We are sorry to report the passing of Blake Ressmeyer (Denver SBSer)

I was saddened to receive a call from Alan Shratter, Denver SBS partner group leader, where he indicated that Blake Ressmeyer had passed away several months ago from cardiac arrest. Blake was a long-time customer of SMB Nation including attending multiple fall conferences – so his passing is a loss for the community.

I will report more on Blake in the upcoming October\November magazine issue.

Harry Brelsford

One week to go before our SMB Nation event in Seattle

Did you know that SMB PC magazine is sponsoring a ragin’ three-day conference in Seattle NEXT weekend?!?!

Of course you did. Still time to sign up and hop a quick flight over.

Can you do me a favor and leave a blog reply as to what motivates you to attend an event – what are you looking for in a professional conference?!?!

Have you sold a copy of SBS 2008 to a real customer yet – I want to know for a story I am writing.

Hi folks – I am writing up a newlsetter article on who has sold the first copies of sBS 2008 in the world. So far – I have heard from the outrageous Ed Carnes (see my SMB Dude blog at blog.smbdude.com for that story!).

OK – please post up a reply so I can get your SBSW 2008 sale story!

 

cheers…harrybbbb

Harry Brelsford, CEO at smb nation www.smbnation.com

Microsoft Small Business Specialist SBSC, MBA, MCSE, MCT, MCP, CNE, CLSE, CNP

PS – did u know I host an annual conference in Seattle each october for SBSers and SMB consultants? This year we help launch SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server (EBS) between October 4-6!

Work from home survey (Sept\Oct 2008 magazine issue)

Howdy dear readers – harrybbbb here and I like to post up good stuff from our magazine. This is the complete results from the recent WORK AT HOME SURVEY!

1. Do you work from home? That is, is your SMB consulting business based at home?
		Response Percent	Response Count
Yes		85.7%	54
No		14.3%	9
	answered question		63
	skipped question		0

2. Select all of the reasons that you would consider or do work from home?
		Response Percent	Response Count
Save gas		68.3%	43
Save time		74.6%	47
No water cooler politics		27.0%	17
Work harder and longer		57.1%	36
Save costs on rent		76.2%	48
Other (please specify)			10
	answered question		63
	skipped question		0

3. What are some negatives about working from home?
		Response Percent	Response Count
Lonely		42.3%	22
Unfocused – need work environment		46.2%	24
Trouble getting motivated		46.2%	24
Savings not really there		3.8%	2
Family interruptions		61.5%	32
Other (please specify)			12
	answered question		52
	skipped question		11

4. Please comment on the following about working from home: Effect on Income
		Response Count
		52
	answered question	52
	skipped question	11

5. Please comment on the following about working from home: Length of work week.
		Response Count
		54
	answered question	54
	skipped question	9

6. Please comment on the following about working from home: Benefits and drawbacks
		Response Count
		49
	answered question	49
	skipped question	14

Did you attend the September Microsoft SBS 2008 Partner Tour?

Hey – did you go to one of the 15-city SBS 2008 tour cities in the US for channel partners? If so – please post a blog comment…did u receive the SMB PC magazine at the event…did u like it?!?!

thanks gang….harrybbbb

The Small Business IT Community [Issue 1-2 reprint, SMB PC magazine]

G’day everyone – this is a reprint from our second magazine issue – it is Anne Stanton’s community contribution.

The Small Business
IT Professional Community
(Anne Stanton)

