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Nothing Happens
by Itself
Copyright © 2024 Karl W. Palachuk
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Hello Karl, -
Happy Presidents Day . . . and welcome to today's trip down the rabbit hole. One of my degrees is in English, so I started twitching when I went looking for a simple graphic for today's US holiday.
The actual holiday is Washington's Birthday, but that has fallen out of use in favor of all presidents. I'm not going to fight that fight. So how do we write this unofficial name?
- President's Day would designate that it belongs to one president. Probably George Washington and probably not Millard Filmore.
- Presidents' Day would designate that it belongs to multiple presidents.
- I chose no apostrophe since it is a day named after multiple (or all the presidents) but doesn't actually belong to any of them.
Believe it or not, there's a very entertaining book on punctuation entitled Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. You can find it on Amazon or other bookstores. The author is known for walking around London with a magic marker on the end of a long stick, correcting the punctuation on signage.
Our office is closed today. I hope you get some time off.
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Version 4.0 Released!
An All-New 68-Point Checklist
Now 13 pages. FREE. No credit card required.
Over the years, the my 68-point checklist has been used by thousands of IT Professionals to begin their network audits, provide monthly maintenance of client computers, and generally keep client computers tuned up and working great. Best of all, this checklist is FREE for the taking.
You can see the details in this blog post.
View the video here with tips on how to use it.
Or just head to Store.Smallbizthoughts.com to download now.
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Sneak Peek . . .
Big Sale at Our Store
When something comes around only once every four years, we should celebrate, right? Right!
February 29th, we're holding a big 29% off sale. To take advantage of this, just log on to ...
store.smallbizthoughts.com
On Thursday, February 29th.
This is a one-day-only sale. No limits.
This is a great opportunity to stock up on books for Mother's Day, Christmas, and all the birthdays in your family! Mark your calendar now and come back to visit us for the sale.
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Misc. Notes
The National Society of IT Service Providers had their quarterly meeting last week. In case you missed it, you can view the recording now at https://nsitsp.org/meetings/.
And if you're not a member, you should join for only $150/year. That's super cheap, and every membership helps. Join us today.
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At the end of this month, Im headed to the big ASCII Edge event in Costa Mesa , CA. If you're going, plan to look me up.
And if you're going to be at Channel Partners in Vegas in March, please sign up for a free coaching session with ChannelWise. Amy Babinchak, Jeff Ponts, and I will be offering free coaching sessions on behalf of the National Society. We would love to see you there. Details soon.
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Heads Up:
Free Webinar for IT Consultants
Registration is now open.
Register at https://mspwebinar.com.
This is my first public discussion of using a "Systems" approach to running an IT company. I hinted at it in my State of the Nation Address.
All too often, our love for measuring things goes too far. I'm a big believer that you should measure frequently but change infrequently. This is particularly true in small business. I love this quote:
“If management sets quantitative goals and makes people’s work dependent on achieving them, they will probably do so – even if they have to destroy the company to do it.” - W. Edwards Deming
As a coach, I am always asked what I think "this" or "that" measurement should be in an IT company or MSP:
- Revenue per employee.
- Profit per contract.
- Effective margins.
- Response times.
- Ratio of managed service revenue to total service revenue.
- And on and on.
Measuring all of these is good to the extent that it sheds light on your operations. If it just compares you to some mythical "norm" out in the universe, who cares? Ask yourself: IF you had the number or equation you seek, AND you can identify a target or the industry average, what good would it do for your business?
Tell me a story: If the ratio of revenue per technician per year moved up or down in 2024, what would you do with that information? How would you change your business? What does thast number mean inside your company? What decisions does it help you make?
Most business owners, especially in small business, have a very good idea about what's going on in their business and how things are going. How does measuring an arbitrary number you found on a blog post help you increase clarity about your business?
The big problem comes when we want to transform a measure into a goal. And, all too often, the goals are not something a technician (or sales person or front office employee) has any control over. So we need to be very careful not to improperly motivate employees regarding measures that are really the responsibility of management.
