Nothing
Happens
by Itself
Copyright © 2023 Karl W. Palachuk
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Greetings!
The winter has been odd and disappointing for may people. People who wanted snow didn't get it. Some places (like Tahoe) got way too much. For me, the end of March traditionally represents the absolute end of rain. We shall see how that goes.
I hope you are having a good Spring - and all the sunshine you want.
And Happy Easter to everyone!
Please note - We've added more than a dozen new items on the calendar. Keep sending those updates!
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Priorities Are More than A Field in Your PSA
Two of my favorite aphorisms are:
- We're too busy mopping the floor to fix the roof.
and
- We never have time to do it right, but we always have time to do it over.
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Aside from being mildly amusing, both of these phrases shed some light on a major problem we face in IT: Wasting Time. Time is money, so wasting time means wasting money.
And if you're the business owner, wasting time means reducing you profit!
I was reminded of this topic because I recently recommended the book Making Work Visible by Dominica DeGrandis to a friend. He said, "You loaned that book to me. It's on my pile waiting to be read."
Again . . . funny, but not.
One of the most common conversations I have with coaching clients is about having too much work, and not being able to set priorities. Believe it or not, these are two sides of the same coin.
First, let's dispel a myth about "too much work." There is no such thing as too much work. There IS such a thing as too much work in progress. And there is such a thing as a completely disorganized pile of work that results in you (and your employees) spending too much time on the wrong kind of work.
There can never be too much work to do. Your to-do list allows you to go to work on Monday and know that you have a job. If you work from highest to lowest priority, and everyone is working on the right thing, then excess work is really insufficient capacity. You need to hire more labor, implement more automated processes, or do something to manage the excess demand.
So, when people say they have too much work, it really means that the work is not organized, the demands are not prioritized, and you're not putting appropriate attention managing the pile of work in front of you. Without rigorous priorities, there is almost no chance that you or your employees are working on the most important things that need to be done.
Second, let's dispel the myth that "everything" is high priority. You know what I'm going to say, so sing along with me: If everything's high priority, then nothing's high priority. IT consultants love to complain about this. That's where the line about mopping the floor comes in. You have to manage priorities. Then you can manage the work flow.
Managing priorities means you need to start with a list of priorities. I like a nice, three-tiered list that's really four-tiered. The highest priority is an emergency or P1. No human can set an emergency. Emergencies really do happen to you: The roof leaks onto your server; A client has a fire; Two hard drives fail at the same time; Email is not flowing companywide. Emergencies cause company-wide outages and the client is losing money.
After that, life is easier: High-Medium-Low or P2, P3, P4.
You can (and should) create a Priority Description cheat-sheet for clients and employees. I have examples in The Managed Services Operations Manual. Basically, describe why something is high, medium, or low priority. Give examples. Make it easy for both clients and employees to understand priorities. Give examples.
Sorry to tell you this, but it's just plain lazy to say that everything's high priority. You have to do the work to define priorities and then educate all stakeholders. Then you can organize that pile and manage employees. The really, really good news is: If everything is working on the highest priority job they do right now, they need a lot less management.
Anyway, if you want thorough look at how to organize your work, you might also add Making Work Visible to your reading pile.
:-)
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Please Join Asigra's Eric Simmons and Me
Please sign up today -
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Don't Be the Latest MSP Victim
Learn how new ransomware threats put your business at risk.
April 19, 2023
9:00 AM Pacific Time / Noon Eastern
Register Now:
Escape the ransomware attack loop!
You've got a "good" backup, but the backup has the ransomware that caused the restore in the fist place. Air-gapped and immutable backups can't help. What do you do?
Find out how to escape the loop. Join us April 19th.
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The SMB Community Podcast is All About YOU!
We focus on the community - the whole community. After a bit of research, we found that there's no shortage of podcasts that focus 100% on vendors and products and ways to help you find new offerings.
But there's very little attention on YOU - the community. We focus on all the things that make you successful. Sometimes that's vendors. But a lot of the time, it's also about the evolving market, the economy, and where managed services fits in the bigger picture.
We have a new segment, and YOU can be the star. Just upload your content. It might be a success story, client lesson, or a commentary about the IT market today. Whatever you want. If you're selling something, we'll ask you for a credit card. Otherwise, just upload.
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I'm headed back to Vegas . . .
I'll be at Channgel Partners in Vegas in May. See the calendar below.