Individual Small Business Specialists offer quick answers, depth of wisdom and a wealth of creative resources to small businesses around the world. They are agile, sharp
and also human. It is the human strength of character and caring that shines when working with a Small Business Specialist. It is their individualism that brings an increased risk for the small business, the risk that something could happen to their dependable IT professional. An individual Small Business Specialist offsets this risk by being involved with community and partnering with peers to protect the interests of their small business customers.
Most Small Business Specialists often become a part of the small businesses they serve. Their toolkits and resources have been developed through the sheer quick wit and small business “know how” that is required to survive in this fast- paced world. They may be entrepreneurs, techno-geeks, gurus, managers or sales and marketing experts. A Small Business Specialist masters many skills. Yet they also recognize the power of shared knowledge and reach out to create even more success than they could alone. Thus, technologists and IT professionals have created local and online “communities.” These groups welcome all those interested in simply jumping in, and either participating or lurking. Joining the community is a GREAT way to reduce risk while also creating more opportunities for your business.
Take for instance a tiny group I know of with less than 60,000 people. The competing IT professionals in this group welcome the opportunity to meet monthly and share information. Why would competitors share? Does that not conflict with the very nature of competition? In more than one community, most members of the information technology consulting profession must be generalists and they also have unique interests and skills. These complementary skills and interests are discovered by others who also get to know each other. They learn whom to trust and whom to keep at arm’s length. In this context, more business is generated than an individual could have on his own.
One fine example of this that I heard about was a small IT firm who was supporting a Small Business Server (SBS) for the local town offices. The owner of the small IT firm moved to a new area and immediately recommended one of his associates from the local user group to take over the account. This associate did not have to invest any time to win the deal, he simply walked into a new managed services account for hundreds of dollars a month. The second project I learned about was a local consultant who handled the entire infrastructure for a specific company. The company had troubles with their database requiring database administrator expertise. Once again a member of the user group was able to step into the project, solve the problem, save face for the long term consultant, offer efficiency in resolution to the client and make some immediate profit. Needless to say, more opportunities are not only discovered, but they are closed into new business and profits for all involved.
The key here is a combination of skill sets. Someone who is an expert at Small Business Servers, might also have a unique understanding of plastics manufacturing and database applications. These combinations are in themselves a unique resource! Experts in paperless office, wiring, photography, databases, Windows servers, DNS, MAC and reporting services all have their unique opportunities. The community offers a place for partners to work according to their interests while also being generalists for their small business clients.
The New York SBS IT Professional Group started as a small group of core professionals who understood the potential of community. There were some key people who knew they needed to attend to see what it was all about and a handful of unknowns. Two years later the New York SBS IT Professional Group is still meeting monthly and has over 170 small business partners who, after months of really crafting and creating their “community” and getting to know each other, are trading more business than imaginable. It is not just the core original members who are getting this business. New partners are discovering the group on a regular basis and benefiting quickly.
There are other benefits from starting and/or participating in even the smallest groups of IT professionals focused on small business. Take for instance the opportunity to host and talk with vendors offering solutions and products for your customers. One vendor recently released a new SMB program. In fact, the program is particularly tempting for IT professionals because it offers a number of free solutions. But have you thought about the benefits when talking with any of the consultants who have tried the program? In a recent discussion with numerous consultants I discovered that the documentation for the products are still from the enterprise model and inches thick! The software also contains files not needed by small businesses. Yet because it exists, it takes up a huge footprint of disk space. This footprint affects backups. Feedback was also helpful regarding the process for removing the solution once installed, something not that easy to do. This kind of information is critical to vendors if they are

interested in having their program succeed. It can also save consultants hundreds of lost billable hours.
When you pool the resources of multiple professionals into a discussion with a vendor, the tone of the meeting changes from one of being “sold to,” to one of being informed and educated about the unique technical aspects of the vendor’s products! You have the culture to facilitate a win, not only for you as a small IT professional, but for the vendor who wants to get its message out cost-effectively and efficiently. Leveraging the small IT professional group as a way to get more from vendor relationships has proven to be extremely successful! Nowhere is this better seen then in the adoption of a number of vendor products whose business development teams have become members of the community. Not to “sell”, but as humans committed to sharing, both in asking for input so they can fine tune their products to their customers’ needs, and in helping and educating in their areas of expertise. Simply ask the CEOs of Autotask and Connectwise, two vendors who have discovered the power of community.
We also take this concept further. An international community of the leaders of these local IT professional groups has come together to share information on running a local IT professional group. They have also collaboratively pulled together a voice and a framework for educating vendors. Members also have a louder voice to the enterprise corporations that create the products clients are interested in. The International SBS Group Leaders have a web page at www.sbsgroups.com, listing many of the SBSC IT professional groups On this page, they also have a list of vendors who have committed to posting a specific contact person, a direct phone number and a direct e-mail address for any member of the community to approach. The vendor list on the sbsgroups.com web site continues to grow.
As the Small Business Specialist meets new customers
and/or vendors the Small Business Specialist is then more empowered to talk not only about their business needs, but also about their involvement with thousands of other IT professionals who might be interested in that vendor’s products – particularly those that are a successful fit for the current small business opportunity. The customer and/or the vendor then not only benefits from the expertise of the local consultant, but also from the collective voice of thousands of the consultant’s peers in the same space.
Being involved in community means:
• Opportunities
• Profits
• Connections
• Answers
• Access to real field-tested knowledge
• Peer-to-peer trust
• Resources
• A chance to form study groups and achieve more certifications
• Vacation coverage
• A regular refreshment of knowledge
• And much more
The limit of our abilities is defined more by our own egos then by any other obstacle. Being involved in community tests the ego by requiring the IT professional to open up a little bit and to perhaps admit that he does not know everything. Sometimes it is hard to get started, but IT professionals among their trusted peers can admit their limitations and grow beyond the limits of their own strengths and weaknesses. A micro-sized IT professional would be wise to invest time in a community of his or her peers. 
“If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It’s very important to be aware of them every time they come up.” Deepak Chopra 1947
Anne Stanton is a CRM MVP, the president of The Norwich Group and a Principal in GlobalBrain LLC: Business Computer Solutions. She is a widely known consultant who often partners with other SBSC professionals to bring customer relationship management (CRM) expertise to small businesses professionals and their clients worldwide. Anne can be reached at astanton@thenorwichgroup.com

