Smb Community Podcast By Karl W. Palachuk

Mark Smith is the Executive VP of EH Media, publisher of ChannelPro magazine, as well as CEPro, Commercial Integrator, Security Sales and Integration. In a former life, Mark founded Windows NT magazine. As I’ve mentioned in several settings, I’m a big believer that all the really fast-moving technologies are merging and adding TCP/IP into their offering. The key to success, of course, is to add recurring revenue and become a managed service provider. In addition to some great stories from the past, we also cover the challenges of making money in the years ahead in all areas of technology service. EH Media has created a program to train everyone who’s interested in technology service in the secrets of recurring revenue and managed services. The program is call RPM: Recurring Profits Mastery. Starting May 17th, I’ll be teaching a new course on how to create your managed service offerings and go from “zero” to 100% managed services. It’s called MSP Kickstart and it’s a detailed 6-week online course. The price i

Harry Brelsford is the founder of SMB Nation. In this interview Harry announces a new Marketing as a Service platform called Pivot. We talk about marketing and analytics in the SMB community – and a lot more. See http://SMBNation.com/pivot.   Harry stresses that modern marketing requires analytics. You are wasting money if you just do a little SEO and buy Google ads. In addition, there are lots of things involved in marketing that the average MSP owner can’t do or shouldn’t do. You really don’t have time for analyzing your clients, split-testing ads, and all the other modern elements of marketing. Subscriptions start at $300/month. You need one one client to pay for that.   Links mentioned in our conversation: http://www.smbnation.com http://SMBNation.com/pivot http://www.blabpredicts.com/ http://www.lumapartners.com/lumascapes/social-lumascape/       Check out the interview here: This interview is 30 minutes. Audio Listen to the Podcast.  

Manuel Palachuk (yes, we’re related) is a business coach, author, and trainer. This week he announced the launch of the MSP Pro Acedemy – a training and certification site for managed service providers and IT Professionals of all sizes. More details at www.mspproacademy.com. In addition to launching the academy, Manuel has started an Indiegogo campaign to speed up the release of the first course materials. Contributions there will get your great prices on his book, the Academy, and more. For more about Manuel’s coaching, visit www.ManuelPalachuk.com.   Check out the interview here: This interview is 30 minutes.   Audio Listen to the Podcast. Links mentioned in this podcast:   Manuel’s Coaching: ManuelPalachuk.com MSP Pro Academy: MSPProAcademy.com MSP Pro Academy Indiegogo campaign: https://igg.me/at/mspproacademy Coaching Offerings: https://www.manuelpalachuk.com/start-here/program-fees  

Debbie Leoni is my life coach. I thought it would be useful to introduce her to the SMB IT community. I get questions about why I have a life coach coach and how that’s different from a business coach. I hope this interview answers those questions. You can learn more about Debbie from her web site at www.debbieleoni.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook. She has some great Facebook “Live” videos. So keep an eye out for those. You can buy Debbie’s book – I Am Fearless – from her web site, on Amazon, or over at SMB Books.   Check out the interview here: This interview is about half an hour.   Audio Listen to the Podcast. Links mentioned in this podcast:   Debbie’s Fearless Web Site www.debbieleoni.com   Debbie’s Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/deborahannleoni    

I had a great chat with Kendra Lee on the subject of Hiring and Managing Your First Sales Person. We talked about writing ads, choosing a “hunter,” setting goals, and managing them through the first year. It was a great discussion. You can learn more at http://www.klagroup.com. You’ll find Kendra’s blog there as well. If you’re interested, you can request a free half-hour consultation with her. Check out the interview here:   This interview is about half an hour.   Audio Listen to the Podcast. Links mentioned in this podcast:   KLA Group: http://www.klagroup.com   Kendra’s Blog: http://www.klagroup.com/blog   Karl’s Blog: http://blog.smallbizthoughts.com    

