Nothing Happens
by Itself
Copyright © 2023 Karl W. Palachuk
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Hello Karl,
It's Real! It's Live! Today's the Day!
My latest book is out. Well, at least the PDF version is out. The other formats are coming soon.
We only have one minor glitch. And the party involved is earning themselves a mention in my next book - on customer service. Bottom line: They upgraded their systems and misspelled company name in the new system. So that broke things for a while.
Their automated system promises a three-business -day response. BUT then, every single page I visit has a pop-up asking me if my self-service browsing has solved the problem so they can close the ticket.
The customer service irony is that I was highly motivated to close all browser windows and stop trying to educate myself.
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Balance the Automation of Service!
We need to be hyper-sensitive to the fact that not all automation is good! More specifically, not all automation is good for the client relationship.
Automation needs to augment the personal contact - not replace it !!!
In my class on Customer Service, I ask the question, "Is this automation good for you or the client, or both?" In a perfect world, the answer is both. But since you are the one paying for the automation, you will be heavily tempted to implement automations that are only good for you.
. . . We'll return to this topic in future newsletters. But just pay attention to the client's side of this experience. The Golden Rule of customer service is really just the Gold Rule:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
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Anyway,
The book is available!
Here's how you can get it:
1) PDF. You can buy the PDF version right now. Head over to https://store.smallbizthoughts.com to check it out and download right away - with all the additional downloads.
2) Paper, Kindle, epub. Coming soon. We expect to have all these formats available in October. If you pre-order now, you'll be the first to receive the new formats when they're available. Same link.
3) In the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community. Download the PDF now for free inside the community. All members can download the PDF now. Other formats coming soon. Go to
https://www.smallbizthoughts.org/member_content/workbook-the-it-consultants-year-of-intention/.
4) Take the Class Based on the The Book - free inside the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community. We meet two weeks in November and two weeks in December. We'll go through the book and begin the process planning your 2024 - with intention!
Free to members:
https://www.smallbizthoughts.org/event-calendar/year-of-intention-class-and-breakout/
Non-Members: Just join the community.
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Taking My Grand Baby to Australia
Okay, not quite.
Wayne Small from the SMB IT Pros conference said he "fully expects" to see pictures of Emma work their way into my slides. So, I thought about it for seven seconds and started rebuilding my slides.
I always love visiting Australia. If it wasn't so many time zones away, I'd spend a lot more time there. Some day, I honestly hope to spend a month with my center of operations in Melbourne while I visit all the other cities from there.
. . . and someday, my daughter will let me take the real Emma with me.
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Quick Look at the New Member Level
Small Biz Thoughts Members - You got an upgrade
All current members of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community have been moved up to the Community Plus level. Your price will not change. But we are giving your three free certification exams over at our sister site, IT Service Provider University. Plus, of course, you get access to ALL 5-week courses and all new books published by Great Little Book for no additional charge. See above.
The New Membership Level . . . includes all the books, resources, downloads, checklists, trainings, and community Zoom calls inside the SBT Technology Community. It includes just on course per year. The main differences are:
- The price will be $799 per year
- Membership includes ONE 5-week course and one certification exam
We know that some people don't have the time to take five, ten, fifteen, or twenty classes per year. But they CAN take advantage of massive downloads, books, audio programs, and checklists. And the can manage to take one class per year. So this will be a good fit for them.
The new membership officially launches December 1st. See all the details in my blog here: https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/2023/10/small-biz-thoughts-community-biggest.html.
Please email us if you have any questions: karlp@smallbizthoughts.com or karas@smallbizthoughts.com.
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Tid Bits . . .
Speaking of Australia . . . I was VERY happy to hang out with Community Builder Supreme Nigel Moore for a couple days. Nigel was in California to take his daughters to monster rock concert.
But as long as he was in the state, he decided to attend the CMX conference for community builders - and he invited me along (and bought me a ticket).
The conference was pretty good. It gave us lots of prompts to discuss how our communities are handling various things. But it was also a great time to reminisce about how we first met - 12 years ago!
We also enjoyed introducing each other as our "most vicious rival" and sometimes collaborator. When I think about my so-called competitors in this industry, I'm happy to say it's a long list of people I love hanging out with. Nigel is certainly at the top of that list.
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I head to Australia on the 18th. So I'm scurrying about to make sure I get the book launch completed and classes lined up for the next month. Please follow my romping through Oceana on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/karlpalachuk/.