Hey readers! Input on 2009 editorial topics still needed!

Hello out there. Still need u to post up story ideas please for SMB PC magazine…if this is the “community” than you need to be accountable and participate…no free lunch…no sacred cows…

TIA

cheers…harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, CEO at smb nation www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist SBSC, MBA, MCSE, MCT, MCP, CNE, CLSE, CNP
PS – did u know I host an annual conference in Seattle each october for SBSers and SMB consultants? This year we help launch SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server (EBS) between October 4-6!

SMB Advisory Newsletter, Issue 2-21, GeekSpeak Edition with Vista Survey for SMB Consultants!

SMB Advisory Newsletter  1-888-SMB-NAT1         www.smbnation.com GeekSpeak  Over 17,000 Global Readers! September 20, 2008 Issue 2-21 (bi-weekly) Survey “Vista and the Small Business Specialist, SMB consultant, SBSer?” Click HERE to complete Vista Survey   Sponsors                                                   Dear Harry, You are receiving this newsletter as a tribal member at SMB Nation.   Does the world seem to be moving faster these past few days or what? The good news is that the Dow Jones Industrial Average essentially ended even on the week, which is amazing compared to what it looked like earlier with large drops in the index. But nonetheless, it is sobering and forces us all to spin the hamster wheel faster – so read up and then get back to work. This GeekSpeak issue has a link to a Vista survey that I am conducting for a well-known Microsoft executive (a name you certainly know well), interesting Response Point news include a technical factoid, conference stuff and a couple of community updates. I end with a question for you. What is twitter and should I be using it?    cheers…harrybbbb  Harry Brelsford CEO  |  SMB Nation, Inc. |  Bainbridge Island, WA USA   PS – Read my new blog! SMB Dude   Complete Vista Survey and compete for prizes! It was the kinda week where just about everybody felt challenged. But as you know, challenges lead to opportunities. This is your chance to give your opinion to a Microsoft executive about the Vista opportunity. We are conducting a Vista survey for Small Business Specialists (SBSC) and other SMB consulting channel partners including my beloved SBSers! There are 75 prizes to be awarded, one at a time, to respondents that include red Vista jackets, back packs and flash lights. Click here to complete Vista SMB and SBSC Survey. Response Pointables  So let’s get geeky. Here is a cool thang from my new Response Point Primer book (that I discuss below). It is your opportunity to create a fake voicemail message! This is an excerpt from Chapter 5.   How to fake a new voicemail! Do you want to make it look like Bill Gates himself left you a voicemail? Here is how you would do it. 1. First, leave a voicemail on the extension you want to fake.  (example: extension 101) 2. Get yourself a copy of the “cabarc.exe” utility  (available via a Google internet search) 3. Back up your RP unit using the administrator backup feature 4. Note the folder in which you saved the backup:  go into that folder, under contacts\101\msgs 5. There should be a CAB file inside the folder. 6. Take a new WAV file and run the utility ‘cabarc.exe n <name of the previous cab file> “<new wav file>” 7. There will be a new message on that extension now.   Now for some Response Point updates. Response Point had an amazing reception at the ITEXPO show in LA this week. XD, the GM for RP at MS (whoa – too many initials) gave a well-received keynote address and RP announced seven new vendors at the show. RP won best of show with one of its partners. This VoIP thang is takin’ off folks!   And I got a haircut (along with Wall Street). You will recall in the last newsletter issue (Sept 4, 2008 BusinessSpeak Edition) that I introduced you to Professor Longhair, which has myself on a double-dawg dare to NOT CUT MY HAIR until my RP book RTMed. It did and I got a haricut on Main Street on Bainbridge Island: This past week my Response Point Primer book RTMed and went to the printer. This 440-page book will be available on October 4, 2008 at the fall conference. If you would like to reserve a copy, please send a reservation e-mail to sandyb@smbnation.com and indicate you want to reserve a copy of the RP book. We will let you know the exact moment that you can buy it!        Locked And Loaded – SMB Nation 2008 Fall Conference Much news as the big show is approaching fast – it is a mere two weeks away!   Schedule posted. We have posted the schedule with specific session times (click the hyperlink on the third line down that reads”Click here to download a copy of the official SMB Nation Fall 2008 Conference agenda.”) Download detailed schedule. You will see that Jeff Middleton of SBS migration fame is the kick-off speaker after the Intel keynote on Day One.   SBS MVPs Primed! Kevin Beares, Community Lead, Microsoft Windows Server Solutions Group (WSSG) reports he is delivering five days of intense SBS 2008 technical training days before the SMB Nation 2008 fall conference. In this way, he can leverage the SBS MVPs travel schedule and you, the attendee, can leverage the SBS MVPs and their new found deep dive knowledge like no other event in the history of SMB conferences! Kevin (left) visited SMB Nation and met Sandy Bettenhausen, Patti Passinault and Jeff Parry on Bainbridge Island about ten days ago to reveal his SBS MVP training plan. The MVPs will stay on after SMB Nation 2008 to receive five days of Essential Business Server training too! Harry and Kevin biked on Bainbridge after our business meeting.   