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On the surface my Christmas tree, admittedly a work in progress, has very little to teach about Customer Relationship Management (CRM), But get into the branches (not the weeds LOL) and this tree is the meaning of life with respect to starting, owning and operating a business in the Small and Medium Business (SMB) space. Read on. 

This week I had the pleasure of providing the first of a series of training sessions for my colleagues at the Well Done Foundation not-for-profit (NFP) on utilizing the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM instance. At its core,

Harry Brelsford and Paralee Walls discuss the Connect 2024 event, highlighting Paralee's company's success in the previous year's startup pitch competition. Paralee emphasizes the importance of integrating chat solutions for better customer service experiences, contrasting traditional ticketing systems. She shares her background in public school education and how transitioning to tech marketing is similar to teaching. They discuss the cognitive benefits of learning a foreign language, with Paralee noting that she dreams in Spanish. Paralee describes her company's marketing strategies at the event, including a "rage room" for venting business frustrations and a solutions booth. They also talk about the benefits of providing exceptional service experiences, exemplified by their party bus service for attendees.

Long-time readers will recall that we have always support Small Business Saturday that falls after the US Thanksgiving (started 2010). This year it’s November 30th. Here are a few ways you can participate.

Go Buy Something (Anything) from a Small Business! 

I love shopping on Small Business Saturday. Last year I picked up some sauces from a small business in the cute tourist town of Wimberley, TX in the hill country outside Austin. And I’ll hit the elephant in the room head on folks. Yes - buying a drink (wine, beer even Vodka count when you visit a local diner. Snap a pic and post it in our SBS group on FB (join HERE) 

Host a Reception at Your Business Location

Harry Brelsford and Dux Raymond Sy discussed the IT Nation Connect 2024 event, noting 4,500 on-site attendees and 205,000 online. Dux, Chief Brand Officer at AvePoint, highlighted AvePoint's role in data security, governance, and resiliency, emphasizing their 21-year history and 4,000 global partners. They discussed the importance of preparing for AI tools like Copilot by ensuring data hygiene and security. Dux noted that AvePoint's FedRAMP and GCC high certifications are crucial for federal market MSPs. They also touched on the challenges and opportunities in the SMB space, stressing the need for early adoption and recurring services.

In 2025 the MSP economy could go either way. So keep one eye open! Here is what I mean. I want to share my observations about how MSPs and the tech industry historically have been impacted by macro-economic activity and recessions.

Earlies

Like a weekend curbside yard sales overwhelmed with lookie loos before the 9AM start, some parts of the tech industry go into a recession early (by analogy). My experience has been that storage tends to go into recessions early. I saw this first hand with SanDisk in 2006+ before the 2008 financial market meltdown (“The Great Recession”) but it came out of the economic setback early. Chips can go either way

Well-known Managed Services Provider (MSP) sales and marketing guru Chris Wiser is a complex dude.

He has the swagger and bravado of a Texan. Chris lives in the Austin, TX area  after relocating from the mid-west (Wisconsin) several years ago.  Wiser is one focused intense guy with the altruistic goal of helping MSPs make money with tough love. And he doesn’t lack self-confidence. He is a trail blazer for sure.

He is also a duck. When you are a public figure, people are going to throw slings and arrows at ya. But like a duck in the rain,

It's just good business. It's in our DNA to help as we're able.

It all started at the SMB Nation 2005 Fall Conference where we launched a WW Small Business Server (SBS) tour and raised relief funds for those impacted by the late 2004 Southeast Asia Tsunami. We gifted the fund at the end of the tour in a small moment in Bangkok

Actually, Karl Palachuk and I have more in common than not. We both recently published blogs on MSP events.

My blog that was part of a recent newsletter to you focused on highly successful MSPs attending no events per year to focus on growing their MSP business. You can revisit my blog HERE. 

Karl respectively took a different approach to this conversation. His contribution spoke to the “rest of us” and what’s practical for the true SMB MSP in our space. Here is an excerpt followed by the link to read the complete blog!

How Many Events Should You Attend?

This is a commentary on an article my friend Harry Brelsford posted in his recent newsletter.  Harry notes that there appears to be an inverse relationship between attending too many conferences and being financially successful in this industry.

If you are a living and breathing MSP, you couldn’t miss the recent news on ConnectWise. Let’s start with the acquisition.

SkyKick and Axcient

I knew the founders of SkyKick (Evan and Todd) when they worked on the SMB team at Microsoft and the broke out to start SkyKick in the early part of the 2000-teens.

We’ve quickly turned the corner on 2024 and are sprinting towards 2025. What better time to reflect on what remains for the next several months. I’ll take a stab at it!

1. Industry Consolidations – Both on the vendor and MSP sides, I’m seeing continued consolidations.

That’s not a surprise with the number of cybersecurity vendors entering the SMB MSP space has accelerated. Need proof? Just survey the aisles at large MSP events you like to attend. Admittedly, many of those cybersecurity vendors are “one and done” logos but you’d be surprised with the M&A activity occurring in the background. Heck some times I wonder if folks created ISVs just to be acquired.

On the MSP front, as many in our space are aging out and private equity is circling the wagons to prey upon MSPs, you are seeing folks thinking getting acquired is looking pretty darn tootin good. Just had a cup of coffee with an MSP

Harry Brelsford and Rob Rae discussed the three pillars of MSP success: community, education, and innovation. They emphasized the importance of these pillars in helping MSPs grow their businesses, with a focus on Pax8's investment in the Pax8 Academy and their use of AI and industry best practices. Later, Harry Brelsford and Rob Rae discussed the significance of community in the MSP space, with Rob Rae high lighting the growth of the MSP community and the number of attendees at the conference.

At the recent IT Nation 2023 event in Orlando, both William Toll and Amy Luby took a few minutes away on a busy expo floor to answer my one question. What is Seceon? With two powerhouses like Toll and Luby joining the team, somethings up and I wanted to get to the bottom of it! Please watch this interesting pod cast! And be sure to give a little love with a  like and a comment. ;)