Finding a Peer Group - Lessons Learned

 Finding a Peer Group

- Lessons Learned, Episode 50

In the early 2000s, lots of independent consultants began to find each other, primarily because of the duel watering holes created by SMB Nation and the Small Business Server product from Microsoft. Many of us (myself included) started local Small Business “user groups.” And as these emerged, so did a worldwide network of group leaders who naturally built networks (the people kind) and facilitation between them all.

And then the next level of professional networking evolved: peer groups. I’m not sure if HTG (Heartland Technology Group) was really the first, but the founder, Arlin Sorensen, was well connected and did a great job of building mindshare as well as great peer groups. Once the first HTG group had proven successful, they began to build more groups.

I was invited to join, and had an amazing group. We met quarterly and gave each other lots of advice and a level of accountability. I made some life-long friends in that group and found the relationships to be at least (maybe more) helpful than the business advice. And my relationship with the larger HTG community was extremely valuable to me and my business.

HTG grew until it was widely recognized as a group of the premier IT consultants in the SMB space. Eventually, however, they decided that getting money from vendors was too tempting to pass up. They made a deal with one vendor to push the vendor’s brand and eventually to require use of their toolset for all HTG members. I used a competing product and I was asked to leave.

Ultimately, this split boiled down to a pissing contest between the leadership of the two vendors that dominated the market. With minor adjustments, this feud continues today with modern versions of those players. Culture – good or bad – flows from the leadership on down.

Ultimately, in my opinion, you have the choice of whether you will contribute to bitterness and divisiveness in the world of business or not. The irony is that, at the MSP level, group members competed with each and helped each other grow at the same time. They were an example that the big vendors never tried to follow.

After being asked to leave the group that I truly enjoyed, I felt a void. I think once you have had a taste of sharing ideas and “masterminding” with a group, you always want that for your life and business. Coincidently, I am a member of a mastermind group of local businesses in Sacramento that has been going on for fifteen year. I talk to them personally and professionally every week.

I started looking around for an alternative peer group to join and found TBG – Taylor Business Group. TBG had two major differences from HTG. First, our group shared our financials at every meeting. This was a quick and easy way to actually see in real numbers whether someone was just talk or actually making progress. It also helped us see how small changes here or there could make a big difference.

The second difference is that the TBG meetings were guided by a business coach with an agenda. The two-day meetings had lots and lots of open discussion, but the guidance added considerably to the value of the gathering. In addition, the coach gave us clear, specific, actionable advice and held us accountable at the next meeting.

In a peer-led peer group, the best advice available is that of the peer who has the most experience on a specific topic. In a coach-let peer group, the coach brings knowledge and experience from dozens, or hundreds of businesses. This really does make a difference.

Since that time, peer groups seem to be everywhere. It’s hard to say which are better or worse, but with the industry being more mature all the time, my guess is that they’re all valuable in some way. And the good news is, there’s a wide variety of styles and prices. So if you haven’t joined a peer group yet, today’s a good day.

A handful of lessons were learned (over about five years). First, things always change, so stop acting as if they won’t. Second, just because you love one thing doesn’t mean you won’t find something you love more. Third, sharing ideas and strategies with so-called competitors is one of the most valuable things I’ve ever done in my personal life and with all the businesses I’ve owned.

Have you peered into peer groups yet? I'd be happy to hear your stories.

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Episode 50

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

 Leave comments and questions below. And join me next week, right here.

 Subscribe to the blog so you don't miss a thing.

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2025 ASCII Cup Celebrates Innovation and Excellence in the Channel

2025 ASCII Cup Celebrates Innovation and Excellence in the Channel

RYTHMz Named Vendor of the Year by the MSP Community

Washington, D.C. – October 31, 2025 – The ASCII Group, the original and premier community of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) across North America, is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 ASCII Cup. This annual award honors technology companies that have made a lasting impact in the MSP channel through innovation, commitment, and engagement.

The 2025 ASCII Cup was presented in Philadelphia, PA, on October 30, following the final stop of the year for the ASCII Edge conference series. Inspired by Philadelphia’s iconic Rocky legacy, the evening highlighted the strength and perseverance that define the IT channel.

Throughout 2025, ASCII members voted at eight regional ASCII Edge events across the U.S. and Canada, evaluating technology vendors across 12 categories such as innovation, partner program excellence, and overall value. This peer-driven process ensures the companies recognized are those making the greatest impact on MSPs.

