All the Pieces Come Together - Lessons Learned

All the Pieces Come Together - Lessons Learned

This is Episode 14 of the ongoing Lessons Learned series. For all the information, and an index of Lessons Learned episodes, go to the Lessons Learned Page. 

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Today's topic:  All the Pieces Come Together

No matter what business you're in, and no matter how long it takes, things eventually come together. In other words, they "click." And when the right ingredients come together in just the right way, they become something different and wonderful.

It's a bit like baking a cake. You need some flour, some eggs, some sugar, maybe a splash of milk and some butter. But you need more than that. You need the right quantity of each. But even if you had all the right measurements and dumped them into a pan to bake, you'd just have a horrible mess.

You also need a process! An integral part of the recipe is the step by step instructions on how to actually turn ingredients into a cake. You need to add ingredients together in a certain order, and in a certain way. You need to mix enough but not too much. And you need to cook it at the right temperature for the right amount of time.

Running a business is a bit like figuring out how to bake a cake without a recipe, a cookbook, or Google. You can more-or-less reverse engineer the ingredients, but you're going to go through a lot of trial and error before you figure out the best way to make something that others will agree is a cake.

For me, all the ingredients were in place in the fall of 1999. And with the release of Windows 2000 at the very end of that year, the year 2000 brought everything together - the ingredients AND the step by step process.

We've already discussed the basic ingredients:

• Skills/knowledge
• Regular scheduled (monthly) maintenance
• ... including testing backups
• Signed contracts
• Documentation for all clients, all systems, and all processes

The year 1999 was dominated by preparation (and worry) for the Y2K rollover. I was lucky to have left the world of mainframes, Cobol, and patch-filled operating systems. Small businesses were hungry to either update their systems or buy their first systems. Everyone who didn't upgrade in 1999 wanted to do so in 2000. 

I was also lucky to have managed Unix servers, Exchange servers, and Novell servers, all of which relied on either x.500 directory services or something very similar. So the Windows 2000 operating system just plane made sense.

At the time, I didn't realized that I had almost every ingredient for the next stage in the evolution of my company. The missing ingredient was recurring revenue. But I had the next best thing: Regular, scheduled, predictable income.

Signed contracts were oddly uncommon in the SMB IT space at the time. I had always signed them because that's the world I came from. Monthly maintenance was the same why. How could you not provide regular maintenance, and test backups?

Once all these ingredients were in place, my company began to grow in a big way. We had a system, and all we had to do was repeat the successful process again and again and again. I have a presentation entitled, "Seven Stages of Wealth and the Economy" that describes this condition (You can view it at: https://mspwebinar.com/the-seven-stages-of-wealth-and-the-economy/).

I call this stage simply "Work it!" When you get to the point in your business where you have figured out the right combination of clients, tools, processes, services, and money. When you get it right, you only have one job: Work it! Repeat it. Execute again and again and again. 

It's critically important that you recognize when you're in this stage - because it will not last! If you're super lucky, this stage will last three or four or five years. I've never stayed at this stage longer than five years in any business I've owned or run. Especially in IT, change just keeps coming. So you have to keep updating and changing your business.

In year 2000, we entered the "Work it" stage, and we worked it for just over three years. Not only do you need to recognize when you're in this stage, you also need to set up some early indicators so you don't stay there too long. Re-tooling and restructuring will lay the groundwork to get to a new "Work it" stage.

Best of all: Your cake will be different from my cake. Even if the basic ingredients are the same, you'll put your twist on it make make it your own.

If you're still re-tooling and tweaking and figuring out the right combination for your business, don't worry about it. That's natural. That "figuring it out" stage can take years. It took me more than four years from "launch" to entering the "Work it" stage. As we'll see, the transition to the next "Work it" stage came a lot faster and easier.

But before that . . . I made the most regrettable decision of my career. We'll talk about that next time. 

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Leave comments and questions below. And join me next week, when I reveal

My Most Regretted Decision

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Free Informational Webinar – The First Year MSP

There are many challenges – and a thousand questions – that need to be addressed when you start a new business. If your business it IT consulting, you’re in luck! There are also many resources and a great community ready to support you and help you do it all better.

Join us for a free webinar on making the most of the first few years running your new IT business.

Introduction to the First Year MSP

January 22nd

9:00 AM

Register now!

