Lessons Learned
I get questions. Like
- What's the biggest mistake you've made?
- What's the toughest decision?
- What's the most important lesson you learned ...?
So I've decided to create a blog series and answer these questions from the perspective of lessons I've learned over the years. It starts with my last "real" job and goes through the sale of my last managed IT service business.
I hope all business owners, especially those new to IT consulting, will learn from my mistakes (and maybe from my wins). And, as always, I would love to have your feedback in the comments.
If you have specific questions that you think would fit in the series, please send them. I'll try to fit them in the series where they make the most sense.
This Page was created as an evolving index of the series, so you can find articles quickly.
Episode 1: My Backstory - The Very Short Version
Episode 2: What I Learned on My Last Real Job - the Technical Stuff
Episode 3: Management Lessons I Learned on My Last Real Job - and the Worst Boss Ever
Episode 4: The HP Way
Episode 5: EDI and the Best Boss Ever
Episode 6: Easing into Break-Fix
Episode 7: Common Sense Calculations - That are 100% Wrong
Episode 8: The Absolute Truths about Backups!
Episode 9: Technicians Who Refuse to Learn
Episode 10: Doing Things The Right Way
Episode 11: Finding Sources for Hardware and Software
Episode 12: Regular Monthly Maintenance
Episode 14: Everything Comes Together
Episode 15: My Most Regretted Decision
Episode 16: I Learn the Beauty of Perpetual Contracts
Episode 17: Learning to Quote Profitable Jobs
Episode 18: Jimmy the Phone Guy, the Saga Begins
Episode 19: Personal Health Crisis Takes Center Stage
Episode 20: Y2K, the Dot Com Bubble, and Opportunity Everywhere
Episode 21: Trying to Get That First Employee, Take One
Episode 22: How "Relax Focus Succeed" was Born
Episode 23: Selling Programming - Pros and Cons
Episode 24: The Worst (Technical) Mistake I Ever Made
Episode 25: Hiring a First Employee - Take Two
Episode 26: Hiring a Great Administrative Assistant
Episode 27: Karl Takes a Vacation
Episode 28: We Need An Office
Episode 29: Managing Distributor Relationships
Episode 30: The Hiring Formula for Early Growth
Episode 31: Tax Filings and When to Outsource
Episode 32: Microsoft Used to Love Us
Episode 33: Stop "Rolling Your Own"
Episode 34: Nothing is more important than testing backups
Episode 35: Salute to Harry Brelsford, Founder of the SMB IT Community!
Episode 36: My First RMM - and a Hint of What's to Come
Episode 37: My First PSA - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Episode 38 - Selling the Perfect Combo
Episode 40 - Flat Fee Maintenance
Episode 41 - Managed Services in a Month - How it all started
Episode 42 - Weeding Your Client Garden
Episode 43 - Five Users and Above? Ten?
Episode 44 - Finding Your Ideal Client
Episode 45 - Firing Clients
Episode 46 - Create a Mature Hiring Process
Episode 47 - Front Office and Admins Rule!
Episode 48 - Discovering the ASCII Community
Episode 49 - Hiring the Wrong Person - I Learn Not to Break My Own Process
Episode 50 - Finding a Peer Group
Episode 51 - Outsourced Help Desk Support
Episode 52 - All Hail the Service Manager
Episode 53 - Harsh Reality of Hardware Margins
Episode 54 - Building Machines vs. Buying
Episode 55 - Local Partners: User Groups Everywhere
Episode 56 - Good Owners are Not Necessarily Good Managers
Episode 57 - Combining Everyone's Best Habits
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You can also find all the posts in the series by searching for "Lessons Learned." Here's the link for that: https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/search/label/Lessons%20Learned
Be sure to subscribe to this blog. Over on the right-side column, you'll see the Subscribe by Email link. Just remember to white list the first email you get. And if you filter, put them all into one folder so that you can find new installments.
:-)
