The ASCII Group Launches New Initiative with Worklyn Partners for the Future of IT Services

I got this press release from my friends over as ASCII . . .

The ASCII Group Launches New Initiative with Worklyn Partners for the Future of IT Services  

Bethesda, Maryland – September 28, 2023 – The ASCII Group, a renowned membership-based community of independent North American Managed Service Providers (MSPs), is set to announce an exciting initiative with Worklyn Partners, a prominent investment firm that specializes in cybersecurity and IT services companies.

With this program, The ASCII Group and Worklyn Partners aim to bridge the gap between private equity investors and MSPs. The ASCII Group is providing a resource to its community of IT business owners who are looking to sell their companies, gather insights from sophisticated financial investors, or simply want to stay informed about industry trends and opportunities. 

Worklyn Partners seeks to build relationships with IT business leaders outside of the context of M&A process, sharing best practices with and learning from the ASCII community. As an investment firm, Worklyn is unique in its singular focus on IT and cybersecurity, its focus on long-term growth over short-term business flipping, and its flexible mandate. Worklyn does not require MSPs to standardize on certain technologies, allowing each IT business owner to maintain their own unique characteristics in how they serve the market. 

With a shared commitment to excellence and a deep understanding of the evolving needs of businesses today, Worklyn and ASCII together seek to redefine what it means to be a successful MSP. This collaboration presents an exciting opportunity for ASCII members and other MSPs alike to gain valuable knowledge and guidance from industry experts.

 “We are excited and honored to partner with ASCII, Alan, and the entire community,” explained Zack Miller, Co-Founder and President of Worklyn Partners. “We look forward to sharing our experience and learnings gleaned from the IT and cybersecurity businesses we have already invested in, and from participating in hundreds of M&A transaction processes over the past three years. But most of all, we look forward to learning from the ASCII member community.”

“By understanding the private equity landscape and being prepared for potential future opportunities, MSPs can position themselves for success,” said Alan Weinberger, CEO and Chairman of The ASCII Group. “This collaboration will provide ASCII members with insights into mergers and acquisitions, investment strategies, valuation considerations, and more.”

Through this educational initiative, The ASCII Group continues its commitment to supporting its community of managed service providers by providing them with valuable resources that can help them thrive in an ever-evolving industry.

About The ASCII Group, Inc:

The ASCII Group is the premier community of North American MSPs, MSSPs and Solution Providers. The Group has members located throughout the U.S. and Canada, and membership encompasses everyone from credentialed MSPs serving the SMB community to multi-location solution providers with a national and international reach. Founded in 1984, ASCII provides services to members including leveraged purchasing programs, education and training, marketing assistance, extensive peer interaction and more. ASCII works with a vibrant ecosystem of leading and major technology vendors that complement the ASCII community and support the mission of helping MSPs to grow their businesses. For more information, please visit www.ascii.com. 

About Worklyn Partners, LLC:

Worklyn Partners is a unique investment firm headquartered in New York, NY and focused exclusively on the Cybersecurity and IT services markets. Worklyn has assembled a group of partners and advisors with extensive investing and sector expertise to help grow technology companies at the rapidly expanding and evolving intersection of cybersecurity and IT services. The firm’s ultimate goal is to build a constellation of businesses that together serve as a one-stop-shop for cybersecurity, data analytics, cloud and IT services for customers that need support to modernize and secure their technology stacks. Worklyn Partners currently has investments and offices in New York, NY; Jacksonville, FL; Denver, CO; and Walnut Creek, CA. For more information visit worklynpartners.com.

-30-

New Book: The IT Consultant's Year of Intention - A workbook dedicated to your success!

The IT Consultant's Year of Intention - A workbook dedicated to your success!

Pre-Sales have begin. Launch date is October 10th. Full price is a great deal at only $29.95. Order before October 10th and you'll save an additional $5. No coupon. Just order at Store.Smallbizthoughts.com to get the price.

100% focused on your success.

This workbook is designed specifically to help IT Consultants to plan - and evaluate - the year ahead. Unlike a basic business book, this workbook focuses on the activities of a successful IT Service Provider.

Yes, you’ll document your goals and financial picture for the year ahead. But there’s much, much more. Running a managed service business is not the same as other businesses. You need to plan how you’ll work with vendors and new technology. You need constant training to keep up on constant changes.

