for clients and give you a piece of the pie: They help you grow your business and provide better solutions so you can make more money.

Great Little Book is proud to be a Results CRM user, sales partner, and reseller.

In fact, we're in a unique position of buying in volume, so we can sell single-user licenses to SMB consultants for resale to their clients. For more information, please see:

www.results-software.com
and
www.smbbooks.com

Congratulations to Naseem and the gang! Great job!

:-)

Last Call for SMB Preday

October 3, 2008
Seattle, WA
2 - 6 PM

Only 6 days left to register for "Absolute Best Practices" with Erick Simpson and Karl Palachuk!

SMBNation Pre-Day Event!

Marriott Hotel
2100 Alaskan Way
Seattle, WA 98121
Register at: http://www.smbpreday.com/smbnation2008/EventPalachukSimpson.htm.

Whether you're new to SMB Consulting, or an old hand, you'll learn a lot of great new stuff from these two authors and successful SMB Consultants.

No matter where you are in the process, you'll find valuable best practice tips in this four hour seminar. From managing client relationships to hiring employees, from sales and marketing to running a service board. We'll cover it all.

Have you ever noticed that, in anything you do, there are only a handful of key rules that account for the vast majority of your success? In this seminar, two successful consultants - who have each sold millions of dollars in services -- will give you the nuggets you need to move your SMB Consulting practice to the next level.

Special Offer:

Every person who registers for this event will receive two FREE audio books!

Special Offer Two:

Each attendee of this seminar that signs up as a new business member or renewal of business member of SMBTN will receive a credit of $50 toward any purchase at SMB Books.

Only 7 days left! Register today!


We'll see you in Seattle!

Register at: http://www.smbpreday.com/smbnation2008/EventPalachukSimpson.htm.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

SharePoint Operations Guide, Robert Crane on SMB Conference Call

We have a guest joining us from the future!

When it's today over here, it's tomorrow in Australia. It's also early in the morning there when it's afternoon here.

So we're having a special "out of band" SMB Conference call on Wed. Sept. 24 at 2:00 PM Pacific.

Our guest is Robert Crane, author of the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide. Robert is a Small Business Specialist and Microsoft Certified SharePoint Professional. The guide is about 600 pages and is updated regularly.

He has worked as a technology and business consultant for fifteen years and is the principal at The Computer Information Agency in Australia.

We're going to talk to Robert about Share Services, and how to manage it most effective -- and make money doing so!

If you're interested in growing the SharePoint side of your business, please join us.

Summary info:

September 24, 2008
2:00 PM Pacific
Robert Crane
Author: Windows SharePoint Operations Guide
- Topic: Maximizing Success with Windows SharePoint

- Email: [email protected]

- Blog: http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/blog

Register Now to attend this free SMB Conference Call:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/895127356

:-)

Monday, September 22, 2008

Managed Car Wash

How do people want to buy services?

All together now . . . for a flat monthly fee!



Quick Quack Car Wash now provides unlimited car washes per month for a flat fee.

www.dontdrivedirty.com

Four tiers of service:

Basic

Good

Better

Best

Not sure what's below "good." I'd personally rather have a good car wash than one that's not good enough to be called good.

But, whatever.

Unlimited Wash $14.95/month

Unlimited GOOD Wash $24.95/Month
Basic Wash plus Triple Foam and Wheel Cleaner

Unlimited BETTER Wash $34.95/Month
GOOD Wash plus Rain-X & Undercarriage Wash

Unlimited BEST Wash $44.95/Month
Our Best Wash, Our Best Value! Includes Tire Shine

And how about you? Are you still trading dollars for hours?

:->

Sunday, September 21, 2008

VAR Video. Varvid. Varvid.com.

Every once in awhile I find myself kicking myself because I forgot something.

[ Okay that's every day. ]

For months now I have been meaning to write about http://www.varvid.com/, Aaron Booker's great video blog.

In addition to being educational, Aaron's video blog is fun. Just look at the snaps. Aaron is smiling in every single one of them. Of course that's just Aaron, too.

Without spilling too much secret sauce, let me tell you what Aaron does. He takes good, informative videos from other sources and mixes and matches them with his own. Let me tell you, his own hold up very well to some of the "professional" stuff out there.

For example, you'll find DIY stuff from the Wall Street Journal and even Microsoft.

Personally, I like Aaron's interviews better. But I realize there's a ton of work in that. Hence my own pitiful record of posting videos.

Aaron sets up a background, turns on the camera, and talks to people. And man do people talk! Check out the September videos here: http://www.varvid.com/2008/09/index.html.

The only thing I'm not sure about is why old videos disappear. Perhaps Aaron can comment on that. The archives primarily focus on non-Aaron videos.

- - - - -

And Aaron must enjoy this because he just launched another video blog site over at http://www.socialpastures.com/. Social Pastures focuses on Social Media. They're nicely agnostic about FaceBook vs. LinkedIn, etc.

Right now he's got some good stuff from a recent Social Media conference, including interviews with people who made it happen.

As you'll learn, Aaron is refocusing his business to provide web content for clients as well as the network support most of do. That's a nice growth industry, and this is a good time to get in.

- - - - -

Sorry, Aaron, for taking so long to post about your cool projects.

Now if you could just point us to the interviews you did at WPC . . .

:-)

Saturday, September 20, 2008

New White Papers - Backups and Email

Over at SMB Books, we're trying to build a place where consultants can find resources to make their companies more profitable.

There are a couple of pieces to that puzzle.

First, there are educational products (Exam Prep for 70-282, SharePoint Guide, etc.). These products help you learn the things you need to learn to get your job done. You can use them and pass them to your other techs.