In my annual address, I introduced the First Year MSP program. My team and I are looking forward to working with you and a small group of other highly motivated business owners.

Let’s be honest: All business involves some struggle. But that doesn’t mean you have to go it alone. You can ask for help and get through the tough parts a lot faster.

All of us with a gray hair or two (ahem) can tell you lots and lots of stories about the mistakes we’ve made. Of course, mistakes are part of learning and growing. You start out making mistakes with technology. You know you’re a business owner when you find yourself making mistakes with clients, finance, and employee! You will make mistakes. That’s not the variable.

But you can make a lot fewer mistakes by learning from the experience of others! That’s what communities, training, coaching, and education are all about. You really can speed up the process by learning from others. You just have to commit and execute!

Join us for an educational seminar about the best ways to maximize success in the first few years of running your IT business. Free and open to all.

... and if you just can't wait for a peek at the First Year MSP Program, browse to https://www.smallbizthoughts.org/first-year-msp/ - and sign up for the webinar.

– Karlp

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Helping Consultants in the LA Area - This is What Communities Do

 Time for the IT Community to Step Up!

I'm sorry to interrupt your cheery new year with this, but there are times when you just have to do something.

In the LA area, as of this writing, more than ten thousand people have lost their homes. And many thousands of businesses have been burnt to the ground.

My heart goes out to everyone who lost all of their belongings, all of their family photos, and the homes their children grew up in. I'm a little sad about all the media attention on lists of famous people who lost their homes. We should have compassion for them. But we need to remember the tens of thousands of others who lost their houses and businesses.

Disasters happen all the time. But every once in a while, there's one so big that our individual efforts just aren't enough. That's when community really matters. I am grateful to be a member of many communities that have the ability - and the heart - to help in a very special way at times like this. YOU are probably a member of some or all of these organizations:

• Small Biz Thoughts
• The Tech Tribe
• The ASCII Group
• The National Society of IT Service Providers

And, of course, you probably know of many others.

How can you help? It's easy. ASK what's needed. Offer what you can.

All of those groups have forums. Post something. Ask how you can help. IT organizations are uniquely positioned to help each other. We share a lot of common knowledge and skill sets. Consider a few ways you can help IT consultants in the LA area who have lost their offices and perhaps their homes. Most of their clients are going through the same thing.

• Offer to let an LA area IT company forward their phones to your number for a week or two.

• Offer to ship emergency hardware, if it's useful.

• Offer to work X hours worth of tickets, especially urgent needs.

• Or take some low-priority tickets so they can focus on the emergencies.

• See if you can get a login to their ticketing system and help them out free of charge.

• What else can you think of?

If you need help and you're not sure who might be able to help:

• Contact me. I will try to match you with someone who can help.

• Post on one of those forums above. If you're a member, you have the info you need. If you're not a member, today's a good day to join.

• Inside Small Biz Thoughts, I started an item in the main "Community Forum." See https://www.smallbizthoughts.org/forums/discussion/disaster-assistance-l-a-area-ask-for-help-offer-assistance/

One of the first true, massive disasters where I remember the community stepping up was the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Today, we can do so much more to help each other. Just do it.

Let compassion be the word of the day.

Thank you all. Take care. And take care of others. That's what communities do.

:-)

Scoundrels Everywhere - Lessons Learned

Scoundrels Everywhere - Lessons Learned

This is Episode 13 of the ongoing Lessons Learned series. For all the information, and an index of Lessons Learned episodes, go to the Lessons Learned Page. 

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Today's topic:  Scoundrels Everywhere

I've never understood people who just want to get their hands on other people's money without earning it. Don't get me wrong: I like money. I'm a big fan. But my first impulse is to EARN it, not take it.

Literally since Day One in this business, I've seen people who try to make a living taking money from people without earning it. I've never seen anyone actually "make a living" doing this, but I've seen plenty who rip others off when they can.

Note: I'm not talking about people who are simply incompetent. That's another story. (See Episode 9.) Here, I'm talking about people who sell fake services or bad products, and those who simply don't deliver what they say they will.

Some of my favorite stories involve these scoundrels. I've been called as an expert witness in several court cases. In each case, I was there to inform the judge or the court about what constitutes appropriate, professional standards. For example . . .