Block out April 10th and register today.
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That's the news for the week.
Lots of blog posts and videos this week. Check them out below.
Have a great week.
:-)
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Join me live at . . .
- ASCII Edge - Feb. 28-29, 2024 in Costa Mesa, CA
- Channel Partners Conference - March 10-13 in Las Vegas, NV
- Coffee Coaching with ChannelWise at the big Channel Partners Conference - March 13th in Vegas, Baby.
- Measuring Success: The Unpopular Truth about KPIs, SLAs, and SMB IT - April 10th - on Zoom
- SMB IT Professionals - Oct. 25-26, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia
- ChannelPro SMB Forum - Nov. 12-13, 2024 in Los Angeles, CA
Links below in the events calendar - or at WhereInTheWorldIsKarl.com.
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You only missed one week. Sign up now. Catch up, and join us live tomorrow.
Managing Your Service Board
- Setup, Core SOPs, and Daily Procedures
Taught by Karl W. Palachuk
Author, Speaker, Blogger
- Five Tuesdays
- Feb 13 - Mar 12
Register Now - Only $399*
This course covers the most important pieces of making your PSA (Professional Services Administration) service board work effectively. Your PSA is the brain center of your entire operation.
Most Managed Service Providers don't use their PSA systems efficiently. In fact, most of them only use 10-20% of the capabilities of their PSA. This costs you money because you have the tool to run everything in your business more effectively. But if you don't put the right information into the tool, then you can't get the reports you need to improve your business.
This course covers the daily operation of a managed service business - or any IT shop with a service board and a one or more technicians who execute the service. It assumes you have a service board or PSA (Professional Services Administration) and a service manager.
Whether you sell “break fix” or flat fee services, a service board will take your company to the next level – if you use it right. In addition to covering setup and core standard operating procedures, we'll get into the "nitty gritty" of running a service board and managing the service department.
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Only $399
Which PSA?
I used ConnectWise for four years in my business. Then I switched to Autotask and used that for five years. Eventually, I moved to LogicNow and used that for more than five years.
On top of all that, I've worked closely with coaching client who have used all of these products. This course is intended to apply to all PSAs. I will point out areas where differences are most obvious.
You will learn
- How tickets should flow into, through, and off of the service board
- How to set up the core components of a service board
- Priorities
- Statuses
- Workflows
- Time Estimates
- The most important processes and procedures for making the board work effectively once it's set up
- Introducing new processes to you employees
- Getting clients to understand the new processes
- Time tracking the right way
- The most important reports you need to run
- Every Day
- Every Week
- Every Month
- When it's time for client renewals
- Avoiding the biggest pitfalls with service board management
- Building an Action Plan that works
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Only $399
Top Take-aways:
- Understand How the Components of Service Work Together
- Managing all the Time in Your Service Business
- Defining the Perfect Service Ticket
- The Most Important Reports You Need to Run
- Building Excellent Customer Service
PLUS lots more.
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Here are the specifics of what you'll learn, week by week:
Unit 1 Core Components / Building Blocks of a Great Service Board
Unit 2 Core Processes & Procedures for Success / Time Tracking the Right Way
Unit 3 Implementation and Daily Processes
Unit 4 A Day in the Life of the Service Desk / Policies that Drive Profitability
Unit 5 Build and Maintain a Well-Oiled Machine / Getting the Details Right
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Delivered by Karl W. Palachuk, blogger and author of the very popular "SOP Friday" posts at https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com.
Includes five weeks of webinars with related handouts, assignments, and "office hours" with the instructor. All classes are recorded for download.
This course is intended for business owners and managers. It is particularly useful for the Service Manager or Operations Manager.
ITSP University Certification:
Meets Certification Requirements for:
- Management
- Service Manager
- Technician
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*
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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Member Notes
We had a great Breakout session last Thursday. Remember, all community members are welcome to join us.
If you're interested in joining us to talk about setting some big goals for 2024, you are welcome. We'll meet again March 21st after the regular Community meeting.