The 2025 ASCII Cup award recipients are:

• 2025 ASCII Cup Vendor of the Year – RYTHMz

• First Runner-Up – Pax8

• Third Place – SonicWall

• Fourth Place – BLOKWORX

• Fifth Place – Microsoft

• Sixth Place – Kaseya

• Seventh Place – Monjur

• Eighth Place – DefensX

• Ninth Place – FutureSafe

• Tenth Place – SuperOps

“The ASCII Cup reflects the voice of MSPs,” said Jerry Koutavas, CEO of The ASCII Group. “Recognizing RYTHMz as Vendor of the Year, along with the other companies honored, underscores the vital role our industry partners play in helping MSPs succeed.”

“It is with sincere gratitude that we accept this recognition from The ASCII Group and its members. As a former member myself, I understand the profound impact this community has on an MSP’s journey,” said Steve Copeland, CEO and Founder, RYTHMz. “Our industry is at a pivotal moment—evolving from ‘Managed Services’ to ‘Managed Solutions.’ Through this shift, one truth remains: connectivity is your brand. RYTHMz is proud to help lead this evolution alongside our partners in the ASCII community, and we’re truly honored by this recognition.”

The celebration also honored the late Alan D. Weinberger, founder of The ASCII Group, whose vision for a vendor-neutral community of IT professionals continues to guide the organization today. For more than 40 years, ASCII has connected IT business owners with resources, programs, and a trusted peer network to help them grow stronger companies. The 2025 ASCII Cup reflects this spirit of collaboration and the vital role technology partners play in MSP success.

For photos and highlights from the 2025 ASCII Cup, please visit The ASCII Group’s Facebook page.

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. 

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Hiring the Wrong Person - I Learn Not to Break My Own Process

Hiring the Wrong Person - I Learn Not to Break My Own Process

- Lessons Learned, Episode 49

Over time, we developed a good hiring process that works for us. Because of my background (see previous Lessons Learned episodes), I am a big believer in the “Hire slow, Fire fast” mentality. And, like most small businesses, I’m reluctant to get to that firing part. But I’m very good at hiring slow.

Except when I break my own rules.

Without going into all the details, here’s an overview of our hiring process (for details, see the links below):

• Have a good, detailed job description on file.
• Write a good, detail job ad that includes some elements that result in candidates eliminating themselves.
• Hold a very brief phone interview with owner (me) or service manager. Just enough to get a sense that there are no red flags.
• Pick a day and have the candidate be interviewed by the owner, their prospective manager, any techs in the office (as a group). Each person who interviews will have an evaluation form to fill out.
• Go to lunch with prospect and all employees who are in the office.
• Give the prospect a bit of homework.
• Compare scores. Discuss differences in evaluations.
• If prospect looks like a real prospective employee, have them take a DISC profile.
• Do background checks.
• Make offer and set first day of work.

YOU don’t have to have that detailed of a process, but here’s what I learned: When we used this process and the candidate was interviewed by at least three people, we never had a bad hire (someone who didn’t work out or ended up quitting).

This process worked when we moved from five people to six, ten, and fifteen. And some version of it has worked with smaller companies I’ve owned and larger companies I’ve coached. It’s a good process. It’s not cheap and it’s not fast. And those are two reasons it works.

One of my absolutely unbreakable rules is, 

You can’t control people but you can control your processes.

I learned that the hard way – twice – when it came to hiring. On two very different occasions, I hired someone without going through this process. In both cases, I simply said I’m the boss, it’s my company, and I’m doing this.

Side note: If you ever find yourself saying "I’m the boss, it’s my company, and I’m doing this," someone on your staff must be authorized to punch you in the face. Such decisions are almost never good for the long-term health of the company. 

Time One: The greatest go-getter I ever met.

I used to go to a local retailer with a small shop and a large number of employees. Time and time again, one woman was always “the person” who got things done. Everyone in any job went to her for direction even though she wasn’t a supervisor. She handled phones, walk-in customers, and employee questions fast and efficiently. And in all that crazy busy activity, I always felt that I got truly great customer service.

Well, after eight years, my office manager left to go help her husband run his new business. So I started looking for an office manager and going through our process. Then I went into the shop where Maria worked. I’d always thought she was an amazing employee, so I asked her to come take a look at our company and see if she liked it.

I took her around the office, introduced her to everyone, and then offered her the job. No interviews. No resumes. No side-check by my staff. My service manager asked me if I was sure about such a rash decision, and all I said was, “Wait til you see her in action.”

Well . . . Maria was happy to have a bump in pay, but she was completely out of her element. She could do most of what we needed, and she could learn the rest. But she didn’t love technology. And even though her job was to be the office manager, she felt like a fish out of water when everyone else in the company loved technology.