You know I’m all about SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). So I was happy to talk to Raj Goel about his “SOP Culture” project. He has defined a series of SOPs for I.T. Professionals. They are available on a subscription basis. Check out the interview here:   This interview is about half an hour. Links mentioned in the video are linked below.   Audio Listen to the Podcast. Links mentioned in this podcast:   Andy Parkes’ Blog: http://andyparkes.co.uk/blog   Jay McBain on the most visible leaders in the channel: http://www.jaymcbain.com/2016/10/100-most-visible-channel-leaders-2016.html   Raj on Creating Obvious SOPs: https://www.brainlink.com/creating-obvious-sops/ Raj on SOPs: http://www.sopculture.com/secret-to-brainlinks-success-process-and-sops/ VIDEO that you should watch before or after this interview: https://youtu.be/HD-8eB20M6c  

I had a great talk with Rayanne Buchianico yesterday. We covered Sell My MSP, QuickBooks, important reports to run for your business, and the next course she’s teaching over at Great Little Seminar in October. Here’s the video:   Audio Listen to the Podcast. Links mentioned in this podcast:   Robert Crane’s Blog: http://blog.ciaops.com/2016/09/azure-site-recovery-is-cool.html   Andy Parkes’ Blog: http://andyparkes.co.uk/blog/index.php/2016/09/13/command-prompt-and-the-clipboard/   Rayanne on Robert Crane’s Podcast: http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-112-rayanne-buchianico/   Sell My MSP: http://www.sellmymsp.com/ Rayanne Buchianico Accountant and MSP Business Consultant Rayanne has over 25 years of accounting, tax and business experience in the SMB sector. She specializes in working with IT Professionals and MSPs to improve profitability through accounting systems, financial reporting, and PSA integration. Rayanne was awarded the 2012 Jim Locke Memorial Community Award by SMB Nation and SMBTN and was name

I interviewed with Dave Seibert from SMB TechFest about the Fall show. This event is held four times per year in Anaheim, CA. This is always a good event. And this year, I’m pairing it up with my 12th Annual Fall Seminar. More about that on a future podcast.     Audio Listen to the Podcast. Links mentioned in this podcast:     The Need to Know Podcast (Robert Crane) http://blog.ciaops.com/ How to Manage Your Daily Workflow (LogicNow blog) https://www.logicnow.com/blog/how-manage-your-daily-workflow 3 Magic Questions a Sales Manager Must Know (Ken Thoreson) http://yoursalesmanagementguru.com/2016/08/3-magic-questions-a-sales-manager-must-know/ Attend SMB TechFest for free at … http://www.SMBTechFest.com/karl Karl’s Fall Seminar http://www.smbpreday.com  

We’re kicking off a whole new podcast series here at SMB Community Podcast. So subscribe today so you don’t miss a thing. We’re going to be doing a series of “video call” podcasts of about 30 minutes each. These will be recorded as both a Video and as an Audio download. So you can decide whether you want to watch or just listen. To kick off the new series, I talked with Amy Babinchak from Third Tier and Sell My MSP. Amy is very well known in the SMB IT community. Recently, she’s noticed that there are a lot more buyers looking for MSPs than there are sellers listed to sell their business. One reason for this, she believes, is that there’s a myth in the community that a small MSP has no value. I’m not sure where that myth originated, but it’s one of the things people keep telling each other over and over again. Amy has a very different perspective: If you’ve been making money in your business for 10-20 years, it has value and it can be sold. You just need to find the people who are looking to buy. A lot of buy

I had a great conversation with Alistair Forbes, the new Managing Director of SolarWinds MSP (formerly the General Manager at LogicNow). In case you missed the news yesterday, SolarWinds MSP bought LogicNow. LogicNow CEO Walter Scott now becomes the Executive Vice President of Solarwinds MSP. And Dave Sobel retains his title as Senior Director of Partner Community and Field Marketing. I exchanged a few emails with Dave as he’s traveling in Portugal right now. He is very excited and positive about the changes ahead. Change brings uncertainty, and I’ve received lots of emails and requests for information about this merger. So I asked Alistair to join me for a quick conversation to answer the big questions. This interview is about 15 minutes. More details about this interview are on my blog at http://blog.smallbizthoughts.com. As always, I am impressed with the LogicNow team’s openness and willingness to directly answer the major questions being asked online and in the forums. It’s a period major change, so the