Our breakouts are a special hybrid of
- Content
- Member engagement, and
- Peer group.
See details and member access here.
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Members: Grab that Free Training!
We have a great co-marketing program with IT Service Provider University. And you can engage at any level you choose.
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Community Members receive one free 5-week course each year from our list of twenty-five courses.
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Community Plus Members can access ALL twenty-five courses free of charge.
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Team Members can also engage with me to do a deep-dive on the live classes. We have two teams doing this right now with the Managing Your Service Board class.
If you have questions, or want to learn more, send me email to me at : karlp@smallbizthoughts.com.
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Here's the last Community News video: | |
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Here's my first woodworking project in many years. Not great, but decent from a distance. It's a player piano squirrel feeder. My daughter was quick to point out that this would live in my yard. :-)
I knew my skills would be atrophied after a couple decades. And I had a to a few tools and supplies. What I didn't expect is that I have to limit my time on this hobby because of muscle fatigue related to my rheumatoid arthritis. But that's just another reminder of the primary rule of RA:
Use it or lose it.
Stay tuned to my Facebook page for a squirrel cam.
:-)
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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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March
XChange Orlando
March 3-5
Orlando, FL
More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/xchange
VSLive!
March 3-8
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://vslive.com/events/las-vegas-2024/home.aspx
Cloud Expo Europe
March 6-7
London, England
More Info: https://www.cloudexpoeurope.com/
Right of Boom
March 6-8
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://www.rightofboom.com/event/22f53824-56a7-4e87-9dc4-c25d1d93baf7/summary
MSP Summit
March 11-12
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://channelpartnersconference.com/msp-summit
XChange UK
March 6-7
UK
More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/xchange
Channel Partners Conference & MSP Summit
March 11-14
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://www.channelfutures.com/channel-events
Join me live!
Gartner Data & Analytics Summit
March 11-13
Orlando, FL
More Info: https://www.gartner.com/en/conferences/na/data-analytics-us
Microsoft Envision AI Tour
March 12
Paris, France
More Info: https://envision.microsoft.com/en-US/paris
NVIDIA GTC
March 17-21
San Jose, CA
More Info: https://www.nvidia.com/gtc/
Datacenter Dynamics Converged
March 18-19
New York City, NY
More Info: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/dcd-connect-live/connect-nyc/2024/
CloudFest
March 18-21
Rust, Germany
More Info: https://www.cloudfest.com/
Midsize Enterprise Summit IT Security 2024
March 18-19, 2024
Indianapolis, IN
More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/events
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon
March 19-23
Paris, France
More Info: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/
ASCII Edge 2024
March 20 & 21
Houston, TX
More Info: https://events.ascii.com/
Days of Knowledge
March 21-22
Birmingham, England
More Info: https://www.directionsforpartners.com/conferences-and-events/days-of-knowledge/uk-2024
Gartner CIO Leadership Forum
March 25-26
Hollywood, FL
More Info: https://www.gartner.com/en/conferences/na/cio-us-east
Microsoft Fabric Community Conference
March 26-28
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://fabricconf.com/#!/
MSP Rescue from SMB Nation
March 27
Los Alamitos, CA
More Info: https://msprescue.pro/
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April 2024
Fortinet Accelerate
April 1-5
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://www.fortinetaccelerate.com/home/3861565
Intel Vision
April 8-9
Phoenix, AZ
More Info: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/events/on-event-series/vision.html
Google Cloud Next
April 9-11
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://cloud.withgoogle.com/next
North American Cloud & Collaboration Summit
April 9-11
Dallas, TX
More Info: https://www.collabsummit.org/
Special Webinar with Karl:
Measuring Success: The Unpopular Truth about KPIs, SLAs, and SMB IT - April 10th - on Zoom
April 10th
On Zoom
Register Now: https://mspwebinar.com
Join me Live online
ChannelPro LIVE
Apr. 10-11, 2024
Orlando, FL
More info: https://events.channelpronetwork.com/
Days of Knowledge
April 12-13
Odense, Denmark
More Info: https://www.directionsforpartners.com/conferences-and-events/days-of-knowledge/nordic-2024
Directions
April 14-17
San Diego, CA
More Info: https://directionsna.com/
Black Hat Asia
April 16-19
Singapore
More Info: https://www.blackhat.com/asia-24/
ASCII Edge 2024
April 17 & 18
Newark, NJ
More Info: https://events.ascii.com/
eMerge Americas
April 18-19
Miami Beach, FL
More Info: https://emergeamericas.com/
TDWI Transform
April 28-May 3
Chicago, IL
More Info: https://na.eventscloud.com/ereg/newreg.php?eventid=777592&_gl=1*x88u25*_gcl_au*NjI4NDAyOTQxLjE3MDE3Mjk1NjI.