She looked like a great manager from my perspective as a customer in her old shop. But she had no experience managing administrative assistants, getting out newsletters, or checking to make sure payments and invoices were for the right amounts, etc. 

She tried and we tried, but it was not meant  to be. She just didn't shine in this job as she did in her previous job. I had to let her go. I gave her a much larger severance than normal because I felt guilty for having her leave her old job and now be out looking for another.

As a person who likes people, I felt very bad about the whole thing. And it was 100% my fault. I didn’t follow my very well designed process. 

Time Two: Great technicians may be bad judges of other technicians.

The second time I broke my process was when we needed a higher-level tech. We had a truly great technician on the job. He is probably the second best technician I have ever worked with. But he was leaving, so we wanted to find another really good person to take his place.

The outgoing technician recommended a friend he’d worked with at another job, so we invited the guy (Dave) to apply. He was not really great on paper, but my tech said he was amazing and that we’d be lucky to have him.

So I pushed him through a few pieces of the process and then just hired him. No one was authorized to punch me in the face, so Dave came to work for us.

And he was the single worst employee I ever had. He was skilled but not amazing. He was always late, always sloppy, didn’t work well with clients, and fought both documentation and keeping accurate time on jobs. Eventually, we fired him for emailing some of our intellectual property to a competitor.

I wish I could hire him again just so I could fire him again.

This time, I didn’t feel bad at all about firing him. But once again, it was 100% my fault. I broke my process and I paid the consequences. I won’t go into all the reasons that a bad hire is bad for finances, bad for employee morale, bad for business, and bad for your health. You’ve probably seen what bad employees do inside your companies or others. 

Hiring the wrong person is literally inviting bad news into your company. Good employees can make your company great. Bad employees can take your business down.

When I say Lesson Learned here, I assure you: I will never break my established hiring process again. And if I do, you can punch me in the face!

All comments welcome.

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For details on my processes, see:

https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/2011/11/sop-friday-hiring-process.html

https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/2017/04/job-posts-that-screen-themselves.html

https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/2008/04/hiring-best-employee.html

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Episode 49

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

Leave comments and questions below. And join me next week, right here.

Subscribe to the blog so you don't miss a thing.

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Join me at ChannelPro Defend in Irvine - Nov. 12-13

If you’re an MSP near Los Angeles ready to grow your cybersecurity practice, ChannelPro DEFEND: Irvine is the must-attend event of 2025!

ChannelPro DEFEND November 12-13

Register Now

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Join expert-led sessions and workshops packed with actionable insights on selling security, improving client protection, and positioning your business as a trusted advisor—all while networking with top vendors and peers.

Don’t miss your chance to join fellow MSPs at this one-of-a-kind IT channel event.

Free hotel room included! (Separate registration required)

Click Here: ChannelPro Defend Irvine

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Is Tech Support the DMV of the Business World?

What do people think of your profession? That is, what do people outside IT think about IT?

I've got several friends in corporate America. All of them hate their tech support. They find it frustrating to describe problems that are outside their field. They find it frustrating to wait for support on a simple little problem. They hate explaining the same problem to a number of people and not feeling that progress is being made.

Aside from the basic hatred of all things IT, they describe their tech support people and the tech industry generally as:

• Uninterested
• Slovenly
• Arrogant
• Know-it-all
• Socially awkward
• All male (women not welcome)
• Simplistic (rebooting solves all problems)
• Only for the young
• All about "fixing computers"
• Solve problems by just Googling them
• Loners
• Disgruntled
• and they provide horrible tech support!

Did I miss anything?

Remember, this is from people who work in very big businesses. But it certainly filters down. These perceptions permeate our culture. (See the TV show "The IT Crowd.") 

Lots of your clients probably used to be in corporate jobs, so they do have experience with that world of tech support. And they bring that bias with them. How many of those traits represent what your clients think about your tech support people? 

I know we'd like to say that that's what they used to think before they met me and my team. But how many of these are also their current stereotype of your team? Some of these perceptions are quite negative. (Some are less negative but still stereotypes.) 

Luckily, this is something you can address! The most obvious ways are to ask clients for feedback and to train your technicians on "soft stills" and your brand of service.

Most technology businesses today are both obsessed with measuring everything and horrible about collecting relevant data. A great example of this is the so-called Net Promoter Score. The NPS is sold as measuring loyalty and customer satisfaction. It's actually horrible at both of those. (See below for a more detailed video on this topic.)

The NPS simply asks, "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [our company/product/service] to a friend or colleague?"