Second, we have marketing resources (books on marketing, for example). These help you find ways to bring more clients (and therefore dollars) into your business.

Third, we have lots of procedural resources. These are books and materials that help your improve the way you run your business. A great example here is . . . everything by Erick Simpson.

And once in awhile we find a gem or two that help you do all of these.

I have just added the two following white papers. They are almost free, but we think you'll find great value in them.

First:
How to Create A Great Backup System,

Avoid Failure, Be Prepared for Any Disaster, and Sleep Soundly at Night (Because Your Company is Safe)
by Karl W. Palachuk
$4.95

That's right. Less than $5 USD. In Great Britain, that's the cost of a postage stamp!

This is a 12-page white paper originally developed as an educational and marketing piece for our company. It covers backup strategies, backup options, and how to actually create an overall backup strategy.

This piece can be used as fodder for creating your own client-facing white paper, or for educating your technicians on some of the overall philosophy around backups.

Second:
Cleaning Up Your Email

by Manuel Palachuk
$9.95

Less than $10 USD. That's one British latte at Costa!

This is a 12-page white paper originally developed as a how-to guide for our clients. It has been modified a bit so that it is also appropriate as a marketing piece. And it is extremely useful to technicians as a a click-by-click guide to cleaning out over-full Exchange mailboxes.

This piece can be used as fodder for creating your own client-facing white paper, or for educating your technicians on procedures that can help avoid expanding that Exchange database.

- - - - -

Why White Papers?

White papers are great marketing material. You can send out a standard Robin Robins 3-letter set and promise this great, educational white paper if they'll just . . . (insert call to action here).

You can also just send it to clients. No, 90% won't read it. But they'll take you a bit more seriously and see your company as both a "good choice" and more professional than the trunk slammers with laser perf business cards.

We print our white papers on 60# 11x17 paper, folded once and stapled. It makes a very nice handout.

They are also great to include in your sales folder, or to give out at seminars and presentations.

Why so cheap?

As corny as it sounds, I want to get these white papers into as many technicians hands as possible. I believe these are really good, useful tools. Even if you don't agree with our approach to backups or email, it will still be useful to see a well-reasoned argument for doing things a specific way.

- - - - -

Call to Action

We want your white papers, too!

If you're written a beefy (10+ pages) set of instructions on something that made money for your business, we'd like to share that with the rest of the SMB Community.

It could be technical (e.g, how you manage firewalls, vpns, and private address space for clients) or related to marketing, call screening, hiring, firing, motivating, upselling, or meeting with your client for the first time.

If you haven't read Michael Gerber's E-Myth Revisited, go get that immediately. One of his absolute keys to success is to document all of your processes and procedures. Focus your business on best practices and make it something where success can be duplicated again and again.

Sharing our ideas about everything is a great way to help each other build best practices.

Will your great ideas work in my company? I don't know? Will mine work in yours? Don't know. But sharing the ideas, and considering how they might fit in our different companies will certainly help us work on our business rather than just working in the business.

Anyway . . . Check out the White Papers at SMB Books.com. Contribute if you can.

:-)

Friday, September 19, 2008

Defeating Vlad's Nightmare

My good friend Vlad constantly rails against the incompetence and unprofessionalism of "SPFs" (single points of failure).

It is certainly not the case that all Sole Proprietors in the technology field are incompetent or unprofessional, but there are days when I just can't believe how horribly incompetent some of them are!

About once a year we step into a snake pit that one of these losers left in his wake.

- He sold the wrong equipment to the client.

- He "sold" them illegal, outdated, pirated, or gray market software.

- He couldn't figure out how to configure the hardware.

- He couldn't install SBS 2003!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- He couldn't install SBS 2003!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- He couldn't install SBS 2003!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- He couldn't install SBS 2003!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- He couldn't install SBS 2003!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- He couldn't install SBS 2003!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


- He didn't configure the firewall, the network, the desktops, or anything else correctly.

The worst part is: We bid on this job. The prospect became loser-boy's client. Loser-boy trashed their system and charged them full price. Only THEN did the prospect become our client.

Wow. Think of all the money they could have saved.

That means the client made a conscious decision to choose loser-boy over us. They chose inferior hardware and pirated software, delivered by a dishonest scoundrel.

Well, maybe they didn't choose that. But . . . they didn't choose top notch hardware with real legal software delivered by competent technicians.

If a client simply goes with price, are they responsible for the results?

Yes. At least in part.

On one hand, if the price from one technician is significantly better than another, it is very likely that competence plays a role the difference.

On the other hand, if they assume that a consultant is competent, it's hard to blame them for choosing the lowest priced competent consultant they can find.

But how can a client make a true evaluation of the technician's competence without being a technician?

A few people have been vocal about raising the bar in our profession. It's overdue.

What can we do?

I don't want the government deciding who's competent and who isn't. If you think for two seconds that that's a good idea, check out the tech support in your average state agency. "Microsoft knows this is a problem and they refuse to fix it." Please.

Industry leaders (such as Microsoft) can't do it. They will give up professional expertise in a flash if there's a shiny nickel in it for them. Look at the MCSE program. It was very serious in the days of NT 4. But five years ago it had became so diluted that people were getting an MCSE in a weekend. Now their whole certification program is a confusing joke.

So what about us (the technical professionals) defining and enforcing some standards on our own? It happens in a lot of other industries.

That way, when a prospect is trying to choose a consultant, there is some independent measure of competence and achievement. It doesn't have to measure in fine detail: Just enough so that the client isn't tricked into thinking that an incompetent technician is really competent.

Let me be very honest. There are some good programs out there. Microsoft, Cisco, and a few others have some very good measures of competence. For example, with MS Certified partners, there are some real barriers to entry. They don't guarantee that incompetent scoundrels won't get become certified, but they make it a little more difficult every year.

