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.

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."

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.

Welcome to 2025! I'm in more conversations with our ecosystem about what's ahead is nearly everyone is talking about future plans. Fellow SMB SBS geek shares what he as done to invoke personal and professioal change over the past decade. And there it a wee bit of humor tossed in to looks at vendor swag from yesteryear. Let's get started!

Richard Kenyon

Harry Brelsford catches up with Richard Kenyon in Albuquerque, New Mexico, discussing Richard's move from Michigan 10 years ago for a better climate and to be closer to family. Richard's wife, also a tech enthusiast, works as a project manager at Meta's data warehouse in Las Lunas.

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.

Ever wondered what to do with all those Amazon boxes you receive with consumable product goods (CPG) that nearly (ok all) readers receive. Sure the easy answer is to trot them thar boxes to the green recycling receptacle, flat ‘em and toss ‘em in without a second thought. 

But there is another way and I learned it from the smarty PhD pants in Los Alamos, NM (home to the National Labs). Instead of recycling the cardboard boxes, how about reuse? 

Welcome to the Maker Movement 2.0

It’s very simple and I don’t need 800+ words to lay it out. But seeing that a lot of my audience is in Texas and surrounding southern states, I’m going to go REAL SLOW. 

Just in time for the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays, the SS SMB Nation has arrived at the island of misfit tech toys. Here is the exclusive scoop.

Using the holiday break to reflect, recharge and renew, I gathered up all my misfit tech toys that are consigned to a shelf in my home office LOL. Then I placed them on the SMB Nation sailing vessel for arrival just in time for Santa to distribute to up-and-coming geeks world wide.

A quick peek of the snap show a few highlights.

Harry Brelsford and David Tulip discuss their professional history and experiences in the IT industry. David shares his journey from joining Newman Business Solutions in 1995 to growing their IT department into a £1.5 million MSP by 2009. He now leads the Network Group, which supports around 100 technology service providers in the UK. They reflect on the IT Nation 2024 conference, highlighting its educational focus and high attendance of 4,500 people. David mentions upcoming events for the Network Group in 2025, including celebrating their 30th anniversary at Wembley Stadium and expanding their reach to 250 organizations over the next three years.