How likely are you to recommend Cousin Larry's Pretty Good Tech Support? This is clearly NOT a measure of satisfaction. If you ask, "How satisfied are you with their service?" or "How satisfied are you with the value you receive based on the cost of services?" you might actually get useful information about customer satisfaction. 

You might get a score of 8 on the loyalty question from a client who might theoretically refer you in the right circumstances, and yet they're not at all happy with the way your techs treat them. They're not irritated enough to leave, but they're certainly not an eight out ten for satisfaction or loyalty.

I go through all that to make the point: If you want to measure customer satisfaction, ask about customer satisfaction! Customer satisfaction cannot be measured by net promoter scores. 

And if you want to learn what your clients think about your technicians, the level of support you provide, and how accurately they think your company fits the stereotypes above, you need to ask that. I know this approach is more complicated. It takes effort and brainpower. It's hard to gather this information by pasting one sentence at the end of every service ticket.

But it has some chance of being meaningful.

This is not a small thing. Perhaps the most pervasive and easily understood stereotype about bad service is summarized in just three letters: DMV. When you refer to the DMV, everyone knows this stereotype. Even if their last several interactions have been positive, the stereotype persists.

The generic concept of the DMV conjures up beliefs about "the government" and bureaucracy. Everything is slow, it's a paperwork black hole, things get lost, the clerks are surly and very unhappy in their jobs, it's inefficient, and it's a complete waste of money.

If you read the Reddits where there are a lot of corporate IT people, they seem pretty disgruntled, short-tempered, arrogant, know-it-all, overwhelmingly male, overworked, and underpaid. They often sound like they hate their jobs, and that has to come through to their customers. It's rare that unhappy employees give happy, good service.

Other than giving consistently great service, there's not much you can do about the stereotypes employed by your clients. What you CAN do is be aware of this and address it head-on inside your company. 

I can't imagine that you're too removed from the reality of what goes on in your business, how your techs actually give service, and how they are perceived. And you need to be honest: If your techs are disgruntled, act arrogantly, or make clients feel stupid, it's your fault. You can't do anything inside the client, but you can do a lot inside your company.

As with all fixes, it begins with awareness. How do you know what your clients think? You ask them. How do you know how happy your employees are? You ask them. How do you set and maintain standards of interaction? You train them.

If your company does have a problem, you need to address both how you deliver service today and how your employees will be onboarded and trained in the future. You have to build the culture you want. You have to address problems even if you don't want to. And you need to make sure that your employees see that this topic is important to the company.

Having touched on employee disgruntlement, I can't finish without noting that the biggest contributors of employee dissatisfaction are overwork and underpay. Both of those are in the perceptions of the techs. Whatever your beliefs about objective realities of reasonable work load and good pay, you don't know what your employees think until you ask them.

As Daniel Pink reminds us, employees are motivated by autonomy, mastery, and purpose. When they have "enough" money (whatever that is), they are likely to stay if they feel that they have autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Furthermore, attention to these things can even lower the financial rewards that are necessary for the employees to feel that they have enough. 

I know: Addressing this issue feels like a big undertaking with no immediately tangible rewards. But that's true with many things in your life and your business. We invest in culture, training, and standard operating procedures because they make everything better - eventually.

Comments always welcome.

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re: Daniel Pink, see the book Drive. Better yet, read it.

Video on the Net Promoter Score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVCP8bt313A

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Discovering the ASCII Community

- Lessons Learned, Episode 48

As my business grew, I started attending a few events. I mentioned SMB Nation earlier. That's where I learned about the ASCII Group. So I thought I'd check them out.

I attended a few events. I didn't realize at the time that you don't have to be a member to attend. At my first ASCII event, I sat in on some great sessions and met a lot of IT consultants who were open to sharing their tools, tips, tricks, and challenges. 

Education plus community has always been a powerful draw for me. There was a lot of overlap between the SMB Nation crowd and the ASCII crowd: they both consisted of IT consultants who were working to improve their businesses and sharing ideas.

Of course, having attended an event, I was put on their mailing list. I may have been on it before. I don't remember. Anyway, the mailing list and event introduced me to ASCII's member benefits - especially the vendor discounts.

I didn't join right away ... until I decided to invest in my first RMM tool. ASCII members received a very large discount. I signed up just to get the discounts. That year, I save enough on RMM licenses to justify my ASCII dues for the next ten years.

And that's when I started recommending ASCII membership at every opportunity. At this point, I'm sure I've recommended them in at least a dozen books and who knows how many presentations.