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Check out our newest course over at ITSPU: Profit First for MSPs. Details below and in the interview video. You will love it!
In all the hubbub, don't miss the recent blog post on the Four Dimension of Customer Service. See link below.
Please send me your calendar updates for this year or next!
That's it for now. Have a great week.
:-)
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Join me live at . . .
- Beerfest - October in Perth, Australia
- SMB IT Pro Conference - October 27-28 in Melbourne, Australia
- MSP Rescue - November 29th in SoCal
- ASCII event - December 7 in Waikiki, HI
- Karl's 2024 State of the Nation report for SMB IT - Register Now
Links below in the events calendar - or at WhereInTheWorldIsKarl.com.
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ALL NEW Class Stars October 24th
Profit First for MSPs
Taught by Lori Hardtke
MSP and Certified Profit First Professional
- Five Tuesdays
- October 24th - November 21st
Register Now - Only $399*
(Only $349 with code below)
Learn how to break through to a 6-figure salary and build a profitable and valuable MSP business. You’ll learn the benefits of having multiple bank accounts and how to make financial business decisions by simply looking at your bank account balances.
Running and growing a business can be one of the most rewarding things you do in your life…it can also be one of the most frustrating and challenging endeavors you embark on. As an IT business owner myself, an educator, and a certified Profit First Professional, it’s my mission to help business owners of any size eliminate debt, prioritize profits, provide clarity, and reduce financial stress.
Can You Relate To Any Of These?
- You run your business paycheck to paycheck
- You are stressed out every month worrying about how you’ll pay all the bills, your employees and/or consultants.
- You shuffle money from your personal account to your business thinking you’ll pay yourself back in the next month or two or ten.
- You, the business owner, don’t pay yourself a respectable salary if at all, or you wait until the end of the year to see how much profit you made
- You don’t want to learn or understand how to read your financial statements
- You see a decent profit at year end (from your Profit & Loss Statement) but wondering why that amount of money isn’t in your bank account
- You keep thinking you just need “1 more big client” or “Better PSA, better tools” or “A sales person, another tech, etc.” and then the money will come pouring in
- You want a sustainable, profitable business month after month, year after year
- You want your staff (W2 and/or 1099) to have a vested interest in the success of your business
- You dream of having no A/R, no debt, and cash in the bank.
- You want to be insanely profitable!
If you answered Yes to any or all the above, then you need Profit First!
Lori Hardtke would be honored to help you pave your way to financial freedom. Sign up now!
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Only $399 - only $349 with code
Top Take-aways:
- Breaking through to a 6-figure salary
- Avoiding burnout and building a business that serves you
- Recognizing and eliminating unnecessary expenses
- Learning how to pay off debt and saying good-bye forever
- Funding your retirement account year after year
PLUS lots more.
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Here are the specifics of what you'll learn, week by week:
Unit 1 Why Profit First and How It Creates Predictable Profits
Unit 2 Determining CAPs & TAPS and Creating Allocation Rhythm
Unit 3 Cutting Expenses, Learning How to Pay Off Debt
Unit 4 Disbursing Quarterly Bonuses and Owner Tax Reimbursement
Unit 5 Funding Your Retirement Account & Creating Stronger Money Management Habits
Delivered by Lori Hardtke, MSP, Certified Profit First Professional, Peer Advisor and Coach. Lori has been an MSP for many years and lives and runs her MSP remotely (in Hawaii) for clients in 7 different states with no full-time employees.
Includes five weeks of webinar classes with related handouts, assignments, and "office hours" with the instructor.
Includes five weeks of webinar classes with related handouts, assignments, and “office hours” with the instructor.
This course is intended for business owners or finance managers.
(The title “Profit First” used with permission.)
ITSP University Certification:
Meets Certification Requirements for:
This class will be recorded. Each unit is generally posted within 24 hours of the live class. These recorded units will become the On-Demand class and you’ll have lifetime access to it.
Register Now - Only $399*
Save $50 with code above
Note: * Members of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community attend at no additional charge. See details in the Community
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All the Resources That Are Fit to Print | |
Recent Blog Posts, Podcasts, and Videos | |
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Small Biz Thoughts Blog:
SMB Community Podcast - New episodes drop every Thursday
National Society of IT Service Providers News Blog
Relax Focus Succeed:
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Community News
SmallBizThoughts.org
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Join us every Thursday
9 AM Pacific / Noon Eastern
All members welcome.
