Smb Community Podcast By Karl W. Palachuk

New Year’s means one thing in business: Tax Season! My good friend Rayanne Buchianico joined me to talk about “all things tax” for 2018. We started off talking about 1099s and other reporting requirements. One of the interesting points Rayanne made is that some pieces of the process are not really required – at least not the way most of us think. This 30 minute interview covers taxes for sole proprietors, s-corps, and lots of related issues. Rayanne owns ABC Solutions in Clearwater, FL. She is an enrolled agent: A tax professional who is licensed to represent you before the IRS. She is also and MSP and and she specializes in helping other MSPs get their finances straight – and keep them that way. As strange as it sounds, we spent a lot of time talking about 1099 requirements. Basically, 1099s are good for YOU because they allow you to deduct those expenses from your taxes. But in order for you to do that, someone else (whoever receives the 1099) must then declare that money as income on their tax return. Quot

My friend and one-time business coach Josh Peterson  has agreed to run a new set of Peer Teams – based on the “Managed Services in a Month” approach to managed services. I hope you’re not too surprised to learn that Josh and I have very similar ideas about most things. Many of you have seen Josh speak at conferences or taken his classes from Bering McKinley or over at Great Little Seminar. This 30 minute interview covers the concept of Peer Teams, “opening your numbers,” and business improvement generally. Learn about what makes these groups Managed Services in a Month Peer Teams vs. any other peer group. What would an entire year of working on this philosophy look like? NOTE: Josh and I have also scheduled a Live webinar on January 17th to answer all your questions about the Managed Services in a Month Peer Teams. Register for that here: Live Q&A Webinar Registration.   Stuff Mentioned: Bering McKinley web site: www.beringmckinley.com Bering McKinley Big Game Sales and Service Retreat: https://beringmcki

My friend Brooke Ferguson decided to try running her business from Thailand. That was ten years ago and she’s still going  strong. Brooke is a Lifestyle and Business Coach. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aide! She started with a three month stint to see if she could really run her business abroad. Then she realized that not only *could* she, but she also thrived. That’s when she realized that she never had to return home if she didn’t want to. Over the years she has learned to navigate the world of business overseas, getting paid across international boundaries, and providing amazing service across all the time zones of the world. To assist her clients, Brooke has developed a massive training that includes 42 videos and worksheets. She has sold this in the past for $600. Now, as she describes it, she has completed all her “bucket list” items and is ready to operate at a much higher level. So she’s giving away this training in order to spread her business and best practices to a much wider audience. Please check

Josh Peterson has been a friend and mentor to me for many years. I am happy to interview him about his company and what he’s up to. Josh is the co-founder Bering McKinley, a consulting firm for MSP’s and IT Solution Providers. He has been in the IT Solution Provider arena for the last 15 years. First as an owner, then as a management consultant with Taylor Business Group for 8 years, and now as founder of Bering McKinley. Additionally Josh is a maniac for strong financial accounting practices being followed at business of all sizes. He believes, as Peter Drucker did: “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Josh has a deep respect for anyone who has the nerve to start their own business but also believes that only gets you so far. Sooner or later you have to take accountability for your business and perform at extraordinary levels to enjoy the lifestyle you deserve. In this interview, Josh talks about the Bering McKinley Peer Teams. Note – that’s not groups. Listen and find out why. Web site: www.beri

Lisa Hendrickson Lisa Hendrickson is “Call That Girl” – an Office 365 and Outlook specialist. In this 30 minute interview we cover her business strategy, supporting O365, migrating email to the cloud, SEO blogging, and much more. Lisa has grown a thriving business serving several audiences. She created the business to serve end users. But over time she’s found herself helping I.T. consultants figure out how to move Exchange email up to the cloud with Appriver’s Office 365 offering.   We have recently started selling Lisa’s great 7-video training set: Outlook Troubleshooting for Technicians. See http://www.smbbooks.com.   Check out the interview here: This interview is 30 minutes. Audio Listen to the Podcast.  

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/.