Skip ahead a few years. Once I had an office, office rent, employees, employee expenses, and all the unexpected costs of having an office where people show up, I started to feel that we had some waste. By then, Jennifer was my office manager, so I gave her a straight-forward task: Pick one thing every month and find a way to reduce our expenses. She did a great job with that.

As it grew close to when we needed to renew our Worker's Compensation plan, I was desperate to find a lower alternative. California was going through a true crisis in Worker's Comp in the early 2000's. Our costs doubled in a year - and that was before factoring in new hires.

Luckily, Jennifer read the ASCII newsletter and looked into their member insurance plans. She got us a quote on a plan that was so much lower that I asked her to verify that it was valid in California! The savings through ASCII was literally unbelievable. When it came time to sign the check, I stopped and asked, "Are you sure this is for the whole year?" It was.

Since that time, I have come to know and appreciate many great benefits of ASCII membership. I know some people go on and on about their forums but I personally never got into them. But I did fall in love with their events and the opportunities to always learn new things, meet great vendors, and be introduced to great IT consultants.

Another ASCII member benefit that I never had to use is ASCII's ability to go to bat with vendors on behalf of members. Time and again I heard stories of ASCII intervening in a dispute and helping the member to get a fair resolution.

The bottom line: I've been a big fan of ASCII for more that twenty years. And even today, I would recommend membership for anyone in the world of IT consulting. It is literally one of the easiest decisions a consultant can make.

Note: This is NOT a paid sponsorship, nor are any of my endorsements of ASCII in the last two decades.

All comments welcome.

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Episode 48

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

Leave comments and questions below. And join me next week, right here.

Subscribe to the blog so you don't miss a thing.

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ASCII Names Member of the Year!

Congratulations to Chad Kempt on this. From my friends at the ASCII Group ...

The ASCII Group Names Chad Kempt as 2025 ASCII Member of the Year

Washington, D.C. – October 16, 2025 – The ASCII Group, the original and premier community of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) across North America, is proud to announce Chad Kempt, Founder of Fast Computers, as the 2025 ASCII Member of the Year.

This annual recognition honors a member who embodies the collaborative spirit of ASCII—sharing knowledge, building relationships, and contributing to the success of fellow MSPs.

An ASCII member since 2010, Chad has been an active and trusted voice within the community. As part of the Advisory Committee, he helps shape initiatives that support members’ growth and success. He also leads ASCII’s monthly virtual meetings, fostering open dialogue and peer learning. Known for his thoughtful insights and willingness to share experiences, Chad continues to strengthen the ASCII network.

This year, Chad also served on the Content Advisory Committee for the 2025 ASCII Edge event series, helping ensure conference sessions reflected the real-world priorities of today’s MSPs—from operations to cybersecurity and service delivery.

Chad is the first Canadian member to receive this honor. A strong advocate at the ASCII Edge Toronto event, he also co-hosted the Toronto MSP Meetup this summer, helping build deeper connections and collaboration within the Canadian MSP community.

“ASCII provides an environment conducive to growing business relationships in a trusted and respected way,” said Chad Kempt, Founder, Fast Computers. “I’m honored to be part of a community where everyone contributes to each other’s success.”

“The Member of the Year award represents the best of what ASCII stands for—collaboration, leadership, and community,” said Jerry Koutavas, CEO of The ASCII Group. “Chad has played a key role in shaping the member experience and elevating the conversations that move our industry forward.”

The 2025 ASCII Member of the Year Award will be presented at the ASCII Cup celebration in Philadelphia on October 30, 2025, alongside recognition of this year’s top technology vendors.

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. 

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Front Office Staff and Admins Rule!

Front Office Staff and Admins Rule! - Lessons Learned, Episode 47

As I mentioned in earlier "Lessons Learned" episodes, I made the same mistake most technical people do: When I got busy to the point of overwhelm, I hired another technician.

The reason for this is simple. As technicians, we tend to view our businesses as delivery systems for our technical knowledge and skills. That's literally why we started the business. But eventually everyone who survives for a few years learns that the technical side is only one piece of the business. 

Other pieces of the business are built around the technical, and support the technical, but they are not technical in nature. These include:

• The sales function
• The marketing function
• Finance functions (accounting/bookkeeping, invoicing/billing, tracking money, payroll, paying taxes, etc.)
• The management or personnel functions (hiring, training, goal-setting, evaluations, mission-vision-values, etc.)
• Client management and relationship building
• and all the miscellaneous little stuff and paperwork involved in all these things.

No one - absolutely no one - is good at all these functions. But they all need to be addressed at some point. Each function needs some time and some attention. Some things are time-bound like paying taxes. Others need to be done all the time, such as marketing and client management.

