Nothing Happens
by Itself
Copyright © 2023 Karl W. Palachuk
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Hello Karl,
Welcome to November!
And the true year-end drive to the finish.
Well, I'm back in the so-called real world. My brain will be a bit foggy for a few days, but I expect a quick recovery.
The time difference to Fiji is 19 hours. But another way to look at it is that it's really five hours in the other direction. Then the daylight savings move makes it only four hours. So it's not bad.
More importantly: I got a good brain reset, so I'm ready to jump into a lot of great Fall activities.
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Community, Community, Community
Regular readers will know that I love to travel. For me, there are three primary reasons for traveling. First, I enjoy seeing new places and new things. I particularly like encountering new-to-me strange animals. Second, I put a premium on relaxing my brain. Travel makes this easier because I can disappear more than usual and just be alone.
And, third, I love connecting with communities everywhere. "Community" is a true focal point for me. Luckily, communities are everywhere and easy to create. Here are thoughts on four kinds of communities I frequently find when I travel.
Established communities are the easiest to find. In my recent trip, the Australian SMB IT Professionals brought me in to speak at their conference. They are a well established community. In fact, many new attendees were surprised at the strength of the friendships and connections at the conference. This community exists above and within the formal infrastructure of the SMB IT Pro organization. I'm sure you've seen similar communities at any conferences you've attended multiple times.
Impromptu communities spring up along the way while doing something else. I experienced this in Perth. I met up with three local partners, two of whom were not actually connected with each other until we shared a beer downtown. It's always good to meet new people and get some good ideas as well as a different perspective.
My community puts on my own events from time to time. I did not host any events on the recent trip, but a lot of people reminded me that we met way back in 2014 when I organized a roadshow through Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Auckland. Events like this help me to participate more fully in the established communities and impromptu communities mentioned above.
Finally, there are organic communities that spring up along the way. These are the kind of natural connections that spring up in travel when you find yourself sharing a table or bar with strangers. This is different from the impromptu communities mentioned above. Impromptu communities spring from some kind of common ground or previous connection.
Organic communities spring up with total strangers who don't (at first) know whether they have anything in common. I was pleased to meet lots of total strangers in Fiji. This was made possible, in part, because the small resort I stayed at encourage people to share tables and activities. So I didn't have to try to engage strangers.
Anyway . . . Because I travel with a "community" filter, I tend to find a lot of communities along the way. What's your experience?
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Class Starts Thursday !!!
Small Biz Thoughts Community Members: Download your free PDF or ePub/Kindle version - and sign up for the class designed around the book.
No charge - it's included in your membership!
Everyone else - grab your copy now. The PDF version is flying off the e-bookshelf. Get it now for only $29.95 at https://store.smallbizthoughts.com.
Members: Please do yourself a favor and sign up for this four-part class. I 100% guarantee we will not waste your time!
You may or may not choose to go on and be part of the new Breakout program. But you'll have a better idea of what we're up to if you attend the class - plus you'll be ahead of the crowd when it comes to planning for 2024.
Members Click Here
Non-members: If you want to join the class, just join the Community. As American Expressed used to say: Membership has its priviledges.
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Tid Bits . . .
We added some 2024 events to the calendar - including the ChannelPro events. Check 'em out and send me your updates.
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Travel means writing!
I've been outlining and gathering notes on my next book for over a year. The National Society of IT Service Providers was quite a lot of extra work for me, so I did not get much writing done in 2023.
But then comes a long travel opportunity. Two very long days committed to travel, two weeks on warm beaches. And . . . the writing began to flow. I have the outline 99% complete. Three chapters are done. Five more are in solid draft condition.
My "process" is a little different each time. But it generally takes a couple years to consolidate my vision and messaging for a book. Then, the writing can begin. And so, I hope you'll see my new book hit the shelves in mid-2024.
I just need to take more vacations.
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Don't forget to scroll down and view the latest videos. New Success video every Friday.
That's it for now. Have a great week.
:-)
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Join me live at . . .
- ASCII event - December 7 in Waikiki, HI
- Karl's 2024 State of the Nation report for SMB IT - Register Now
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 two weeks. Sign up, catch up, and join Lori live tomorrow.
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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Members: All New Class - and the new Breakout Program
Start November 9th. Sign Up Now!
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Ready to Launch: Community Breakouts
IF you've been paying attention, then you know that the new book The IT Consultant's Year of Intention is free to you in the community. But we want this to be a lot more than a book. My motto is . . .
Nothing Happens by Itself
And that's why everything we do is focused on taking action to make changes in your business (for the better). Our courses have homework so you are prompted to take action. We produce workbooks and checklists to promote taking action.
And so . . . The new book is also a new class inside the SBT Technology Community.
100% free to members. 100% not available to non-members.
Get all the juicy details (and register) here:
https://www.smallbizthoughts.org/class-and-breakout-based-on-the-new-book-year-of-intention/
The special class is schedule for four sessions:
- November 9
- November 16
- December 7
- December 14
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In each class, we'll go through some of the book and then have "Breakout" session to help you begin planning your 2024 - with Intention. The Breakout will be something like a peer group or mastermind group - but with a defined time frame.
Our new Breakout programs will be very focused on a specific topic - but without the open-ended long-term commitment of most peer groups or mastermind groups. We're using the Year of Intention book to kick off the Breakout program.
If you just want the class - GREAT. Sign up. I promise you'll get great value from it.
If you want peer feedback and a safe space for brainstorming with other IT consultants, that's also GREAT. Jump in and join us.
Those who choose to join the Breakout program will continue to meet for the first few months of 2024. So, you get to customize the experience you get.
Bottom line today: The first class is coming up in a few weeks, so sign up today. You don't have to commit to anything now. But we'd love to have you in class.
Note: All of this is 100% free to members! So jump in.
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Here's the last Community News video: | |
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This was my dining area at Club Fiji. Also, the place for Kava ceremonies, fire dancing, and buffets.
It's pretty relaxing.
:-)
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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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July
XChange Security
July 15-17
Dallas, TX
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November 2024
ChannelPro SMB Forum
Nov. 12-13, 2024
Los Angeles, CA
Stay tuned for info: https://events.channelpronetwork.com/
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Note: If you know of any in-person event for SMB Consultants, please send info to karlp@greatlittlebook.com. | |
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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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