Microsoft also performs client interviews and satisfaction surveys for Certified Partners.

But even with these few things, there are no good tools for clients to find competent technicians. Or for clients to vet the technicians who show up on their doorstep.

360 days out of the year we have a story about the last big loser.

But 5 days a year we live through a lot of frustration, cleaning up after the loser and apologizing to the client for being part of an industry that is less regulated than used car salesmen. Most importantly, we spend five days trying to convince the client that we're not all dishonest and incompetent.

Help me out here. It's one thing to complain. How do we take concrete steps to take our profession to the next level?

:-)

Thursday, September 18, 2008

He's Baaaaaaack - Network Documentation Workbook now an e-book



We announced in July that We will not reprint the Network Documentation Workbook.

Unfortunately, I've been inundated with requests since then. "I want just one copy."

"I bet you have ONE lying around the office."

"I'm a new consultant and I've been told that I need this book."

etc.

Now they're even bugging HarryB because he originally sold the Network Documentatin Workbook on the SMB Nation web site.

So, while I think the The Network Documentation Workbook needs revision, we're giving it a reprieve of sorts.

We've produced an ebook version. The e-workbook is delivered as:

- A zip file with

- The book in .pdf format 8.5" x 11"

- and the CD as an ISO image



You get the entire book and CD as they were originally published. That means all the forms in both .pdf format and .doc/.xls format, so you can customize them, update them, and add your logo.

The e-workbook is now delivered totally electronically. So there's no waiting and no postage.

Thank you, again, to everyone who made this book such a tremedous success. I am honored by your support.

I promise there will be a great revision some day. But for now, this will have to do.

Enjoy.

And thank you.

:-)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Seek What Is Good and Praiseworthy

I subscribe to a lot of stuff. One of the best things I subscribe to is Perry Marshall's newsletter. He's one of those folks that provides inspiration on one hand and a long to-do list on the other.

Today, for no good reason, I received the email reprinted below (with permission). The text in bold is my emphasis to highlight the most important piece of this.

If I could double-bold one line, it would be this: "The email your customers get from you may be the only positive, encouraging email they get from anybody all day."

Think about that.

On Monday and today, the stock market took some major hits. But on both days there were stocks reaching all-time highs.

Remember, the difference between average and spectacular is extremely small. Don't join the doom-and-gloomers. Be the person you want to spend time with!
To: Karl Palachuk
Subject: Memo to Renaissance Club Members

Karl,

This morning I had breakfast with a friend. We had important stuff we needed to talk about today.

There was a TV above and a few feet behind him, a constant stream of b-a-a-a-d news (the Fed has to bail out AIG, financial institutions are collapsing, yada yada) and I had to get up and walk over and turn the volume down just so we could have a conversation.

That, my friend, is a snapshot of what all of us have to fight every day.

Gloom. Doom. Negativity. Bad news. Failures. Collapses. Economic woes. Uncertainty. Drowning out conversations that really matter.

The world is awash in this dreariness.

Oh yeah, and glib promises by professional politicians: "Vote for me and I'll fix it for you."

You will accomplish NOTHING positive by focusing on ANY of this. It will only weaken and distract you.

Nor will it help you to dwell on the problems that are going on in your particular industry. That only reinforces the status quo.

If you've followed me for any length of time, you know I have a cynical streak. I look at the world through a jaundiced eye. I've been a mark on more than one occasion and I've always got my radar on for the con man. I'm able to detect the fly in the ointment.

Being that way, I have to give my head a shake as much as anyone. I easily get sucked into the vortex of badness - just ask my wife. Or ask Bryan. They know.

I have to always remind myself that wherever there is chaos and uncertainty, there IS opportunity.

And... yes there may be things to criticize but there are also things to be praised. There is much around us that is GOOD and praiseworthy. Nobody's going to be inspired to focus on the good stuff if they're just watching the news.

More than likely, if there's anything good to be said, it's going to have to be said by YOU. If your employees or partners are going to hear an encouraging word from anyone today, they'll probably have to hear it from YOU.

The email your customers get from you may be the only positive, encouraging email they get from anybody all day. As such it will stand out.


Light and dark cannot occupy the same space at the same time. I'm at a Strategic Coach meeting today, where Lee Brower said, "Grateful kids do not commit suicide. Grateful husbands and wives do not get divorced."

Thanks for that reminder, Mr. Brower.

Before you're done reading this email, I'd like you to write down 5 things you're thankful for, or accomplishments you're proud of. I would like two of them to be something that's happened in the last 24 hours.

Then I'd like you to make one resolution about how you're going to encourage more of the same kind of positive victory to happen - what step you're going to take.

Finally: I'd like you to think of ONE thing that's good, that nobody else is recognizing enough, and I want you to communicate it to your customers. Something that gives them hope!

So in the spirit of that, I'd like to leave you with something from my own world. The positive thing that I'm seeing is, the stuff that's going on around us is pounding the nonsense out of peoples' marketing efforts. And I am seeing many of my top students experiencing MAJOR successes.

One business is tripling this year and has had to break their lease to move to a new space. Bryan and I are seeing record levels of Renaissance Club members, as people who MUST make their marketing dollars work are investing in the education necessary to ensure that they get smart.

I'm observing as one guy - who's in the very worst part of the mortgage market - has watched his proud business literally disintegrate during the last year and is courageously taking back ground that he lost, completely reinventing himself and changing the entire way that he interfaces with his customers.

Yesterday I got an email from him saying he's been eating, drinking and breathing AdWords all during this past weekend (during the flooding that was going on in Chicago he had little else to do) and the whole thing is starting to scream.