As a business grows, each of these functions either grows in size or importance, and often both. By size I simply mean volume. A newsletter is important, but essentially scalable to any number of recipients. Invoicing increases with each client added.

At first, all these little things grow slowly. Ten invoices per month becomes fifty invoice per month and five hundred invoices per month. That growth requires more money management, more account balancing, more questioned bills, more client management, etc.

While the technical side of the business is fundamental to why the business exists, technical service delivery does not address any of these other functions. This seems obvious when you have twenty-five employees, but may not be obvious at all when you have five.

All that non-technical stuff just grows and grows. And, unfortunately, it is often neglected because the owner is too busy doing tech support. THAT's the moment when we make the mistake of hiring another tech. It seems "obvious" that someone else should take care of the tech support delivery while the boss is freed up to do all the business-related stuff.

What really happens, however is that 1) The boss probably dislikes most or all of these other functions, 2) These functions stay as lower priorities because the boss is constantly called on to deliver technical support, and 3) Things are only taken care of when they become critical.

Perhaps the best example of this is invoicing. Again and again, I talk to consultants who fail to send out invoices in a timely manner, and even fail to collect money for the work they're doing. One of the primary reasons any business exists is to make money. That involves getting paid for your services and putting that money in your bank account. And yet, this is one of the most common failures for small business owners.

If the owner is non-technical, they are far less likely to get sucked into technical service delivery. For example, if they come from an accounting or sales background, they should hire a technician immediately to deliver the services being sold. But most owners are what Michael Gerber calls technicians who have an "entrepreneurial fit" and start a business (See The E-Myth Revisited).

I was very technical but had come from a non-technical background, so I was lucky to realize pretty early that I needed someone to help with all the paperwork and minutia that I didn't like doing. I was even luckier to hire Jennifer as my first administrative assistant and make her the office manager. She worked for me for eight years and grew to be the manager of all administrative staff.

When my company had fifteen employees, that included one office manager and four administrative assistants. And here's the shift of mindset that helped us grow faster and provide excellent service at a lower price: I didn't just hand off a few of the non-technical chores. We gave the administrative staff lots of work around order processing, inventory, marketing, finances, and even a good deal of the so-called technical work.

I have said countless times over the twenty years that most IT companies should shift a number of tasks from the tech support staff and give them to administrative staff. This is more true every day. My favorite example is setting up O365 and other cloud service accounts and creating users and email accounts for new clients. That is a 100% administrative task. It should not be done by the business owner or a technician earning $75,000 per year!

One of our rules for success was: If it can be done by an admin, give the job to an admin! That rule flowed from me (owner) to the service manager and office manager.

And still, after all this time, I meet a lot of business owners who have three, four, or five million dollars in top-line revenue and they are still doing all these chores themselves. And all that stuff is lower priority than putting out client fires, so the owner takes care of the technical work ahead of all the other things that need to be done.

I'm not sure why there is so much resistance to hiring administrative staff. Everyone I've ever met with an admin or office manager says they couldn't get by without these people. And most say they should have made that their first hire.

I knew my business was on the right track when I dashed into the office on a Saturday because I had to mail off a package. When I got there, I realized that I didn't know where the packing tape was. Or how to print a UPS label, or pretty much anything I needed to mail the package. So I just took it to the UPS store instead.

I actually felt a little pride in that moment because it was very clear to me that I had handed some duties to the point that I didn't even know how my company took care of this simple task. I could have figured it out, of course. But that would have been a longer and more frustrating job than it needed to be.

Most companies delegate far less than they should - with almost everything. And even after fifteen or twenty years, most of them are still stifling their own growth and profit by not delegating to the front office and admin staff that can make everything just a little smoother.

All comments welcome.

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Episode 47

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

Leave comments and questions below. And join me next week, right here.

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New Course: Strategic Exit Planning for MSPs - Starts October 14th

Rayanne Buchianico does it again! An amazing new 5-week course starts next week:

Strategic Exit Planning for MSPs

(5W32)

Five Tuesdays - October 14-November 11

Register Now

Link: 

https://www.itspu.com/all-classes/classes/strategic-exit-planning-for-msps/

All classes start a 9:00 AM Pacific

Whether you’re looking to sell your MSP in the next year or just want to prepare for long-term options, this five-week course will walk you through a proven framework to assess, strengthen, and position your business for a high-value exit.