In one case, a major national corporation whose name you would recognize was suing an IT service provider because he told them that: 1) Their data would be stored in a secure data center; 2) It would be backed up to a mirrored site at another secure data center in another state; and 3) Everything was up to spec with the latest industry standards (ISO, SOC 2, ISAE, SSAE, etc.). In reality, dude had a server in an open rack in his garage. It was backed up to a server in a rack in his father's garage, in another state. AND he was defending his actions as appropriate. He lost the case.

In other cases, IT consultants sold obsolete hardware, used hardware, and even obsolete, used software and operating systems. And, quite often, they charged full price and counter-sued when they got caught. I think deep in their hearts they really didn't understand that that's not how business is done.

While it's sad that these jerks exist and rip off your clients, I can also say that I've had clients rip me off as well. One client I'll call Steve, because that's his name, ordered a new server from me when he had no intention of paying for it. He literally took possession and never paid the bill. He (personally) is the reason we moved our "Get paid in advance for everything" rule from 90% of the time to 99.9% of the time. He intentionally stole from me.

On very rare occasions, I've been ripped off by a distributor. In each case, it came down to a greedy sales person who refused to give up their commission. In the worst instance, I thanked my stars for multiple vendors, and simply started ordering from others. 

Someday, I'll tell that story in detail. But the bottom line is that I took about $30,000 per month in product to another distributor. After more months than you'd expect, someone called me and asked why. After I told the story, they apologized profusely and asked how they could make it right. I told them to call back when they have a working time machine.

Thankfully, these examples are rare. Unfortunately, they are also not "unheard of." Everyone in business has had a bad experience in business. And almost everyone has been ripped off from time to time.

I find it very irritating that I have to work in an industry where this kind of thing happens. This irritation is one of the motivating factors behind the formation of the National Society of IT Service Providers. YOU work in an industry where this stuff happens. And you are likely to come across clients who have been burned by other consultants.

We as an industry need to fight this kind of greedy and illegal behavior. We need to post our code of ethics on our web sites and lead with them in sales calls. We need to separate ourselves with the single most important element in sales: Trust. When you're squeaky clean, you never have to worry that clients have heard these stories about your company.

Comments and feedback welcome.

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Next week, one of the most important lessons I've ever learned! 

Up next . . .   All the Pieces Come Together

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Documentation Doesn't Have to Suck - Join Me on this Gozynta Webinar

Free Webinar - with a Great Panel

Documentation Doesn't Have to Suck 

January 14th 

1:30 PM Eastern / 10:30 AM Pacific

Save Your Seat at: https://streamyard.com/watch/Wc5kQsu566n2

Whether it’s employees, customers, vendors, or competitors, treating people the “right” way is key to success.

Join me on January 14th for Documentation Doesn’t Have to Suck, hosted by @Gozynta, where I’ll discuss The Right Way to Treat People. 

Other panelists include Brendan Bastine, Eileen Wilson, Marnie Stockman, and Richard Tubb.

Four experts. Four fresh perspectives. One game-changing idea: Better documentation is the key to mastering leadership, networking, ethics, and a flawless sales handoff. 

Mark your calendars!

Join us for this great "micro-conference" hosted by Gozynta.

:-)

ASCII Edge 2025: Announcing Keynote Speakers for Premier MSP Conference Series

I received this missive from my friends at ASCII:

ASCII Edge 2025: Announcing Keynote Speakers for Premier MSP Conference Series

Washington, D.C. – January 9, 2025 – The ASCII Group, North America’s leading community for independent Managed Service Providers (MSPs), is thrilled to announce the keynote speakers for ASCII Edge 2025, its flagship conference series.

Launching in California this February, ASCII Edge 2025 will bring together nearly 1,500 MSPs, technology providers, and industry experts for two days of immersive learning, networking, and collaboration. Spanning eight cities across North America, the series provides MSPs with the tools, insights, and connections needed to fuel growth and innovation. Events will take place in Costa Mesa, CA; Orlando, FL; Newark, NJ; Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH; Toronto, Canada; Dallas, TX; and Philadelphia, PA.

