Blog News

It goes without saying that Cyber Monday, November 28, 2016, has grown dramatically from its modest start 12-years ago. It’s a media mainstay and you are encouraged to track it’s performance on sites like ChannelAdvisor. But that’s not why I’m here with this blog. Rather I want to impart insights into a startup with a twist launching on Cyber Monday. The Portland, OR startup is called Truece and it has a new twist on an old problem. (See below for a special offer for SMB Nation members - editor)

Friend of the SMB Nation family, Karl Palachuk, is starting his five week course on “Core Standard Operating Procedures for Small IT Providers” this coming Tuesday, November 15th. So what is it?  

This course will cover the most important procedures you need to have in place to run an efficient and highly profitable Managed Services Business.

Whether you're a new "Computer Consultant"

Grant here. I’ve created a completely new Azure and Office 365 workshop that is based on storytelling. Makes sense. I’m the “Chief Storytelling Officer” (CSO) for Tour de Cloud.

Seriously – my promise to you is that you’ll enjoy hard core unique content with no fluff and all buff for one day! Upcoming workshops include New York City, Boston, Austin, Houston and Dallas! 

Start the day with questions about Azure and Office 365. End the day with answers. That’s my promise and I guarantee you

This past week, I attended the 5^th GeekWire Summit and have a report for you. First, this is an interesting diverse crowd. You can’t pin it down to just one audience (e.g. a security conference has IT security professionals). Rather it was venture capitalists, start-up entrepreneurs, white collar professionals and technical geeks. The format was typically a single room format with a start-up or established executive speaking to the audience. I’d rank this a “roadmap” conference with high-level speeches. There was minimal technical content and no hands-on labs.

There is no age discrimination in the entrepreneurship community. It’s a line of reasoning that cuts both ways. You can be a 50+ year old white collar tech exec who is “yes sir-ed” through the back door in the tech community because of ageism but still have credibility as a start-up entrepreneur. Likewise, you can be a millennial in the new gig economy who embraces start-ups. It’s a big tent and there is room for all.

Recently GoDaddy released an extensive study on how millennials are fueling entrepreneurial growth.

If you are starting up a new technology-based entrepreneurial endeavor, you need to heed the wisdom of many before you. It’s about who you know. I can attest to that my relationships have yield more return on investment that my intellectual capabilities. Ultimately I made more money as a “rainmaker” than a hard core geek (although you need both as a technical professional – don’t get me wrong).

One of the secrets to my success is applying analytics to my data. In this case, the secret I want to share concerns mining your

You knew it was coming. It arrived in my Inbox as a forwarded email from SMB Nation community member David Gerhart from Bend, OR. David is an IT consultant  and he received a “lead” from LinkedIn’s new ProFinder service (which I consdier a start-up). LinkedIn has always had the underutilized asset of millions of details

This past week on Tuesday, it was International Coworking Day. This was a worldwide celebration for the coworking movement where entrepreneurs, artists and others “rent” a desk or office inside a cooperative workspace. I attended the BBQ at OfficeXpats,  
a coworking space on Bainbridge Island. It ended up being a diet cheat day as I ate two cheeseburgers, had chips, deserts and a beverage (sorry!). Hat’s off to OfficeXpats owners Leslie Schneider and Jason Omens (pictured) for engaging the community with a party.

It’s that time of year to attend the HOTTEST conference in the industry right now. And I literally mean the “hottest” as CompTIA’s ChannelCon event is held in the southern latitude in the month of August (this week humid Hollywood Florida). But it is also the one conference that unabashedly brings balance between attendees and vendors. By that, I

In 2016, the editorial mission of SMB Nation is to help you either start-over (e.g. pivot to Cloud and IoT) or start-up (become a technology pro and make the big $$$). Our approach as garnered acclaim as fresh, innovative and helpful. So here are a few start-up nuggets for your approval.

Many consider this one of the best weekends of the year. A Monday holiday makes for extended merriment. I noticed commerce transactions and business activity starting to slow this past Thursday, as if one foot out the door.

Original Brexit

When we hosted our weekly

I never met a press pass I didn’t like. Such an award is a glitterati pass not open to all. I’ve done the US Open (last year at this time at Chambers Bay in the Seattle-area), an IoT conference, countless Microsoft Worldwide partner conferences (WCP) and many other events.