You’ll examine:

• Your plans 
• Your finances 
• Your vendors 
• Events you might (and might not) attend 
• Webinars and online training 
• and more

Plus essays, forms, and exercises designed to focus on success. In other words: There’s a lot of work that goes into a successful year. 

As Karl likes to say: Nothing Happens by Itself

Plus - Lots of forms and checklists to help you build a successful year ahead - with intention!

Table of Contents:

Forms Galore!

As a workbook, of course, you will get a lot of forms to help you plan, execute, and evaluate your activities in the year ahead:

• Budget Sample 20xx.xlsx
• Company Goals for Next Year.docx
• Conference Notes.docx
• Event Evaluation Notes.docx
• Event Follow-Up Checklist.docx
• Monthly Performance Notes.docx
• Monthly Tune-Up Notes.docx
• Monthly Tune-Ups.docx
• Prime Questions.docx
• Report on Goals from the Current Year.docx
• Webinar Notes.docx

Learn more and order today: 

https://store.smallbizthoughts.com/product/the-it-consultants-year-of-intention/

NOTE: Members of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community should NOT order this book as you will receive a free copy. Stay tuned for the Community newsletter.

:-)

 

 

NSITSP Voting Ends Friday - Do IT Now

The National Society of IT Service Providers elections are on now! Vote by Friday, September 22nd.

Members: ALL positions are open - both Board of Directors and all committees.

Check out www.nsitsp.org/elections.

Voting is super fast and easy.

It literally takes sixty seconds.

All position openings are for a full two-year term. Nominations were last month. Voting goes through September 22nd and results will be posted as soon as possible after voting closes.

I am proud to say that we have five candidates for three open board seats. That’s a great indicator that folks know we’re growing (almost 1,000 members) and that being on the board means being influential in our industry as we strive to improve our professionalism and reputation to clients, vendors, regulators, and the media.

You can view all of the candidate profiles at https://nsitsp.org/elections. Then vote!

If you are not yet a paid member, now is a great time to join - and then vote. It's too late to run for office, but you can certainly vote . . . but you need to hurry.

Thank you to everyone who helped us get this far - and to making the NSITSP a strong and growing organization!

Now go vote!

:-)

Service Agreements - Revised Class starts September 19th

Revised Class Starts Soon!

All About Service Agreements for I.T. Consultants

• Five Tuesdays: September 19 - October 17

• Register Now

• All classes start a 9:00 AM Pacific

• Taught by Karl W. Palachuk, author, Managed Services in a Month 

Service agreements are not about the services you provide – they’re about your relationship with your clients. 

We’ll also look at various options, including a 2-page “terms of service” as well as managed services, programming agreements, and more.

Based on the best-selling book Service Agreements for SMB Consultants, this course covers everything you need to know about developing your service agreements. And the book subtitle is important, too: A Quick Start Guide to Managed Services.

Most IT Professionals sign – or don’t sign – contracts for the wrong reasons. Most think contracts are intended to draw battle lines for when you have a disagreement with your clients. In fact, that piece of the relationship is almost always outside the contract! We’ll explore why you really need contracts or service agreements.

Service agreements are not about the services you provide – they’re about your relationship with your clients. We’ll also look at various options, including a 2-page “terms of service” as well as managed services, programming agreements, and more.

Tuition for this course includes the ebook version of the newly revised and expanded Service Agreements for SMB Consutants! That includes all the downloads from the book as well.

You will learn

• Defining Yourself and Your Relationships
• Define Yourself
• Define Client Relationships
• The Language of Service Agreements
• The Service Agreement Construction Kit
• A Sample Credit Agreement
• Boilerplate: A Sample Service Agreement
• Flat Fee or Managed Services Part
• The Managed Service Agreement
• Getting Help and Managing Agreements
• Getting Help – Lawyers, Accountants, etc.
• Managing Your Service Agreements
• PLUS lots more.
• This class is filled with great advice and tips on running your I.T. company and moving into the world of recurring revenue with managed services.