Official Pre-Day Activities. Here is your ready guide to all official pre-day activities. Daytime · Robin Robins Technology Marketing Toolkit (9:00am – 5:00pm) · HP Blade University with Essential Business Server (EBS) and C3000 blade system (8:30am – 4:30pm) Evening (7:30pm – 8:00pm) · Battling the Borg of the Internet with Scott Pinzon · Response Point Open Mike Learn More About Offical Pre-Day Activities HERE and scroll down for details.   Last minute sign up? Jet Blue \ Southwest and other carriers are now your friend. Are you waiting until the last minute to sign up for the SMB Nation fall conference. We are just two weeks out so it’s Jet Blue and Southwest time folks! The Warwick Hotel in downtown Seattle is also your friend as the two host hotels have long been sold out. Secret to conference success. Obviously learning about SBS 2008 and EBS are “essential” to your success but did you know the whole VoIP thang is huge at our conference too? That’s my secret and I am sticking to it. Partee! With profound pleasure and permission, we are pleased to message that we are holding a LAUNCH PARTY for Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 on Saturday night, October 4th. We will launch the MV SBS 2008 on Saturday night, October 4th!   Overall Conference Information   Content   Speakers   Sponsors  Spouses Tour    Meet 19Marketplace! Just as the pay-as-you-go concept of Software as a Service (SaaS) opened new distribution channels for software vendors – so has Managed Services opened new opportunities for IT consultants.   Today’s business executives are becoming increasingly hesitant to make major capital investments in technology. SaaS, coupled with managed services, gives businesses an option to have their IT needs taken care of instead of paying for on-site equipment and staff.    In a recent survey conducted by THINKstratgegies, nearly every SMB and large-scale organization interviewed admitted that although they were attracted to the benefits of managed services, they would not acquire managed services from a provider they haven’t already done business with.  Here’s the opportunity:  Your customers already view you as a trusted advisor.  By incorporating a more business-oriented sales approach with managed services, you can help your customers realize: *Increased IT availability and performance *Reduced total cost of ownership *Improved productivity and IT return on investment   How can 19Marketplace Help? 19Marketplace has created a unique SaaS aggregation platform that provides a convenient way for businesses to buy and use on-demand software services.   We research the industry to find quality on demand services and the most secure hosting facilities, then develop partnerships with those top providers to make all their products and services accessible through a single website.    What does this mean to you? There are two ways that partnering with 19Marketplace can help you be more successful: (1) providing you with the tools to enhance your own internal operations, and (2) giving you a wider range of business applications to sell your customers that are valuable to them and profitable for you.  Click  HERE to learn how 19Marketplace can help you transition to managed services and register for your free whitepaper – Selling Managed Services.ull text.     Harry meets with Linda Cramer and Paul Kollar at 19thMarketplce in Vancouver, Washington on September 10th.   Quick Hitters   CoreConnex I would like to introduce you to an exciting new company called CoreConnex. They have a financial dashboard called Corelytics that would benefit all Tribe members who really want to manage their business financial performance. For a small price tag it shows a complete picture and delivers a major hit. They also have a service management system (a “PSA” system) called ConnexIT that really rocks. Check out their web site.  Also, Frank Coker, the CEO, has a white paper that all entrepreneurs should read. Check it out at Financial Management: The Challenge for IT Service Providers. CoreConnex’s product will be on displayed at the SMB Nation 2008 fall conference in two weeks.   Reader Question Q: I want to start focusing on SBS with my customers but there are enough areas that are a black box to me. What is a good fast source to get SBS questions answered fast??  (Chris Austin) A: Chris – Suggest you join the Yahoo! Groups surrounding SBS topics. Go to www.smbnation.com and look for the newsgroups links beneath Smoking Hot Quick Hitters at the lower part of the main landing page! Techchex Shelah Johnson, a founder of Techchex in Portland Oregon shared some interesting research with me that small businesses will spend over $5 billion USD on managed services in 2008. Read my blog post here: Managed Services Economic Impact Chris Bangs (right, inside sales at SMB Nation) had lunch with Shelah Johnson and Peter Hoogerhuis (CEO, Techchex).   D&H Mid-Atlantic Fall Show October 7th I blogged the details on the D&H show in Hershey. I have been to a few D&H shows and they are FUN in an old school kinda way. Read the details here: D&H October 7, 2008 Show. DOWNLOAD Magazine Learn about being the TRUSTED BUSINESS ADVISOR in the new SMB 2.0 world. Plus a great selling managed services article, Essential Business Server PLANNING and a fantastic column (I wrote it) on working from home (guess what percentage of y’all have a home office?.      We have posted the digital edition of the magazine at www.smbnation.com. Let me know how you like the new three-column format. Click HERE to download the August\September 2008 Magazine!