He can't wait for the Bobsled Run to start.

He will rise from the ashes and will be stronger, nimbler, and have more self respect and confidence. This too shall pass. He knows that and is busy make sure that what comes next is indeed good.

My friend, there is opportunity all around us. It just takes a positive lens of expectancy and a KNOWLEDGE that those opportunities exist. May we all have eyes to see them.

Blessings,

Perry Marshall


Reprinted with Permission. For more information, check out www.perrymarshall.com.

Erick Simpson Hits a Home Run With Service Delivery

What's missing in the SMB Space? What book do we need?

We've got the big book of running your company (The Guide to a Successful Managed Services Practice).

We've got the big book of selling managed services (The Best I.T. Sales & Marketing Book Ever).

Now, Erick Simpson and Managed Services Provider University are providing the big book of Actually Delivering I.T. Service. They call it:

The Best I.T. Service Delivery BOOK EVER!

About 500 pages.

It's a thumper.

Here Erick spells out the details of four different Service Delivery Models: Hardware Warranty, Break-Fix, Professional, and Managed Services.

For each of these, he covers:

- Characteristics
- Deliverables
- Pricing and Positioning
- Staffing Requirements
- Hiring, Managing and Training
- Technical Roles and Responsibilities
- Processes and Procedures
- Target Markets
- Customer satisfaction and Loyalty
- Maintenance, Maximization and Migration strategies

And much, much more!

If you've read any of Erick's stuff, or seen his training materials, then you know that this will be a spectacular book.

If you've read any of MY stuff, you know that I go around the country kicking people in the butt so they'll move up to the next level. When I'm not doing that, I'm happily pushing them off the fence so they'll make a move and stop procrastinating.

This book will give you a great picture of where your business is today AND a choice of service models for moving into the future.

A lot of people (most?) are providing a combination of Managed Services and Break/Fix. That break/fix model works very well for many people. This book will show you how to deliver break/fix in order to maximize efficiency (and therefore profit). Of course it ALSO shows you how to move up a notch and delivery profitable and efficient managed services.

- - - - -

We hope to have these books in hand any minute. We're taking orders at a very special price of $139.95 (normally $149.95). Order one for yourself, one for you service manager, one for the library down the street.

Oh, and don't forget that Christmas is coming up. The lovely red book will look good under any Christmas tree!

:-)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Shifting Abundance

We've discussed a bit about "the recession" that hasn't materialized, and the economic downturn that feels like a recession.

On our Wednesday SMB Conference Call, Stuart R. Crawford from It Success Mentor will join us to talk about Connecting the Dots and make the rest of 2008 a GREAT, profitable quarter.

We're almost finished with Q3. Q4 is two weeks away. How will you maximize your success.

Here's something to think about:

Whenever there's an economic downturn, somebody's still making money.

Is that just dumb luck, or are they aligned properly with the times? More importantly, do you have a model that allows you to maximize success when the stock market's in turmoil?

If you say that you're completely at the mercy of the pervailing economic conditions, then you need to change your business model

We'll talk to Stuart about short term and long term strategies for dealing with fickle markets.

Register now and plan to join us Wednesday at 9:00 AM Pacific.

Register at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/933616925.

and there's always more information on the SMB Conference Call page.

:-)

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Now Available - Perfect Profitable Projects

Earlier this year, Matt Makowicz and I did some seminars on selling and running Perfect Profitable Projects.

What makes them perfect? That's easy: You don't lose money!

One of the biggest problems with projects in the SMB space is that they tend not to be very profitable. That's partly because the sales people sell the wrong thing, or sell something your company doesn't deliver.


And it's partly because technicians are easily hijacked by the client. "As long as you're onsite all day installing a server, I have other work you can do for free . . .."

NOT!

Matt and I are proud to announce that we recorded those seminars, had them edited a bit for prime time, and we've created a great bundle:

- Two audio CDs -- one great seminar!

Disc One: Running Perfect Profitable Projects

Disc Two: Selling Perfect Profitable Projects

- Bonus data CD with all the PowerPoint slides, plus additional handouts

The regular price for the live seminar (recorded in 2008) was $399 per person.

When these audio programs are sold separately, the cost is $99 each.

Now, in this special bundle, you get two audio CDs, plus a third CD with all of the slides and handouts . . . for only

$149.95 for the set!

But Wait

The early bird price (through October 31st) is only $129.95!

Order now at SMB Books.


How much do you have to save on your project costs to pay for that? One hour? Two hours?

- - - - -

Here's the official sales blurb:

Growing your business is fun -- but it's also difficult.

One of the biggest challenges is maintaining profitability. That's particularly true with projects.

One- and Two-person shops have enough challenges with projects. As you grow, you have three more:

First, the sales people have to be in sync with the tech team. You need to make sure you're selling the right services and the right projects. That means you need a sales process. We'll show you how to get started.

Second, your sales people need to manage the project handoff to the tech team. All the promises need to be written down, measured, and delivered. Once again, a great process guarantees a perfect project!

Third, tech team members need to be able to work together without creating rework or dropping anything. And again, you're back to having the right process.

Matt Makowicz and Karl Palachuk have each sold and delivered millions of dollars worth to technical services and recurring revenue-based services.

Now they're teaming up for a great seminar to bring you the most important information you need to stop losing money, start executing more profitable projects, increase the recurring revenue coming into your business, and increase the value of your company.

This is NOT just another seminar. You'll walk away with proven processes and procedures to make your company more profitable as you grow!

You are GUARANTEED to learn secrets in this seminar that will save you at least $1,000 on your next server installation project.

Add that to your bottom line!