Final report from SMB Nation 2015. My guests here are Patrick Houston from Biz Tech Xperts and Rich Maddalena from LogicTree IT. Patrick Houston Patrick Houston is the co-founder and editor at Biz Tech Xperts (see www.biztechxperts.com) – Note: Not experts – xperts. BizTechXperts.com is a site for end user clients to come and ask questions. The site pairs you up with people looking for answers. You can then answer their questions and begin to build a relationship. The match-up gives you a warm lead because you are helping them answer a question. Now you’re “known” expert who can help them at a deeper level. Patrick talks about using the system to position yourself as an expert and for focusing on a niche market. There is no cost to you as the expert.   Finally, I talked to Rich Maddalena from LogicTreeIT.com about their Two Vie Hub product. Two Vie Hub is a mobile app platform that gives users the ability to customize the look, feel, and content of applications very easily. Rich Maddalena As Rich menti

The first person I grabbed at SMB Nation was Robert Crane from CIA Ops – CIAOPS.com. Robert presented a great demonstration on using live data to create meaningful information for clients. Robert Crane Microsoft’s PowerBI is a business intelligence. Robert showed how to analyze data from a variety of sources. Once you have an Office 365 login, you can add this product and it will be just another app on your portal. In this interview, Robert covers a lot of territory about getting started with data analysis, including some notes about mashing up client data with public databases. The really good news is that these tools are readily available to your clients for no additional cost. He also talks about the huge public databases you can access. And of course everyone has web data. Some clients have data on sales trends and other internal processes. The one thing that’s very clear from this interview: Technology is not enough! You need to help your client with their business. Find out more and follow Robert at

Report One from SMB Nation 2015. Featuring Nick East from Zynstra and Dave Seibert from SMB TechFest. Nick East Last year Zynstra (www.zynstra.com) pretty much dominated SMB Nation with demos. This year Nick East announced that Zynstra is now distributed both through Ingram’s cloud program and through D&H. In fact, they were at the show with D&H (www.dandh.com). If you’re interested in finding out more, there’s a TCO (total cost of ownership) tool on the Zynstra site. Research shows that the number one thing you can do to increase your company’s value is to increase Recurring Revenue, followed by Professional Services. At the bottom are hardware and software. Zynstra’s goal is to turn all of these into recurring revenue. Nick also noted that Zynstra has a new acceleration program that gives you a huge boost in margin for your first three deals.     Dave Seibert and Karl Palachuk Next I talked to Dave Seibert from SMB TechFest (www.smbtechfest.com) about the big event they have coming up October

At the Business Solutions Channel Transitions event in Chicago (two weeks ago), I caught up with Randy Clark from Mercury. Mercury is a payment processor. Think credit cards. Pretty much everyone takes credit cards. Everyone who has clients that trust them has the potential to sell credit card processing. Randy Clark – Mercury Pay In this interview, Randy talks about getting started as well as the opportunity options for credit card processing. Some people sell directly to their clients. Others create a complete side business selling credit card processing. In addition to working with Consultants and VARs, Mercury works with software developers. As you know, there’s at least one live of business application for every business out there.   One very important point: If you want to increase the resale value of your company, recurring revenue from payment processing can increase the value dramatically. The key is that you get a small faction of every sale made by the merchants you set up.   Find out more about

Mike Monocello Mike Monocello Mike Monocello is the editor-in-chief of Business Solutions magazine, a monthly publication dedicated to helping IT solutions providers grow their businesses by selling complementary technologies and moving into thriving markets. We talked about building recurring revenue models, technology, and business. Mike has to come up with new articles for a variety of readers every month (retail VARs, managed service providers, etc.). As you can imagine, it’s hard to figure out which content to focus on. They spend a lot of time listening to their readers in order to get feedback about where their audience is and where they’re going. We talked about the Business Solutions Channel Transitions conference in Chicago last month. We also looked ahead to the conferences Business Solutions had coming up later this year and next. The next Business Solutions Channel Transitions conference will be in Orlando in November 5th. Details and registration are at http://www.channeltransitions.com/.

