Business Speak

Howard Cohen discussed the importance of understanding costs in MSPs, emphasizing that many fail to accurately compute their costs, which impacts profitability. He highlighted the shift towards specialization in MSP services, similar to the medical field, and the need for MSPs to partner with specialists for non-core services. Cohen also stressed the importance of effective marketing, advocating for networking and community building over traditional methods like email blasts. He advised MSPs to focus on their core strengths, often their own expertise, and to consider themselves as professional practices rather than just businesses.

We can learn a lot from our bruthas and sistas in the fast-paced world of finance and borrow//beg/steal those best practices as we enjoy (yes - enjoy) the final days of 2024. ‘Tis the season to engage in year-end portfolio adjustments. The analogy is solid while the tactics may be different: This might include tax trades such as liquidating losses or locking in gains in equities v MSPs looking to fire annoying and unprofitable clients. 

Firing Your Client Funny: Did you know that the first week after the holiday season (early January) is THE biggest divorce week of the year on the personal side after couples “stay together for the holidays for the children.” Happy client divorce often means a happy MSP life. LOL. Most of us get hired quickly by our small and medium business (SMB) clients but fire them too slowly.

 At IT Connect 2024 in Orlando, AUVIK, a network and SaaS management company founded in 2011, discussed their focus on "frictionless IT." AUVIK's president oversees customer acquisition, onboarding, and success, while Joe Barnes, based in Scottsdale, focuses on growing indirect partnerships and expanding resale business. AUVIK plans to launch endpoint network monitoring and enhance SaaS management automation in 2025. They emphasize their strong partnership with ConnectWise and the integration of their tools into ConnectWise's ASIO platform. AUVIK sees a resurgence in MSP growth post-COVID and is exploring additional events and lunch-and-learns to engage their community.

Action Items

• [ ] Explore doing additional lunch and learn events.
• [ ] Continue developing partnerships and exploring new channel opportunities.
• [ ] Enhance Auvik's SaaS management platform with more automation for customer onboarding and offboarding.
• [ ] Expand Auvik's network monitoring capabilities to include endpoint monitoring.

Before we get into the good stuff this holiday season and hear from Parker McCloud at the Back Country Cannabis in the ski town of Crested Butte has shared an interesting factoids:

State of Colorado cannabis sales are down 40%. One reason for this is that there are many more options with more state now recreational leisure such as New Mexico.

Nationally McCloud asserts the industry is healthy in the new legal states such as Michigan.

Awright – fasten your seatbelt and let’s get started.

Harry Brelsford, in Crested Butte, Colorado, visits Back Country Cannabis https://backcountrycannabis.com/crested-butte/ , owned by Parker McCloud. Parker shares his journey from general manager since 2012 to now being the fifth owner. They discuss the local tourism ebb and flow, noting a decline in winter visitors and increased summer tourism. Parker highlights the impact of altitude on cannabis consumption and the national cannabis industry's growth, citing states like Michigan and Missouri. They also touch on the potential for widespread cannabis availability, akin to gambling's expansion. The conversation ends on a light note with a reference to the TV show "Cheers."

Neither rain nor darkness or sniffles/colds (going around here) kept the loyal and dedicated group of geeks from our 2nd Annual Geek Holiday Party on December 4th!

So just a short shoutout via the pic below recognize the geeks on the loose at the gathering...a few hours of chatting and good food.

So why bother? For a couple reasons.

At the recent IT Nation Connect 2024 event – I spotted a rarity – a young MSP. Tye Fowler is a real go-getter from Tampa, FL and he proactively walked up to me after a keynote as he saw my legacy Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 golf shirt and thought I worked for Microsoft LOL. We bumped into each other a few times and I invited him to the ProofPoint reception that early evening before he hopped on a flight to Atlanta.

Let’s GOOOO!

Harry Brelsford, wrapping up his podcast cycle from the IT Nation 2024 event in Orlando, interviews Tye Fowler, an MSP partner from Tampa, Florida. Tye's company, SGD Communications, started in 2003 and specializes in low-voltage services and network infrastructure. This is Tye's first IT Nation Connect conference, having previously attended IT Nation Secure. He appreciated the creativity and the opportunity to meet people from around the globe. Harry plans to feature Tye in his podcast and emphasizes the importance of young talent like Tye in the aging IT industry. They discuss future ConnectWise events, and Harry wishes Tye safe travels to Atlanta.