How? It's easy. Sell the right project in the first place. Deliver the right project and services after the sale.

And get paid for all the "unknown elements" that come up during the project and maximize your profits!

It's true!

- - - - -

Official Release Date: October 15th

Special Early Bird Price $129.95

Through October 31st

Order now at SMB Books.

:-)

Friday, September 12, 2008

Rejecting the Recession

Technically, we haven't had a recession. In fact, growth was larger than expected last quarter.

So the economy is growing, has been growing, and is expected to keep growing. All this despite the fact that we're dealing with the largest bailout of irresponsible homeowners, irresponsible realtors, irresponsible loan officers, irresponsible bank officials, and irresponsible government hacks in the history of the world.

That's a resilient economy!

Slower growth is not fun, but it's not a recession.

One of my favorite Infopreneurs is Stephanie Chandler. She wrote From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur.

Anyway, I was preparing to interview Stephanie for the Promotion Monkey Newsletter, so I visited one of her web sites:

www.thebusinessgrowthconnection.com/. Up pops this cool graphic.



As you may know, Erick Simpson is brilliant. He knows how to market. One of the ways he's been marketing himself is to go around the country taking advantage of people who believe the empty suits in the media. Recession, Recession, recession.

Even though Erick knows there's no recession, he gets himself in front of a crowd so he can talk about making money in an economic downturn.

I've posted several times that my companies are sitting out the recession. We reject the recession.

So I was very happy to see that Stephanie Chandler is singing the same tune. See Stephanie's Blog. Five great ideas for fending off the recession. I don't want to steal her thunder, but her first point is 100% on target: "Businesses that continue to market through a recession come out ahead when the economy begins to turn."

You don't have to buy billboard space and time on TV, but don't cut your marketing budget just because things slow down!

This is more important for small businesses than for bigger businesses. Remember, small businesses tend to market to small businesses. There's always some "churn" and turnover. Businesses come and go. That speeds up a bit during downturns. And when the sun comes out, it means something when your business has survived a dip in the economy.

Hang in there. Work hard. Focus on the basics. Get the job done.

And when things turn around, you'll be ready and primed to win the next round!

:-)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

SMB Conference Call Line-Up

We've got quite a list of calls lined up.

And the registration links are all set . . .

Please check them out and tune in . . .








September 17, 2008
9:00 AM Pacific
Stuart Crawford
Author: Connecting the Dots
- Topic: Finding Success in the last months of 2008
- Stuart's Book: Do You Have IT?
- Stuart's Blog: http://blog.itsuccessmentor.com
Register Now

September 24, 2008
2:00 PM Pacific
Robert Crane
Author: Windows SharePoint Operations Guide
- Topic: Maximizing Success with Windows SharePoint
Register Now

October 1, 2008
9:00 AM Pacific
George Sierchio
Author: BYOB - Build Your Own Business, Don't Be Your Own Boss
- Topic: Your Self Imposed Business Glass Ceiling
- George's Coaching Kit: Consulting & Service Business Success System
- George's Blog: http://georgesierchio.blogspot.com/
Register Now

October 15, 2008
9:00 AM Pacific
Jim Locke
CEO, SMBTN
- Topic: Lots and Lots of Great News for SMB Consultants!
- SMBTN Web Site: http://www.smbtn.org/
- Blog coming soon
Register Now

November 5, 2008
9:00 AM Pacific
Dave Sobel
CEO, Evolvetech
- Topic: Virtualization in the SMB Space
- Dave's Book: Virtualization Defined (coming very very soon)
- Dave's Blog: Dave's Blog
Register Now

November 19th, 2008
9:00 AM Pacific
Robin Robins
Technology Marketing Toolkit
- Topic: Marketing, of course. Specific topic to be determined.
- Web Site: Technology Marketing Toolkit
- Special Offer Right Now: Red Ticket
Register Now

December 3th, 2008
9:00 AM Pacific
Erick Simpson
Managed Services Provider University
- Topic: Building an Awesome Help Desk
- Forthcoming Book: The Best I.T. Service Delivery Book Ever!
- Web Site: http://www.mspu.us/
- Erick's Blog: http://www.mspu.us/Blog.htm
Register Now

December 17th, 2008
9:00 AM Pacific
Eriq Neale
Author, Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed
- Topic: Windows Small Business Server 2008 (duh)
- Forthcoming Book: Windows Small Business Server 2008
- Eriq's Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/onq
Register Now




More coming, of course.

Hoping to get two more super stars on in December. Negotiations are under way.


Why Should You Listen to the SMB Conference Call?

- Find out the latest and greatest information in the SMB Space

- Discuss topics not being covered in the rest of the space

- Hear new ideas and approaches to improve your business

- Learn about technology AND business

- Get an Attitude Adjustment

- Have fun

- Make money

Join us!

- - - - -

Unless otherwise noted, all SMB Conference Calls are scheduled for 9:00 AM Pacific on the first and third Wednesday of the month.

:-)

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Webinar: Service Agreements for SMB Consultants

Stuart over at Secure My Company asked me to be on his webinar Thursday September 11th at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.

What could I say except YES!

Join us by clicking here:

Clickety Click Click. Click Click Click.

Luckily for me, I've written a book about Service Agreements for SMB Consultants!

So, here's your game plan.

1) Read all about the book, but don't buy before Sept. 11, 2008.

2) Register for the webinar (above).

3) Tune in to the webinar on Thursday, Sept. 11th at 9:00 AM Pacific.

4) Listen for the special code that will get you $10 off the book Service Agreements for SMB Consultants (or anything else at SMB Books). That's $10 off the already-discounted price at SMBBooks.com!