What you'll learn:

• Why early exit planning creates leverage, clarity, and peace of mind
• What buyers actually want—and what scares them away
• How to identify and fix operational red flags that kill deals
• How to reduce owner dependency and improve transferability
• How to build a personalized Exit Readiness Action Plan

... And More!

Register Now - Only $399*

Course Description

Based on the Strategic Exit Plan used by leading advisors and acquirers, this course helps you uncover the hidden risks and value gaps in your business—then gives you the tools and plan to fix them. You’ll start by completing a comprehensive self-assessment of your company’s exit readiness and finish with a custom action plan built to increase value, reduce risk, and create deal-making confidence.

Weekly Agenda

Unit One: Laying the Foundation & Exit Assessment Launch

• The case for proactive exit planning
• How buyers assess risk and value
• Common deal-killers and how they show up in MSPs
• Overview of the Strategic Exit Assessment

Unit 2 Interpreting Your Assessment Results

• Understanding your score: what it means and what it doesn’t
• Identifying priority gaps and red flags
• How buyers interpret different operational weaknesses
• Mapping assessment results to business value

Unit 3 Fixing Operational Weaknesses

• Documentation, SOPs, and client/vendor management
• Pricing consistency, quoting workflows, and margin protection
• Reducing dependency on the owner
• Tools, templates, and process improvements

Unit 4 Financial and Deal Readiness

• Cleaning up financials for buyer visibility
• Contracts, revenue models, and deal-killing risks
• How to prepare for due diligence
• Understanding valuation drivers and deal structures

Unit 5 Building Your Strategic Exit Roadmap

• Putting it all together: Your personalized action plan
• Setting a realistic exit timeline (1–3–5 year plans)
• Building optionality: exit, partial sale, or internal transfer
• Resources for staying exit-ready as you grow
• Wrap-up, Q&A, and peer feedback

Only $399 per team member

Delivered by Rayanne Buchianico, Accounting Professional and QuickBooks Advisor. Rayanne has been a managed service provider for many years and advises MSPs on how to get the most out of their QuickBooks and PSA integrations.

Includes five weeks of webinar classes with related handouts, assignments, and “office hours” with the instructor.

This course is intended for business owners and managers. It is particularly useful for the Owner or Operations Manager.

Get all the juicy details and register today at 

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

Note: * Members of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community attend at no additional charge. See details in the Community.

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Create A Mature Hiring Process - Lesson Learned

Create A Mature Hiring Process - Lessons Learned, Episode 46

Like most companies, we started hiring people well before we had a process. My first employee was someone who contacted me and asked if he could tag along and he would only charge me if he produced billable labor. He wanted experience in the field and I was happy to assist.

My next employee was my first attempt at hiring someone full-time. It didn't work out. (I tell the full story in Episode 21. See https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/2025/03/trying-to-get-that-first-employee-take.html.)

Eventually, I figured out how to hire people effectively. And, eventually, we went from just finding "someone" to a clear and consistent hiring process. This was fine-tuned over the years as we grew to five and ten and more employees. I think we topped out at sixteen.

Through all that I learned the elements of a Mature Hiring Process. What's that? A mature hiring process is one that fits holistically with all of the processes and branding of your company. That includes:

• Well defined job descriptions. These are drawn from the always-changing list of talents and knowledge you need in your business. 

• Draft job advertisements that are 95% ready to go. These are drawn from the job descriptions and highlight the skills you need.

• An interview process, which should include more than one interview and should engage a variety of existing employees who will work with or manage the new hire.

• Draft of interview questions for each stage of the interview process that are 90% ready to go. These should be opened ended as much as possible and should draw out the candidate's knowledge of the skills outlined in the job description.

• Draft of candidate evaluation forms to be filled out by all interviewers that are 90% ready to go. Evaluations for focus on assessments about skills defined above as well as impressions of whether this person would be a good team fit with company culture.

• Optional: You may wish to ask finalist candidates to fill out DISC profiles or other personality profile assessments.

• A process for offering the job, agreeing on salary, and defining start date.

• An onboarding process that includes preparing for the new hire (create accounts, assign desk, etc.) as well as a schedule for what they will do in the first day, first week, and first month. All of these are designed to welcome them into your culture and help them to become comfortable with your employees, clients, and procedures.

• A goal-setting process for the remainder of the calendar quarter that is 90% ready to go. This helps to focus the employee's attention on the things you need them to learn and achieve. Most of these criteria should be based on the job requirements and job description above.

• A draft of the employee's quarterly evaluation based on the quarterly goals. Again, 90% complete before the hire begins. This will be updated and flow directly from the employee's personal quarterly written goals.