Leave a Comment Additional survey of the month: Vista! Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: survey — harrybrelsford @ 5:01 pm SMB PC will print the results in a future issue and we are reporting directly to a well-known Microsoft executive on this one. Please complete our Vista survey – I really appreciate it! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=K_2fVix8q_2fTweOHaYHEIB5Kw_3d_3d    cheers…harrybbbb Harry Brelsford, CEO at smb nation www.smbnation.com Microsoft Small Business Specialist SBSC, MBA, MCSE, MCT, MCP, CNE, CLSE, CNP PS – did u know I host an annual conference in Seattle each october for SBSers and SMB consultants? This year we help launch SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server (EBS) between October 4-6! Leave a Comment Locked and loaded: Time for SMB Nation 2008 fall conference! Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: conference — harrybrelsford @ 2:58 pm Quickie post here folks – Jenny, Mike, Chris and the others have done an amazing job to get us to a LOCKED and LOADED state for our fall conference in two weeks! Ain’t much changing now. Compare that to six years ago when I did not start planning my fall conference until two weeks out!!!! Anyways – the detailed schedule is here: http://www.smbnation.com/pdfs/SMBN%20Fall08%20Agenda%20for%20Web.pdf    cheers…harrybbbb Harry Brelsford, CEO at smb nation www.smbnation.com Microsoft Small Business Specialist SBSC, MBA, MCSE, MCT, MCP, CNE, CLSE, CNP PS – did u know I host an annual conference in Seattle each october for SBSers and SMB consultants? This year we help launch SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server (EBS) between October 4-6! Leave a Comment Older Posts » Pages: About Blogroll Philip Elder’s SBS blog SMB Dude SMB VoIP Dude Blog Categories: Issue 3-3 (Oct/Nov 08) Magazine Past Issues SMB Advisory e-newsletter Uncategorized Search: Archives: February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 Meta: Log in RSS Comments RSS Valid XHTML XFN WordPress.com Blog at WordPress.com.