You will get a ten dollar discount at SMB Books AND ten free 30-day Kaseya licenses to try in your business.

How's THAT for Webinar Deal?

Thank you for your support!

- - - - -

UPDATE:The webinar is not posted here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/443326157

Thanks, Stuart.

:-)

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

SMB Consulting 3.0

I can't reveal details yet, but I got an email yesterday that makes clear how much the world of SMB Consulting is changing in the next year.

We are truly entering the stage of SMB Consulting 3.0.

SMB Consulting 1.0 had a long history. SMB Consulting 1.0 consists of:
- Doing all work manually
- Doing all work in person
- Little or no reporting of details to client ("fixed exchange")
- All tools and software sold and managed independent of all else
- Trading dollars for hours: Limited capacity per person
- Specific jobs might be flat fee, but the basic model is hourly labor
- Growth comes from hiring more people, allocating work between levels of technicians
- Break/fix because that's all there is
- Tiny (microscopic) communities online and offline

SMB Consulting 2.0 has a shorter history. For most people, it has been adapted over the past 3-5 years:
- Client systems monitored 24x7
- Patching and updates done "automatically" (or at least in bulk)
- Some work done by scripts
- A significant amount of work done remotely with remote control software
- Reports to clients can be rich and useful. Range from one-page summaries to dozens of pages per month.
- Many tools now combined, including hardware and software (e.g., spam and virus filtering built into firewall)
- Flat fee pricing is becoming the norm, filled in by hourly project labor.
- Specific work outsourced to NOC (MSPSN, Zenith, etc.).
- First level of growth comes from assigning more and more work to NOC, allowing smaller MSP to take on more clients.
- Second level of growth includes hiring staff, knowing that you have the NOC behind them.
- Third level of growth comes from bidding on much larger jobs because you have automated support and capacity-on-demand.
- Monitoring, managing, and maintaining systems is the core requirement. Break/fix is much reduced.
- Communities are flourishing. SMBTN, MSPSN, HTG, MSPU, SBS user groups, Yahoo Groups, ASCII, Comptia, etc. Exploding. Each with a unique contribution to the mix.

But now I've seen the future.

Here are a few secrets whose details will emerge in the next 4-6 weeks:

- Books and products you didn't see coming. Great stuff. Prices are NOT in the $599 / $999 range. More like $150, $100, even $60.

- Alliances between organizations that give preferred pricing and benefits will continue to evolve.

- One of the current first-tier conferences will eclipse SMB Nation within six months of today.

- Deeper channel involvement with the SMB consultant community will mean faster tech support, better free training, and deeper discounts.

- Group involvement in purchasing power for next-generation technology will put participants way ahead of those who do not participate.

I know these are vague, but very specific announcements are planned soon. Add all that to the amazing, over-the-top training and best practices from MSPU and the awesome growing communities at MSPSN and SMBTN, and the future is HERE!

SMB Consulting 3.0 is still evolving. Many businesses (all sizes) have not moved to 2.0 yet.

And what will be so next-generation in the next year?

- Standardization. And Standards.
- Client requirements for managed services.
- True professionalism of organizations. Again, standardized roles, training, certifications that aren't from vendors.
- Dramatic reduction in tool prices. Perhaps even consolidation of the industry.
- A clear change of who the most important players are in the space. In conferences, in training, in tools, and in online resources.

What a great, exciting time to be in the business.

- - - - -

These changes are taking place at three levels: The clients, the MSPs (VARs), and the support communities for the VARs.

The support communities have really matured. We might last another 15 months before consolidation begins, but I don't think so. There are too many spectacular organizations, and they all want to provide everything.

The VARs or MSPs are embracing the tools. Anyone who is completely break/fix on January 1, 2009 had better start polishing the resume. You don't have to call it managed service and you don't have to offer flat-fee pricing. But you better have a ticketing system (e.g., Autotask), a delivery system (e.g., Zenith or Kaseya), and a back-end NOC arrangement (e.g., MSPSN or Zenith).

Part of the consolidation is going to come from the fact that you can now buy world-class tools on a one-by-one basis (e.g., Secure my Company or MSPSN). So the smallest VAR has no excuses not to participate.

The Biggest Change that's coming is Client Sophistication.

If you haven't already run up against it, you will start finding clients who expect remote monitoring, patch management, regular reporting, flat fee pricing, remote desktop support, monthly maintenance, and vendor management.

Think about it: If you are buying a firewall or a laptop, what do you do? You make a little checklist and compare three or four options.
- LAN speed
- Accepts SSL certificate
- VPN built in or extra cost?
- Maximum VPN connections
- Spam filtering built in?
- Virus scanning built in?
- Three year warranty?
- Remote management

and so forth.

Skip ahead.

Your prospect is looking for a new service provider to manage their network. The last one was a mid-sized VAR with 20 technicians who promised managed service but really only did remote monitoring and remote desktop support. They had a ticketing system but zero understanding of true managed services.

The tools do not make the consultant.

Now the client is looking for a new consultant. Checklist time:
-- Remote Monitoring
-- Patch Management
-- Reporting - how much and when?
-- Flat fee pricing?
-- Ticketing system with the following features . . .
-- Remote desktop support
-- Monthly maintenance included
-- Vendor management (ISP, live of business, etc.)
-- Outsourced CIO: included or extra fee?
-- Includes Spam Filtering service?
-- Includes Anti-Virus service?
-- Offers Hardware as a Service?

How many of those boxes can you check?

:-)

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Viva la Revolucion



The first ever MSP Revolution is over.

The Revolution was successful.

Your new Glorious Exalted Leader is Amy Luby, with her Minions for Life, Chad and Steve.