And, thanks to ChannelWise, I'll be give out some free coaching. ChannelWise is a big supporter of NSITSP and they've organized a coaching room - and made room for some folks from NSITSP to hand out free advice.
If you're going to Channel Partners, look for the coaching room May 3rd. Sign up for a free 25 minute session with me - or any of the coaches.
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I hope you're having a good Spring. And that you have all the sunshine you want.
Your feedback on this newsletter is always welcome. And if you like, pass it on to a friend.
Have a great week!
:-)
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You only missed two weeks. Sign up. Catch up. Join me live Tomorrow!
Optimize Your Social Media Marketing and Advertising
Part of the "Social Media Super-Charge" Series for Small Business
Taught By: Karl W. Palachuk
- Five Tuesdays: March 21 - April 18, 2023
This course covers the key elements of designing, planning, and executing a modern social media strategy in the Small Business environment. We cover the use of social media for both marketing and sales.
Most small businesses "use" social media, but don't really have a strategy for using social media effectively. That strategy starts with understanding the strengths and weaknesses of various platforms. And it culminates with a unified approach to branding and how your company presents itself across a variety of platforms.
This course starts with a business-focused overview of social media marketing and sales. We discuss taking control of your brand and managing how you show up on the web. We present a strategy for creating and managing your overall branding across all social media. Finally, we do a deep-dive into automating and managing your social media presence going forward.
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Here are the specifics of what you'll learn, week by week:
Module 1: Introduction, Overview. Marketing vs. Sales
- The Plan of The Course
- Take-Aways And Goal-Setting
- What is Marketing?
- What is Sales?
- Developing a Funnel System
- Schedules – Manual and Automated
- Which Social Media are Best for You? (Including Reddit, Instagram, TikTok?)
- The Big, Big, Social Media Strategy
Module 2: Google, Apple, SEO, And Managing Your Company's Meta Data
- Meta Data Basics
- Taking “Control” Of Your Google, Apple, and Other Meta Data
- SEO Reality
- SEO Checklist
- Data Maintenance
- Organizing and Tracking Meta Data
- Meta Data in the Big Strategy
- Drill-Down: Choosing Social Media platforms
Module 3: Graphics Overview And Tools Management
- Graphics Overview
- Branding Basics
- A Storage Strategy
- Updates, Versions
- Graphics in the Big Strategy
Module 4 Automating Your Social Media Marketing
- The Benefits of Automation
- Pacing – Creation and Publishing
- Popular Tools
- Free vs. Paid
- Focus on Your Prime Social Medium
- Strategy, Planning, and Tracking
- Hiring/Outsourcing Assistance
- Automating Social Media in the Big Strategy
Module 5 When to Pay for Advertising and Tools
- Free - A Great Place to Start, and Often the Most Expensive Option
- Comparing Tools, Features, and Prices
- Start Small – Don’t Buy Everything You Find
- Get the Most from as Few Tools as Possible
- Avoid Trying to Do Everything and Measure Everything
- Measuring Your Success
- Social Blade
- Social Bluebook
- TubeBuddy
- HootSuite, etc.
- Paid Tools in the Big Strategy
... And More!
Includes five weeks of webinar classes with related handouts, assignments, and “office hours” with the instructor.
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.
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 |
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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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Selected Recent Videos and Webinars:
Our YouTube IT Consulting channel now has more than 660,000 views!
Subscribe today and don't miss a thing!
A quick guide to my Playlists:
- Total: Over 900 videos on the Small Biz Thoughts channel
- 360+ SOP videos
- 275+ Relax Focus Success videos
Plus . . .
- Training, Courses, Seminars on Managed Services
- Product Reviews
- and more
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Community News
SmallBizThoughts.org
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The SBT Members-Only Roundtable is Thursday. Join us!
Our special guest is Janice Burt - A long-time friend and true modern day renaissance woman. Among other things, Janice did the voice work for the audio book of the original Managed Services in a Month.
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Janice is an author, speaker, trainer, actor, and much more. She is a court-certified Spanish interpreter as well as a yoga instructor and voice-over talent.
Join us to learn a very interesting bit of trivia: Something Janice and I share in common.
Her most recent book (as far as I know) is Kicking the People-Pleasing Habit. We'll talk to her about her six-step approach to kicking this habit, and lots of other fun stuff.
Join us! Thursday at 9:00 AM Pacific.
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Here's the April Community News video: |
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Happy East...
