SMB Nation | SMB IT Professionals
The Place to Start-up and Start Over!
I’m not claiming to be Nostrdammus with his legendary forecasting capabilities in the 1500s. But the data doesn’t lie and I saw it with my own eyes. Let’s geek out on this.
Dropping Prices
Let’s start with the end-in-mind as author Stephen Covey said in his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” So the end of the story is about the housing market: buy, sell or short.
GEEK WIN!!! I cut the cords today! Finally I sat down and reduced Spectrum down to Internet-only and then added YouTube TV. Total bill went from $280 to $140! Should done this a lot sooner...other thoughts.
Spectrum kept trying to throw in a new mobile phone (boo hiss - I don't need another phone)
For free - Spectrum added a goofy TV service called TV Stream with 90+ Tier 2 channels I either get with YouTube TV or don't care about...
In other cable provider/streaming news:
Join us for this important online on November 12th - here are the dets!
Welcome to the forthcoming 2025! Join our expert panel as we double-click into this migration scenario impacts SMB partners, MSPs, VARS who depend on MAPs to run da’ IT business and serve customers. Not many people are aware of this quickly forthcoming change so its CRITICAL you attend this Webinar to get the FACTS to insure the continuity of your business operations.
After quickly re-defining MAPs and its history, we’ll look at the fourth pathways to MIGRATE off of MAPS.
And we’ll save plenty of time so you can ASK your important migration questions
Date and Time:
November 12, 2024
1:00pm CT
Panelists
I recently conducted a limited investigation of dogs v. cats. The focus was food. The methodology was an on-site visit to a grocery store to compare similar treats for both dogs and cats. The baseline results were the cat food was nearly 29% (28.6807% to be exact) more expensive.
This was calculated, as seen in the pictures below. The dog kibbles/treats were $4.48 and the cat kibbles/treats were $5.98. What does it mean? On the surface, cats are more expensive than dogs. But I have questions.
Are food manufactures profiting off the deep love and affection cat owners have and will pay whatever it takes to keep Maggie the Calico Cat happy?
When asked, the community always responds strongly! Here are some examples.
Katrina
In late August 2005, Katrina struck and overall did $186.3 billion in damage with New Orleans taking the biggest hit. The legendary Jeff Middleton (and SBS MVP), a New Orleans resident,
gave a passionate speech a few weeks later the the thrd SMB Nation Fall conference. It was emotional and motivated several SMB Nation members to go to New Orleans and assist in the IT recovery for small and medium businesses (SMBs). I recall Bob Hood from Chicago as one of the volunteers.
For giggles, go to the LinkedinRoastMe site HERE – drop in your LinkedIn profile URL and get ready to laugh. Basically we’re talking about high jinks to take your mind off matters. Here is an example of roast (LOL): “Oh, Juliette, a Business Analyste Métier at Vaudoise Assurances? You must be the life of the party—if the party is filled with spreadsheets and SQL queries! I mean, nothing screams excitement like analyzing insurance claims all day. Your skills in crime analysis must be quite handy when you're trying to figure out who stole the office coffee. And Tableau software?
We caught up with Carlson Choi - the charasmatic CEO of up-and-coming Cork at the Pax8 Beyond 2024 event in Denver during June 2024, Cork is in the small and medium business (SMB) space. This is a solution for Managed Services Providers (MSP) to add to their portfolios.
At the recent IT Nation 2023 event, we pulled Kyle Hanslovan away from his busy booth to get an insightful update on Huntress. This firm provided technical solutions to the Managed Services Provider (MSP) community and has high favorble ratings. And for good reason - they've earned that right. I've tracked them over the years and impressed with this update showing continued growth. Hoefully you'll be impressed as well! Listen the podcast in the link below.
One to watch: Timus Networks
We caught up with a busy busy Pinar Ormeci, CEO of Timus Networks, after our recent MSP Rescue – Princeton workshop.
In this podcast, we discuss:
Long-time and loyal SMB Nation member Ulrich “Uli” Kirkegaard endured a life alter event in early August with the Maui fires. He lost his home and business as did many of his beloved small and medium business (SMB) clients. The purpose of this content is to properly introduce you to Uil and have you discover and share with others what challenges face this well-respected managed services Provider (MSP).
One way you can help immediately is to contribute funds are you are able. Then further down the road he can use supplies and even feet-on the-ground (something we have done much of since Hurricane Katrina 18-years ago). I plan to visit Maui in early December or early 2024 (join me!).
Watch the conversation HERE!
You may assist Uli and his family at this GoFundMe site https://gofund.me/d8d9d53d
Where to start the HandyAndy party? Well let’s go back to the very beginning. In 1998 when Windows Small Business Server (SBS) was announced and brought to market, HandyAndy and I met via Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine where we both wrote content and drove the SBS community. I fondly remember HandyAndy consistently hosting online meetups via a BBS system (way before Zoom and Teams).
Andy “HandyAndy” Goodman recently passed away and he will be missed. During his career he chose to remain on the technical side and had less patience for marketing malarky. Fair enough. It led to some spirted conversations over the years and HandyAndy always sparred fairly.
What is a rolling recession anyways? Quickly – while this might be your first MSP recession, it’s likely not a deep dip as felt just a couple months ago. Sure some sectors like housing are down but others like cruise ships are up (way up). And properly executed, cybersecurity stuff is at least recession resistant if not recession proof!
What's the big secret to MSP success right here right now?