I know that sounds like a lot, but remember: You're already doing all of this already (or almost all). You might do it haphazardly, without focus, and without drawing lines that flow from skills needed to job descriptions, interviews, and all the way to evaluations, but you do something. Start by documenting that.

One of the best ways to standardize and use a fairly long, complicated process is to start with where you are. That gives you a written process to edit and update. Then, with each hire, update the job descriptions, update the job ads, update the screening process, and so forth. 

Again, you're going to go through all those steps anyway. Beginning with your second hire, you will begin saving labor and improving your hiring process because you won't have to "start over" or "recreate" it with every hire. You'll fine-tune those questions, and evaluations, and first-day agenda.

A mature hiring process helps you to onboard employees effectively by finding people who meet your needs and fit with your team/culture. It also teaches them the importance of your processes and puts them on the path to learning your processes.

Most importantly, in the big picture, a mature hiring process helps build your brand by helping you to hire people who will effectively represent how you want to be seen by clients and assuring that they use your processes consistently. Branding is not your logo; branding is every single thing you do. And that certainly includes how you hire and outcomes of your hiring process.

Eventually, our hiring process evolved to include about three hours of interviews in one day, followed by a lunch with as many staff as were available. When we followed all of steps consistently, we hired really good people who were a really good fit with our culture and who represented us well. 

When we (I) hired outside this process, which happened exactly three times, we got disappointing results, including one person who just didn't work out, and one person who is the only employee I ever fired for cause. Some days I want to hire him back just so I can fire him again.

What's your experience?

All comments welcome.

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Episode 46

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

Leave comments and questions below. And join me next week, right here.

Subscribe to the blog so you don't miss a thing.

:-)

Join me at ChannelPro Defend in November . . . plus an announcement

I received a great email from the folks at ChannelPro Network. I am scheduled to attend (and speak at) the ChannelPro Defend event in Irvine in November - and they just announced that they're going to give me an award!

Their press release is below, and you can find the details at: 

https://www.channelpronetwork.com/2025/10/01/karl-palachuk-award-recipient-msp-industry-excellence/

I am grateful for this award. I've loved working with ChannelPro for the last two decades, and it's nice to be appreciated by this great channel-focused industry group!

Join me at ChannelPro Defend in Irvine:

Nov. 12–13, 2025

Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport

---------------

Press release from ChannelPro:

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ChannelPro to Honor Karl Palachuk with Partner in Excellence Award at DEFEND: Irvine

by Jonathan Browning, ChannelPro Executive Director of Content & Engagement 

The ChannelPro Network is proud to announce Karl W. Palachuk as the final Partner in Excellence Award recipient in 2025. Palachuk will receive the award at ChannelPro DEFEND: Irvine in California, the cybersecurity conference designed for MSPs, IT consultants, and other channel leaders.

The Partner in Excellence Award celebrates those who go beyond business success to uplift the IT community through leadership, mentorship, and advocacy. Palachuk exemplifies these qualities.

For more than 20 years, Palachuk has been a pioneering voice in managed services and small business IT. As the founder of Small Biz Thoughts, he has trained thousands of technology providers on how to build profitable and professional businesses. He is also the founder of the nonprofit group National Society of IT Service Providers. The NSITSP represents SMB consultants and helps them meet regulations and professional standards.

Palachuk’s books — including Relax Focus Succeed, Service Agreements for SMB Consultants, and The Network Migration Workbook — are cornerstone resources for IT business owners worldwide. His career has been defined by innovation and a consistent commitment to helping peers thrive.

“Karl has dedicated his life to making this industry better,” said Michael Siggins, founder and publisher of ChannelPro. “Through education, advocacy, and community building, he has raised the bar for what it means to be an IT leader. Honoring him in this way is long overdue.”

The Partner in Excellence Award will be presented at ChannelPro DEFEND: Irvine, Nov. 12–13, 2025, at the Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport.

Why Attend ChannelPro DEFEND: Irvine

The two-day event brings together the channel’s top experts and vendors for networking and interactive sessions to help IT service providers grow their cybersecurity practices. Attendees will gain:

• Proven strategies to sell and deliver cybersecurity services
• Practical defenses against today’s most damaging threats
• Connections with industry leaders and peers, including the chance to celebrate Karl Palachuk’s recognition

Registration is free for qualified IT providers. Learn more and secure your spot here: ChannelPro DEFEND: Irvine.

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ChannelPro Executive Director of Content & Engagement Jonathan Browning has been a leader in the IT channel for close to a decade. He’s an avid fan and early adopter of technology. He believes that the managed services industry is the most important driver of economic growth and human innovation.

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