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Great SBT Roundtable posted: Jayson Duncan on Using Storytelling Your Marketing
See the Community/Roundtables menu for details, recording, and transcript.
Jayson Duncan is the founder and Chief Storyteller of Miller Farm Media. Helping your marketing efforts increase revenue. From marketing strategy, branding, website design, cinematic award-winning video production, and digital advertising to social media management on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
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NOTE: We will not have a Roundtable on Thursday, November 2nd as I'm traveling. But we WILL have a regular all-member Zoom call. Jeff Ponts has agree to lead the discussion and we always get a good crowd. Please join us!
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Here's the last Community News video: | |
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I'm not sure what these are supposed to be. They're ceramic and about one foot in diameter. I think they look like eyeballs. There's a hole as if they're planters, but the hole's at an angle.
This is not in the Halloween aisle. Ideas?
:-)
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What's Here?
This calendar lists two kinds of things: LIVE in-person events from any organization that focuses on the SMB consulting community; and MY events, whether live, webinar, etc.
If you have live events on your calendar that may be useful to others in the SMB Community, please let us know. We'd be happy to list them.
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October
XChange Best of Breed Conference 2023
October 9-10
Atlanta, GA
More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/events
MSSP Alert Live
Oct 9-11
Washington, DC
More Info: https://msspalertlive.com/2023
XChange Emea
October 10-11
Amsterdam, Netherlands
More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/xchange
ChannelPro Summit
Oct. 10-11
Atlanta (Southeast)
More Info: https://events.channelpronetwork.com/channelpro-smb-forum-2023-atlanta
ITO Compass
October 13-14
Chicago, IL
More Info: https://www.itocompass.com
NexGen 2023
October 15-18
Houston , TX
More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/events
Acronis #Cyberfit Summit 2023
Oct. 16-18
Miami, FL
More Info: https://promo.acronis.com/summit-2023-pre-register.html
Nerdio Training Camp
Oct 17
Dallas, TX
More Info: https://getnerdio.com/nerdio-training-camp/#trainingregister
NexGen Security Workshop 2023
October 18
Orlando, FL
More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/events
SMB TechFest Q4
October 19
Anaheim, CA
More Info: https://www.smbtechfest.com/registration.asp
ASCII Edge 2023
October 18 & 19
Washington, D.C.
More Info: https://events.ascii.com/
XChange MSP
October 19
London, England
More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/xchange
Beerfest with Karl
- October 2023
- Perth, Australia
More Info: Details to be announced !!!
Join me Live in Perth!
SMB IT Professionals National Conference
October 27-28
Melbourne, Australia
More Info: https://www.smbitpro.org/conference-2023/
Join me Live!!
Channel Futures Leadership Summit
Oct. 30-Nov. 2
Miami Beach
More Info: https://www.channelfutures.com/channel-events
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December
Growcon
Dec 3-6
Clearwater, FL
Women of the Channel Leadership Summit East 2023
December 4-5
New York, NY
ASCII Navigate in Hawaii !!!
Dec. 7th
Waikiki, HI
Join Me Live in Hawaii!
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Quarterly
Dec 7-8
Phoenix, AZ
Nerdio Training Camp
Dec 12-13
Los Angeles, CA
:-)
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January 2024
Karl's 15th Annual
State of the Nation Address for SMB IT
Join me Live Online!
February 2024
Send us your updates
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March
XChange Orlando
March 3-5
Orlando, FL
XChange UK
March
UK
Channel Partners Conference & MSP Summit
March 11-14
Las Vegas, NV
Join me live!
Midsize Enterprise Summit IT Security 2024
March 18-19, 2024
Indianapolis, IN
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April 2024
Send us your updates
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May
MSP GeekCon
May 21-23
Orlando, FL
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June 2024
XChange Best of Breed
June 2024
East Essex, England
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July
XChange Security
July 15-17
Dallas, TX
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Note: If you know of any in-person event for SMB Consultants, please send info to karlp@greatlittlebook.com. | |
Check out all my "Channels" | |
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Small Biz Thoughts is a subsidiary of Great Little Book Publishing Co., Inc. | |
View this and previous newsletters at
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AI Transparency Statement
We do not use artificial intelligence apps in the writing of any content for this newsletter. Some of our royalty-free paid graphics might use AI-generated images. But all of the writing is by Karl W. Palachuk, or others as noted.
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