What ?!!??
Found in the "Easter" aisle. I can't tell if it's a demon rabbit, a llama with big ears, or what. It's freaky enough to be an early Halloween mask. I might go back and buy it for that.
:-)
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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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April
ItaliaSec: IT Security Conference
April 4-5, 2023
Rome, Italy
The IT Sales And Marketing Boot Camp
April 11-14, 2023
Nashville, TN
HIMSS
April 17-21
Chicago, IL
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Webinar:
Don't Be the Latest MSP Victim!
Webinar with Karl and Asigra's CEO Eric Simmons
Free online
Register now
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ASCII Edge 2023
April 19 & 20
Dallas, TX
CyberSecurity Expo
April 20, 2023
Bristol, UK
Kaseya Connect IT Global
April 24-27, 2023
Las Vegas, NV
RSA Conference
Apr. 24-27, 2023
San Francisco, CA
TECHSPO New York
Apr 27-28, 2023
New York City, NY
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May
Channel Partners
May 1-4
Las Vegas, NV
Join Me Live in Vegas!
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Webinar:
Don't Be the Latest MSP Victim!
Webinar with Karl and Asigra's CEO Eric Simmons
Free online
Register now
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IT Nation Evolve
May 1-5
Dallas, TX 75207
Nerdio Training Camp
May 2-3
Houston, TX
SMB TechFest Q2
May 4-5
Anaheim, CA
N-Able Empower
May 9-12
Prague, Czech Republic
ChannelPro Summit
May 9-10
Chicago (Midwest)
Service Desk and IT Show
May 10-11
London, UK
Ingram Micro Cloud Summit
May 15-17
Las Vegas, NV
7 Figure MSP Live
May 16-18
Nashville, TN
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2023 SMB Online Conference!
May 17-18
Online - Two Days - 13 Hours of Education
Join Me Live Online!
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IoTSSA Cybersecurity Expo
May 18
Columbus, OH
Channel Sec 2023
May 18
London, UK
MSP Geekcon
May 21
Orlando, FL
IT Nation Manchester
May 22-26
Manchester, UK
VeeamOn
May 22-25
Miami, FL
Dell Technologies World
May 22-25
Las Vegas, NV
ASCII Edge 2023
May 24 & 25
Newark, NJ
Dublin Tech Summit
May 31 - June 1
Dublin, Ireland
:-)
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June
Cisco Live!
June 4-8, 2023
Las Vegas, NV
IT Nation Secure
June 5-7, 2023
Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center
Orlando, FL
Nerdio Training Camp
Jun 7-8
Las Vegas, NV
ChannelPro Summit
June 7-8
San Jose, CA (West Coast)
Pax8 Beyond
June 11-13
Denver, CO
IT Nation Sales and Service Leaders
June 12-16, 2023
Denver, CO
Nerdio Training Camp
June 20-21
New York, NY
Infosecurity Europe
June 20-22, 2023
London, England
ASCII Edge 2023
June 21 & 22
Tampa, FL
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Quarterly
June 29-30
Denver, CO
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July
ChannelPro Summit
Aug. 9-10
Newark, NJ (Northeast)
ASCII Edge 2023
July 12 & 13
Columbus, OH
CyberSecurity Expo
July 13, 2023
Manchester, UK
:-)
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August
IT Nation Evolve Business Leaders
August 7-11, 2023
Denver, Colorado
ASCII Edge 2023
August 30 & 31
Toronto, Canada
:-)
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September
ChannelPro Summit
Sept. 6-7
Boston (New England)
ASCII Edge 2023
September 20 & 21
Chicago, IL
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Quarterly
Sept 28-29
Omaha, NE
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October
dattoCon 2023
Oct. 2-4, 2023
Miami, FL
ChannelPro Summit
Oct. 10-11
Atlanta (Southeast)
Acronis #Cyberfit Summit 2023
Oct. 16-18
Miami, FL
ASCII Edge 2023
October 18 & 19
Washington, D.C.
SMB IT Professionals National Conference
October 27-28
Melbourne, Australia
Join me Live!!
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November
IT Nation Evolve Business Leaders
November 6-8, 2023
Orlando, FL
IT Nation Sales and Service Leaders
November 28 - December 1, 2023
Nashville, TN
:-)
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December
James Kernan's Millionaire Mastermind Quarterly
Dec 7-8
Phoenix, AZ
:-)
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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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