Objectives:

• Define great offerings
• Attract your perfect client
• Guarantee a profitable relationship
• Address the challenges of Security, Insurance, and managing employees
• Managing client

Weekly Topics

Unit 1 Introduction and Defining Relationships

Unit 2 Money, Money, Money

Unit 3 The Parts – Part 1

Unit 4 The Parts – Part 2

Unit 5 Managing Contracts ... and Relationships

Karl W. Palachuk

Series Organizer & Principal Instructor

Karl W. Palachuk has built and sold two managed service businesses in Sacramento, CA. He is the founder and president of the Sacramento SMB IT Professionals Group, and author of many books, including The Network Documentation Workbook and Managed Services in a Month.

:-)

What does it take to be get a Service Manager Specialist Certification?

We get mail . . .

Steve sent me a not about certifications over at IT Service Provider University . . .

Subject: Service Manager Specialist Certification Completion Timeframe

Hello,

I’d like our Service Manager to complete the Service Manager Specialist Certification as one of his goals for next year. What is a realistic timeframe to complete this certification?

Cheers,

Steve ...

-- -- --

Thanks for a great question, Steve!

The short answer is that it depends on how much time the service manager has to commit to taking classes.

The details are:

A specialist certification requires that a student complete the one-hour informational Foundations class (free) and five 5-hour courses. See https://www.itspu.com/pathway/service-manager/. Then, the student must pass the associated five certification exams.

The five courses can be live or on demand. If on demand, they can be “consumed” pretty quickly. Of course, the more time taken to absorb the information, the better. 

Each unit has a Quiz with 10-15 questions. The associated certification exam consists of fifty of these questions. In other words, if someone goes through all of the five units and takes all of the five quizzes, they will have seen every question that is on the certification exam. SO: passing is not difficult. It’s just a process.

We have one eager member who manages to complete 1-2 units per week and has achieve several certifications, including multiple specialist certs. His employer bought a team membership to the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community, so there’s no additional charge for taking the classes. And certification exams are half price.

If you do this, it’s absolutely worthwhile to join the SBT Technology Community (www.smallbizthoughts.org).

Regular pricing at ITSPU:

Foundation Class = Free

Two core classes at $399 = $798

Three elective classes at $399 = $1,197

Five certification exams at $199 = $995

Total = $2,990

With Small Biz Thoughts Membership:

Membership for one person = $1,299

Five courses = No additional charge.

Five certification exams at $99 = $495

Total = $1,794

. . . and, of course, Community Membership includes one year’s access to all of our books, audio programs, checklists, forms, exercises, recordings, and live events.

I know that’s a LOT of information. I am happy to answer further questions, or schedule a Zoom call to discuss.

Thank you for the inquiry!

-- -- -- 

Check out the web sites:

IT Service Provider University https://www.itspu.com

Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community https://www.smallbizthoughts.org

More questions? Ask below or send me an email.

:-)

Recorded: Manuel Palachuk talks about The Culture Imperative - on the SBT Roundtable

Over in the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community . . .

Every month, on the first Thursday, we have a special "Roundtable" meeting where we take a special guest off their script and chat about something important. In September, we talked to author and coach Manuel Palachuk about The Culture Imperative.

See the longer description and details here: 

https://www.smallbizthoughts.org/manuel-palachuk-on-the-sbt-roundtable/

and members can go straight to the recording here:

https://www.smallbizthoughts.org/member_content/14504-2/

Manuel is a lifelong student of culture, having studied it up close in both the public and private sectors, in hundreds of organizations across four continents. He has run several successful companies and mentored many more around the world.

Manuel is the Founder & CEO of the International Culture Initiative, a foundation focused on helping organizations and teams get their culture right. His passion for helping teams and organizations build a healthy, cohesive culture is driven by his desire to see the world turn in the right direction, on balance.

He is an award-winning martial arts student and certified instructor, and as a COPE instructor and Sea Scout Skipper, he has taken teams and crews to top-level honors in their competitions.

Manuel is the author of Getting To The Next Level, where he shares his unique culture-centric framework that redefines how every business should approach the development of their business strategy. In his upcoming book, The Culture Imperative, Manuel put’s culture squarely at the heart of the subject. Manuel is positioned at the intersection of culture, strategy, leadership, and transformation is his work.

In general . . . it was a great discussion, followed by our regular meeting. Members should definitely check it out now. Start here.

:-)