The Revolution began after SMB Nation 2005. The September Revolution was led by Amy Luby and Chad Gross, then of MobiTech. By 2006 They had gathered a following of disgruntled workers who were unhappy trading dollars for hours. They saw that the current VAR structure couldn't last.

They saw that a few were doing well, while the masses were starved for information on running a successful service practice.

Amy created and managed the Managed Services Yahoo Group.

The Revolution gathered followers very quickly.

After years of blood, sweat, toil, and tears, the MSP Revolution event was announced. Followers gathered in Chicago with promises that this would not be just another gathering of nerds. By all accounts, the Pre-Day Events were good, and certainly above the category of "entry-level" content.

But on the first full day of the conference, the Revolution was declared a success. The old regime of same-old-same-old conferences was vanquished. The only question was: Would Amy assume the leadership role or leave a vacuum to be filled?

On Saturday and Sunday it was clear that Amy Luby, Spiritual Leader of the Revolution, would be declared dictator for life.

(Just as in every other revolution, "life" means as long as she can stave off all who wish to compete.)

The first-ever MSP revolution was fresh. It was inspiring. It was a great combination of new content, new speakers, and some of the best familiar faces in the industry.

And here's the key to this revolution: They did not present the 100,000th discussion about why you need to do managed services. Or why you need to market. Or why you need a service agreement.

The assumption was that everyone knew about each of these, and all presentations were designed to take the attendees to the next level.

Think about a different analogy: The community of MSP-focused events has been offering 101 and 102 classes for almost three years.

Now the first class of 80 people has completed the first-ever 200-level classes. And they snuck in one intensive senior-course. Of course they snuck it into a eight-hour time slot.

For the first time ever, long-time attendees of the various conferences had the same eager enthusiasm when they left as people have with their first-ever conference.

A handful of people (The most obvious example is Erick Simpson/MSPU) have been delivering higher-end content to individuals and organizations. Now, someone finally figured out how to deliver the next level of content for Managed Service Providers in a conference format.

All hail The Revolution.

Now we pray that Amy will continue to be a benevolent dictator.

Congratulations to Amy, Chad, Steve, Nancy, and everyone who contributed to this event. You've really done something good here.

:-)

Saturday, September 06, 2008

MSP Revolution Provides New and Spectacular Content

Hats off. Kudos. Deep and Humble Bows.

Amy Luby and MSP Revolution have created an event that is truly powerful, new, different, and amazing.

Sound like too much superlative? It's not.

Yesterday Amy and MSPSN presented one of the greatest events I've every experienced in the SMB space at any conference. It really, honestly took content to a new level.

As you may know, I attend several events over the course of a year. I've seen the conferences and dog-and-pony shows for years. I've presented a few myself, from Prague to Seattle and a lotta places in between.

So after awhile you begin to wonder when you'll see something new and refreshing. Jeff Middleton did it two years ago by introducing a new conference format at SBS Migration. SMBTN did it this year with a long conference format this Spring.

But even though those events were spectacular, they both grew out of a format with a context that is familiar to all of us. What Amy and MSPSN did Friday was outside the context of anything that's been done before in the SMB space.

Amy worked with Andromeda Training, Inc. (www.income-outcome.com) to develop an eight-hour business simulation game that teaches business owners and managers how to understand the flow of money into, inside, and out of their organizations.

The game was very "mature" in the sense that it was very thoroughly developed and the content was completely customized for the SMB VAR and Managed Service Provider. It is very clear that many, many hours went into training the instructors about how the technology business and sales process works.

Like many people I talked to, I was dreading the day a little before it started. Role playing isn't my thing. I had visions of practicing sales speeches on each other. Instead, I found myself in the middle of a fantastic, engaging game somewhere between Risk and Monopoly, built entirely around financial education for the SMB Consultant.

While competing in teams of 6-7 people, we learned about cash flow, balance sheets, and the moving of assets. Sounds boring, but it wasn't. People were spying on each other, scheming, speculating, and even gambling on different strategies.

Each "round" of play represented a calendar month. In that month, resources could do specific work: sales, admin, tech support. You could buy licenses to provide managed services. You could bid on jobs with recurring revenue, break/fix work, or some combination of these.

In order to succeed, teams needed to take risks, allocate resources effectively, make sales, deliver work (monitoring and break/fix), pay the bills, expand capacity, and not waste money.

The game was surprisingly elaborate and 100% engaging. More than 70 people played, and no one was bored.

Eight hours.

At the end, participants had a much clearer understanding of how finances work within a company.

Most of us spend 99.9% of our time in QuickBooks looking at the Profit and Loss report or income statement. We might run a Balance Sheet once a quarter, and that's because the accountant asks us to.

This game demonstrated how assets and liabilities move around and are related to each other within the balance sheet. It also showed how actions that look good on the Profit and Loss report can kill your cash flow and therefore you business.

I believe every person in the game gained a better understanding of their own finances by playing the game. I know I did, and I've been running balance sheets and P&L's for fifteen years.

You've heard many times that the best thing about professional conferences is the interaction with your peers to talk about your business and strategy. This was eight hours of that, wrapped around a great educational game.

A+

100%

Amazing job, Amy and MSPSN.

So, the preday went well. Day One was over the top.

Now I'm ready for Day Two.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Zero Downtime Q and A

Hey, we had a pretty good turnout for the SMB Conference Call on ZDTM - Zero Downtime Migrations.

This was our first call with the new system. We had 106 people pre-register and 70 showed up for the call. I'm told some people showed up on the old conference system.

I'll have to figure out how to re-train everyone.

Anyway, one of the advantages of GoToWebinar is that folks can "chat" questions onscreen during the call. I'll perfect this as well.