This year, Microsoft is proud to join ASCII Edge as a Diamond Sponsor, bringing a wealth of knowledge and innovation to the event. Attendees can look forward to an inspiring keynote, AI and Zero Trust: Securing the Future Together, an insightful partner strategy session, and an in-depth business strategy workshop, Supercharge Your Business: A Microsoft Strategies Workshop. We are eager for ASCII members to connect with Microsoft and explore groundbreaking opportunities to boost profitability, leverage Microsoft’s comprehensive security suite, and seamlessly integrate AI with Microsoft Copilot.

Featured Keynote Session

“The Mindset of a Hacker – FBI’s and Interpol’s Most Wanted Shares All”

Once a globally wanted hacker known as Hackah Jak, Jesse Tuttle will share his remarkable journey from breaching high-security systems to becoming a trusted intelligence partner for federal agencies. His keynote promises to deliver eye-opening insights and practical lessons for today’s IT professionals.

MSP Speaker Sessions

“Questions That Close: Selling More by Asking the Right Questions”

ASCII alum and successfully exited MSP Jeremy Nelson will reveal strategies for leveraging powerful questions to boost sales and build client relationships, equipping attendees with actionable techniques to drive revenue growth.

“Thriving Under Pressure: Stress Reduction Tools for IT Teams” 

In the demanding world of IT services, this session highlights the critical role of mental health in overall wellness, breaking stigma, and redefining the mind-body connection. ASCII member Diana Giles of Skyline IT shares actionable strategies and a call for self-assessment as participants will gain tools to balance career success with personal well-being.

“Outsmarting Private Equity: An MSP’s Playbook for Acquisition Success” 

Fellow ASCII members Mat Kordell & Dave Henderson of CyberStreams know how to find 'diamonds in the rough' private equity often overlooks. Discover how to strategically uncover and transform distressed or undervalued companies into thriving assets, leveraging insider insights and practical tools. Learn how to outmaneuver larger competitors and position your business for scalable growth through smart, strategic acquisitions.

“We listen to the community and bring content and speakers that resonate with our MSP members. We want attendees to leave with actionable strategies to advance their businesses while feeling valued as part of a community of peers,” said Jerry Koutavas, President of The ASCII Group. 

For event details and registration, visit events.ascii.com.

About The ASCII Group, Inc.

Founded in 1984, The ASCII Group is the original IT community of the channel, uniting Managed Service Providers (MSPs) across North America. As a vendor-neutral organization, ASCII provides unbiased resources and a collaborative environment to support business growth. Members span the U.S. and Canada, ranging from SMB-focused MSPs to international solution providers. ASCII offers leveraged purchasing programs, education, marketing support, peer networking, and more, complemented by a vibrant ecosystem of technology vendors. Learn more at www.ascii.com.

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Regular Monthly Maintenance - Lessons Learned

Regular Monthly Maintenance - Lessons Learned

This is Episode 12 of the ongoing Lessons Learned series. For all the information, and an index of Lessons Learned episodes, go to the Lessons Learned Page. 

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Today's topic:  Regular Monthly Maintenance

In earlier installments, I talked about a few key things I learned before I found myself providing services in the SMB space. Two of these combined to create one of the top-five lessons I ever learned - and a lesson that become the absolute foundation of the managed service business model.

Back around the year 2000, there were a few people speculating about whether some piece of the small business consulting world could be flat-fee. But lots of people, like me, had moved from big-business IT support to small business IT. And many of us assumed that two things were required for good tech support:

• Daily backups, which are tested regularly

and

• Scheduled monthly maintenance

Basically, all tech support was on-demand or "break-fix" at the time. I had signed contracts with clients since 1995 because I didn't know that most people didn't sign contracts. I had a couple different price points, and the good price was connected to regular monthly visits.

Essentially, I set up great backup systems and documented them. Then I showed clients how to switch tapes or discs every day. And I offered to train them on restoring from backup so they could test their backups regularly. I was a bit of a fanatic about this.

... And no one ever agreed to test their own backs. This included some very technical clients. We had client contacts who were Novell CNE's, programmers, and generally knowledgeable technicians. These folks, more than most, understood the value of the backups - and thought testing them was a pain in the neck.

Hey, for $120/hour, I'll remove the pain from your neck. 

Monthly maintenance was much more than testing the backups. It was the really boring stuff it takes to make sure systems are working well. We did a checks manually that are automated today by RMM tools. At the time, there were very few remove monitoring and reporting tools, and the few that existed were nearly impossible to schedule. And, for the most part, they didn't do much.