Kaseya Connect Global
April 29-May 2
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://www.kaseyaconnect.com/
Microsoft 365 Conference
April 30-May 3
Orlando, FL
More Info: https://www.m365conf.com/#!/
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May
Red Hat Summit
May 6-9
Denver, CO
More Info: https://www.redhat.com/en/summit
RSA Conference
May 6-9
San Francisco, CA
More Info: https://www.rsaconference.com/usa
ServiceNow Knowledge
May 7-9
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://knowledge.servicenow.com/events/k23/getupdates
SMB TechFest
May 9-10
Irvine, CA
More Info: https://www.smbtechfest.com/showdates.asp
European Collaboration Summit
May 14-16
Wiesbaden, Germany
More Info: https://collabsummit.eu/
Gartner Application Innovation & Business Solutions Summit
May 14-16
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://www.gartner.com/en/conferences/na/applications-us
ChannelPro LIVE
May 15-16, 2024
Baltimore, MD
More info: https://events.channelpronetwork.com/
Dell Technologies World
May 20-23
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://www.dell.com/en-us/dt/events/delltechnologiesworld/2024/index.htm
IBM Think
May 20-23
Boston, MA
More Info: https://www.ibm.com/events/think
Microsoft Licensing Boot Camp
May 21-23
Atlanta, GA
More Info: https://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/members/get-training
Nutanix .NEXT
May 21-23
Barcelona, Spain
More Info: https://next2024.nutanix.com/
MSP GeekCon
May 21-23
Orlando, FL
More Info: https://www.mspgeekcon.com
ASCII Edge 2024
May 22 & 23
Denver, CO
More Info: https://events.ascii.com/
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June 2024
Cisco Live
June 2-6
Las Vegas, NV
More Info: https://www.ciscolive.com/global.html
Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit
June 3-5
National Harbor, MD
More Info: https://www.gartner.com/en/conferences/na/security-risk-management-us
ConnectWise IT Nation Secure
June 3-5
Orlando, FL
More Info: https://www.connectwise.com/theitnation/secure/cybersecurity-conference
VeeamON
June 3-5
Fort Lauderdale, FL
More Info: https://www.veeam.com/veeamon
Microsoft 365 Educon & PWRCON
June 3-7
Seattle, WA
More Info: https://pwrcon.com/
Infosecurity Europe
June 4-6
London, England
More Info: https://www.infosecurityeurope.com/
ChannelPro LIVE
Jun. 5-6, 2024
Columbus, OH
More info: https://events.channelpronetwork.com/
Databricks Data + AI Summit
June 10-13
San Francisco, CA
More Info: https://www.databricks.com/dataaisummit/
European Power Platform Conference
June 11-13
Brussels, Belgium
More Info: https://www.sharepointeurope.com/european-power-platform-conference/
North American Information Security Summit
June 16-18
Denver, CO
More Info: https://infosecurity-summit.com/
Commsverse
June 26-27
Weybridge, England
More Info: https://www.commsverse.com/
ASCII Edge 2024
June 26 & 27
Chicago, IL
More Info: https://events.ascii.com/
XChange Best of Breed
June 2024
East Essex, England
More Info: https://www.thechannelco.com/xchange
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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. | |
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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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