Thank you for your patience. And thanks to Erick Simpson for smacking me in the head and reminding me that I've already got this resource so why ALSO pay for a conference bridge.

- - - - -

Please keep an eye on this page for info on Zero Downtime Migrations: http://greatlittlebook.com/Products/ZDTM/index.htm.

A few questions came up during the call. I'll give a brief answer to some here, but encourage you to access the recorded call for more details. If you read this, listen to that, and still have questions, please post them in the comments.

Note: I had to hang up from the SMB Conference Call and jump on a plane, so the recording will be a little while. Stay tuned.

I'm travelling this week, but I'll get to your questions as soon as I can.

Question:
Moving email with ZDT makes sense. How do you migrate databases and LOBs with zero downtime?

Answer:
First, a sidetrack on equipment.

We stay successful and profitable by having a hard, fast rule on equipment. We do not migrate clients to old equipment. That means we won't install SBS 2008 on anything more than a few months old right now. We won't install Server 2008 on a machine older than January 2008. We won't install SBS R2 on a machine older than Q3 2007.

It's a synch issue: The hardware can't be older than the operating system. So we're never stuck with poor-performing (or impossible) configurations.

As a rule, re-installing SBS onto the same hardware is just a reinstall or rebuild after a disaster (and almost never occurs). We don't "upgrade" from SBS 2003 circa January 2003 to SBS 2003 R2 on the same machine because that machine is not new enough.

The point of all this is: A migration is virtually always from old hardware to new hardware.

Having said that . . .

Second:
The answer to migrating LOBs, SQL, and other databases is
- Go Slow
- Know your product
- Rely on LOB tech support if necessary
- Go slow some more

The basic process is that you'll build the new server, install the LOB, and populate it with real data. This might be from last night's backup, for example. Then you'll make sure you test, test, test.

One thing we did not cover in the SMB Conference Call: Most migrations for small business take two days. Sometimes three or four. But normally two. You'll put the new server in place on Day One. That night (4:59pm) you'll stop the database on the old server and the new server. Then copy over the database while everyone sleeps.

You might have to check in once or twice during the evening to nurse it along.

When the sun comes up, you fire up the LOB on the NEW server and point all the desktops to that.

Poof. Zero downtime during normal business hours.

Tell people that you'll be around all day on Day Two in case some little piece didn't come across or there's a critical flat file no one had documented. At any rate, you'll be there to tweak and assist. The old server is still there, but not being accessed for this application.


Question:
What's the go-back strategy? That is, when something goes wrong and you need to abandon the migration, how do you go back to the old configuration?

Answer

That's the most perfect part of this migration technique. As Manuel says on the call, you just retrace your steps. You do everything in the reverse order. Stop services on both machines. If data has changed on the new machine, you backup the old machine and restore the database to the old machine. etc.

Because 98% of the time we're moving from old hardware to new hardware, both machines are in place side by side every minute of this. In some many cases, we leave the old machine sitting there, turned off, as a spare. Until something dramatic changes on the new machine (SQL upgrade, Server service pack, etc.), we can just fire up the old machine and start using it again.

We love the 21st Century!

:-)

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Countdown to Zero Downtime

Register Now!

At 9:00 AM Pacific Time on Wed. September 3rd the SMB Conference Call will be all about Network Migrations.

- Zero Downtime is one topic. But not the only. And to be honest, it's only a piece of the puzzle.

- Migrating from SBS 2003 to 2008

- From Server 2003 to SBS 2003 or 2008

- From Server 2000 to SBS 2003. Or 2008.

- From anything to anything.

Well, not quite. Not from a stapler to a Proliant ML 350. But almost!


Our guest is Manuel Palachuk, President of KPEnterprises (Sacramento's Premier Microsoft Small Business Specialist). We have developed a massive "universal" migration system.

It just happens to feature zero downtime for the client's major systems.

Zero downtime for email, SQL, LOBs, logons, etc.

We have over 100 people signed up already, and we hope you'll join us.

Go to the SMB Conference Call page to register.

- - - - -

Questions

If you have questions you would like answered, email them to [email protected]

Please keep 'em short so I can read them while on the air.

See ya then.
:-)

Monday, September 01, 2008

Promotion Monkey Lives!

Sign up now!It's finally here.

The Promotion Monkey newsletter -- Monkey Business -- is finally here.

Please sign up today.


Signing Bonus

When you sign up today, you will receive our super-bonus inaugural mailing. This includes
  • A 12-page Promotion Monkey Newsletter

  • A 60-minute audio CD on creating spinoff products and marketing them on the Internet

  • Printed PowerPoint slides to accompany the CD presentation

  • A free handout on building Community Resources (the newsletter and audio CD will explain why you need this)

  • A free handout on resources to get you started with modern Internet-based promotion techniques

  • A free copy of the book Relax Focus Succeed® -- A Guide to Balancing Your Personal and Professional Lives and Being More Successful in Both


The Promotion Monkey Newsletter by itself is worth $40. The audio CD sells for $30. The Relax Focus Succeed® book sells for $20.

So, even if you cancel after one month, the Promotion Monkey subscription will easily pay for itself!

"If you've got a salable product or service that you can sell online, the Web is a gold mine. Karl Palachuk's proven, no-nonsense advice will help you get your share of the gold. Subscribing to the newsletter will be like investing in a stock that's guaranteed to pay large dividends."
-- Michael Larsen, Literary Agent
Author, Guerrilla Marketing for Writers
and many other books


- - - - -

Thank You to everyone who expressed an interest in the Promotion Monkey Newsletter.

Please give it a shot. The price isn't very high, and I think you'll find a lot of useful information in it.

Sign Up Today!
www.promotionmonkey.com