If you look at my "old" 68-point checklist, it gives you a good idea of the manual checks we did. Almost everything on that checklist was either basic common sense (e.g., verify that the anti-virus tool is working and up to date) or something that became an on-going habit after a bad experience (for example, verifying that the server isn't super-low on disc space). You may know the old saying, "Once bitten, twice shy." Once I was bitten, I considered adding a check to the monthly maintenance checklist.

See version 3.0 of the 68-point checklist here. Note that there's a bigger, far more complicated and modern checklist as well.

We also check the activity logs/event logs/error logs. The nature of these varied between operating systems. Over time, clients migrated to Windows systems, and the process of checking logs became easier, of course.

There are three big reasons you should do regularly scheduled monthly maintenance with ALL clients - even if they're not on managed services. First, it really is necessary. Today, with good RMM tools, most of these check-ups are done every sixty seconds. But not all of them (for example, putting human eyes on the event logs). Why are they necessary? Because you find things! You find errors. Notice that there are regular errors. You see that disc space is running low. Rather than find out about something when the client has downtime, you can prevent downtime by paying attention before it happens.

Second, this is a great opportunity to get into the client's office and make contact in a very predictable way. The client gets used to seeing you, and sees you working on their systems. This can (and should) include keeping your eyes on their hardware, testing battery backups, etc. After all, if you're 100% remote, you'll never hear that noisy fan in network rack!

Third, regular monthly maintenance will help you make sales. In part, this is because of the things you'll find. But it is also part of the overall process of taking responsibility for the client's technology. Here's a non-tech story to illustrate how this works.

Many years ago (at my last real job, actually), I worked in downtown Sacramento, and there was a national-brand tire store just a few blocks away. Because they were convenient and had decent prices, I bought a set of new tires from them. Since they also provided regular maintenance (oil changes, lube jobs, brakes, etc.), I started having them do all of my car maintenance.

The, one day, I took my car in for something and they offered a free many-point safety checkup. Of course I said yes. Imagine my surprise when they came back and said that my tires were starting to wear out. The mechanic said, "It looks like they've never been rotated!" I was shocked. As I told him, I'd bought the tires from them AND had them do every bit of maintenance on my car since that day. So, it was very irritating to hear that they had never rotated the tires as part of regular maintenance.

I might be right or I might be wrong in that situation. I'll be happy to discuss that over several beers. But here's the point: Your client will assume that you are taking care of everything on their network. So you better be doing it! This can be summarized by another old saying: "You touch it; you own it."

Ultimately, maintenance prevents problems. That's true with cars, household repairs, and computer networks. And you can ignore it for a long time, but you'll pay the price eventually. For businesses, that price normally includes network downtime. 

Over time, clients learn the value of regular maintenance, especially if you provide them with reports on what you do. So . . .

I found that I had several clients for whom I did regular monthly maintenance on their servers, networks, and desktop machines. I applied updates to hardware, software, and operating systems. I looked things over. I fixed little things and flagged big things. All of this was 100% billable.

I estimated that the regular labor was about one hour per server per month, and about fifteen minutes per desktop per month (average for a year). I hope you can see that that's regular, predictable revenue - truly the basis for managed services. And the overall effect was for the client to love our service and enjoy a much smoother operation. One day, I would offer these clients the same preventive maintenance service for a flat fee. It was an easy sale.

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For the last several years, I've taken the position that most people who call themselves managed service providers do not provide managed services. One big reason for that is the lack of regular preventive maintenance. To me, managed service was literally built on the concept of monthly maintenance.

If you wait for a client to tell you when something's wrong, you're probably not a true managed service provider. And, not coincidently, you're probably not doing regular monthly maintenance.

If you wait for the client to call you when something's wrong, you're providing break-fix support - even if you provide it for a flat monthly fee.

I'm grateful that my experience before and after I launched my IT business led me down the path to preventive maintenance. It has become one of the most important elements of my career for the last thirty years! And, as you can see, I'm very passionate about it.

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Next week, I address the never-ending problem of scoundrels in our industry. I'm not talking about incompetent technicians (see Episode 9), but outright thieves and dishonest business people. I'm not sure entirely why I was surprised that there were so many dishonest people in IT, but I made a lot of money cleaning up their messes!

Up next . . .   Scoundrels Everywhere

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