One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen at a conference is a “Visual Practitioner” summarizing the event via large scale drawings. I talked to Jackie Forbes at the recent MAX 2015 conference. She is with Drawn to Learn (www.drawntolearn.co.uk). Her background is in meeting facilitation, so she has good skills around picking out the important points of the day. Here’s a picture of the drawings she did for two days of the conference. Click to enlarge. Drawn to Learn   I didn’t realize that this is now an official profession with meetings and titles. Even while we were talking, someone came up to ask Jackie about illustrations like this for video projects. She specializes in meeting artwork like this, but she gave him a referral to someone who specializes in the video side of the business. If you were not at the conference, a lot of the components here won’t make sense. But to those who sat through presentations, these are great reminders of what we saw and heard from the screen. (Did you know the unicorn is

Back at the vendor hall . . . I talked to four folks about taking your business to the next level. Two of them are directly in sales and marketing (helping you with S&M), one who helps you generate reports to make more sales, and an industry organization you should absolutely be involved with.   Ken Goldstein is with Choice Technologies. They are an MSP with a successful sales process – and they’re willing to help you increase your sales. They have developed an assessment system to help you analyze prospect networks and develop a sales proposal based on the findings. Find out more at www.choicetech.com.   Matthew Koenig is with RapidFire Tools. RapidFire Tools provides network auditing reports that are both big and beautiful. Here Matthew talks about the compliance assessments you can run with RapidFire Tools. This includes PCI, HIPAA, and general security. More info at www.rapidfiretools.com. Karl and Raj   Raj Khera is with Presstacular. They help you automate getting out a newsletter every week, or

While in DC for the MAX 2015 conference, I wandered down to the vendor hall. Of course I took my trusty recorder along for the stroll. Here are three quick interviews with vendors I met.   Carl Banzhof from iScanOnline talked about “data breach intelligence.” Basically, they use a host-based agent to search for sensitive data. In addition to the places where you know you have data (e.g., the database), iScanOnline looks at PDF and Excel reports that were generated from a database, but now those reports are stored on local PCs and in Dropbox accounts. In addition to cataloging data that might be where it doesn’t belong, the tool also checks to see whether a breach has occurred and calculates the estimated cost of that breach. You can request a 14 day free trial on their web site at www.iscanonline.com.   Jim Lippie from Clarity Intelligence Platform talks about “turn-key automated analytics as a service” platform. Basically, that’s a tool that looks at how their data is moving around inside their business (bot

I always love working with Joe Panettieri. He’s a very smart guy, very fun to talk to, and totally tuned into the channel.So I had to grab him for a quick podcast when I saw him in DC this week. Joe Penettieri at MAX Joe and his partner Amy Katz run After Nines, Inc., a consulting company. And they’ve been working on a new project. In fact, they’re going to announce it and launch in a few days. I knew Joe wouldn’t give me the full scoop, but I got some hints. Joe’s using the hashtag #E2E so you can look for that on Twitter, etc. The official announcement is Tuesday, September 15th. In the meantime, here’s a teaser podcast.   Check out the After Nines Blog at http://www.afternines.com/news/ And follow Joe on Twitter at https://twitter.com/joepanettieri   UPDATE: The Site is Now Live Visit my Small Biz Thoughts blog for the details: ChannelE2E Launch Promised to Walk You to The Exit and the new adventure is . . . Channel e2e – https://www.channele2e.com   Listen Now: Listen to the Podcast.

I love the ChannelPro SMB Forums. There’s always something new and different going on. Even the panels change from city to city. Here’s a quick report from the ChannelPro SMB Forum in Chicago last week. You can still sign up for the last show of the year – November 3rd in New York / New Jersey. See http://events.channelpronetwork.com for more details.   In this podcast, I interview Erick Simpson and Todd Haugland.   Erick Simpson Erick Simpson is the VP and CIO, of SPC International – see http://www.spc-intl.com. Erick was one of the panel members on Cloud Services and bundling. He also made a presentation on “Value Pricing.” I asked what that is and Erick explained. Instead of taking costs plus x%, value pricing focuses on identifying the client’s pain and pricing services with client pain relief in mind. Note that this is a different kind of sales process, and is focused on clients who approach technology from a strategi perspective. Luckily, Erick is convinced that anyone can learn this process. For mor