If you have ever taken a Microsoft technical training class to upgrade your skills, you are new, or getting a jump on the next great Microsoft software product, chances are you’ve probably taken it from SQLSoft3. In the past 20 years, over 50,000 IT Pros and Developers from companies of all sizes from enterprise to SMB have passed through their doors.

Microsoft has long considered SQLSoft3 to be one of their top training

I’m not going to define the EU or the UK “Brexit” as this trending topic is handled much better in other forums such as Real Clear Politics. Rather I want to use the Brexit concept as a teaching moment for our SMB Nation community.

The headline says it all, Or does it?

With Facebook accolades flowing today, June 19th, praising Fathers, it is a moment to reflect. The SMB Nation demographic is over 90% male and anecdotal evidence clearly

Last Thursday we hosted a well-attended webinar, Wazzup with WaaS?!?!?, that exposed a glaring lack of understanding of this space in the SMB Nation community. That’s okay as it signals a greenfield of opportunity for SMB Nation partners and MSPs to take advantage of. As you know, we’d rather be early than late in technology. WaaS is exactly this and then some. You can watch the webinar here

Whew! That was a long haul. We’ve just completed nine (9) cities in the first six months of 2016 for our Office 365/Windows 10 roadshow across the US. Jenny and Grant did the heavy lifting (THANK YOU!) and the technical content was universally adored.

Check out our new look!

A few weeks ago we announced we were rolling out Bigger Brains v3 to our MSP / IT Service Pro resellers.  The update is mostly in place now (there are a couple of small issues the team is still fixing), and next week we'll host a webinar to show off the new features AND how you can use Bigger Brains to boost your MSP/CSP/IT Service Pro business. 

As our journey towards enhanced partner profitability continues, I want to make a turn at the intersection of professional life. I’d like you to reflect on creating a new niche focused on ransomware (ergo the Vitamin R reference).

First – what is a niche? It’s a focused subset of a market. And that old saying is “there are riches in niches” still holds true.

Over the summer, I intend to periodically comment on how I’d do things differently at SMB Nation if I could do it all over again. This is based on 17+ years of experience starting, owning and operating a small business. And since everyone loves gossip – I’ll name names, but not today LOL.

This past week, ChannelPro issued it’s 2016 20/20 Visionaries. It’s a time-tested formula bordering on gamification where awardees can add yet another logo to their website. Every industry does this and I appreciate ChannelPro’s on-going effort to highlight the leaders in the SMB channel. In particular, I appreciate its efforts to highlight the new members with an art callout and by featuring the newbies with a photo in print.

As part of our ongoing dialog about reinventing yourself, I present for your scrutiny the concept of making the last mile of your operations more efficient. So much emphasize is now placed on pre-acquisition lead generation that we’ve lost sight of improving the bottom line by improving your back office. It’s understandable. We ask a lot of MSPs to be skilled in three areas: finder, minder and grinder.

by Lynn Haber
Senior Writer

Channel partners can take advantage of many cloud marketplace options as part of their go-to-market strategies. Here's what you need to know to get started.