Over   18,000 Global Readers and Growing! DECEMBER 8th, 2010 - Issue 5-2   BusinessSpeak

Welcome back to my SMB newsletter - BusinessSpeak edition. I am recovering from watching an amazing NFL playoff game won by the New Orleans Saints. This game has special meaning as our own Chris Bangs is from New Orleans!

In this newsletter, I am delighted to share my article on peer groups, a VoIP event partnership we have entered into and a word about easy living. I also share with you a few cool announcements. A few of you have asked for more information about my niece Christa Brelsford who was impacted in the Haiti earthquake - here is a Web site you can follow: keepchristaclimbing.org.

On Tuesday, February 2nd, Robin Robins will be interviewing me on a LIVE teleseminar where I'll be revealing some of my best-kept secrets about LinkedIn.

As a SMB Nation tribal member, I'd like to personally invite you to be my guest and listen in for free. You can get the full details (and register) at the web site below:

http://www.robinsbigseminar.com/smbnation

Title: "How To Use LinkedIn To Generate Sales, Referrals And Introductions To New Prospective Clients Without Cold Calling"

Date: Tuesday, February 2nd

Start Time: 3:00 p.m. T/ 12:00 Noon PT

Duration: 90 Minutes

There's no cost to join us; simply go to the web site below and secure your seat now:

http://www.robinsbigseminar.com/smbnation

See you there!

cheers....harrybbb
Harry Brelsford | CEO | SMB Nation, Inc. | www.smbnation.com

Did you know? Our Small Business Server 2008 Blueprint book is now SHIPPING. Learn more here!

Read Harry's SMB Dude Blog here

Peer Power
By Josh Peterson and Harry Brelsford

This month we explore the hot talk surrounding peer groups. It's got worldwide legs as I (harrybbb) recently discovered on a trip to India and from the contribution below submitted by my friend, Josh Peterson. At the Milagrow Worldwide Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) conference, I discovered the conference sponsor, Milagrow, has a consulting arm that provides CEO mentoring services. This is a peer-group-type program helping a wide range of small business owners achieve great results. Another effort in India is being driven by Prakash Chaudhari, President and CEO of MSPONE. Prakash, who recently teamed with Level Platforms in the remote management and monitoring space (RMM) is on the brink of introducing "MSP Momentum" in early 2010 that provides partner advisory services in a peer-based paradigm.

Milagrow offers a variety of SME-related services including CEO Mentoring. You can view my speech HERE.

Closer to home, my trusted friend and colleague Karl Palachuk introduced me to the Taylor Business Group that he belongs to. It is an independent peer organization that drives success in the SMB channel every day. I saw this magic play out at the SMB Nation Fall 2009 conference when Josh Peterson delivered the well-received "Ignite Your Sales Engine" speech. Here is Josh's contribution.

"What are other companies doing about their rates right now?"

"What is everyone else doing about their unpaid invoices?"

"What are you seeing out there in terms of new managed services contracts?"

These are a few of the questions the Taylor Business Group (TBG) is asked daily by clients and non-clients alike. They are great questions! Many IT business owners and managers want to know what the world looks like beyond their four walls, their client base, or even their own city. TBG is happy to share what they learn from the market, but there is a better, much larger forum for learning what's happening out in the "real world." In fact, there is a forum that goes even beyond the "What ARE" questions and deals with the question not often asked: "What SHOULD we be doing about X?"

That forum is called Business Improvement Groups. Business Improvement Groups have been around in many forms since the 1950s. CEOs from across multiple industries have met to discuss strategies and act as sounding boards for each other. The IT Solutions industry has had limited exposure to this forum and method of improving our businesses.

In 2003, the Taylor Business Group led the movement of bringing together CEOs and service managers from the same industry to work on their businesses. Today, TBG is the leader in providing Business Improvement Groups to IT Solution Providers both in the United States and abroad.

What exactly is a Business Improvement Group (BIG)?

At Taylor Business Group, a BIG is a group of ten business owners OR ten service managers who get together two times a year for a day and a half to:

1. Share best practices
2. Share experiences
3. Act as each other's executive committee or board of directors
4. Evaluate each other against industry benchmarks
5. Hold each other responsible for meeting profit expectations

A BIG is not a:

1. Management retreat
2. Forum for vendors to pitch their goods
3. Loosely defined meeting with shifting priorities
4. Trade show
5. Product users group

Taylor Business Group Approach

TBG BIGs are laser-focused on helping you increase your profitability, learn best-in-class methods for managing your business, and holding yourself and your business accountable to accomplish exactly what you say you want to accomplish. You are matched with companies in non-competing markets and are asked adhere to a strict confidentiality agreement. You can feel safe speaking frankly about your strengths and your struggles.

TBG utilizes its rich experience as the only business consulting firm in the IT solutions industry to lead each and every one of its BIGs. "It takes a neutral voice in the room with no agenda or ego involved to help guide a frank discussion on sensitive business issues," says TBG founder, Larry Schulze. "Sometimes the conversations can get very intense with companies defending why they made a certain decision; when the pressure rises, it takes a professional to make sure the conversation stays focused and constructive."

As the only business consulting firm focusing on IT solutions providers, the Taylor Business Group exists to objectively help you with a business process using whatever tools you have chosen. If you don't have the tools to operate your business, they will help you evaluate the existing options, and you can make an informed decision. TBG receives no money or in-kind support from manufacturers or vendors. If they did, then they would be resellers, not consultants. They become experts in the tools you use. By learning the tools you utilize to run your business, they can be more effective in helping you meet your objectives.

The other members of your BIG will come from various points of views on which Managed Service Platform, accounting package, or PSA is the best. If you haven't made a decision on these tools, you'll be exposed to companies that have perhaps been down that path and taken a few wrong turns. You'll be able to utilize their experiences to make a better decision. No one in the Taylor Business Group BIGs will ever force or pressure you into standardizing on a certain platform.

Is a Business Improvement Group the right approach for my business?

The demographics of our Business Improvement Groups range from three-person companies all the way up to those with 200+ employees. Companies with one to three employees have much to gain from BIGs. Sometimes their lives can get so intensely focused on delivering their services that they just don't come up for air until they are burnt out or are faced with a huge decision. Getting out of the grind and meeting with their peers in this setting is just the recharge they need to get focused on where they want to be with their business.

Larger companies benefit from getting out of the very dangerous "group think" that often occurs. When our only frame of reference is our own company, ideas and innovation can stagnate and all start looking the same. Getting out of town, literally, and meeting with peers around the country opens eyes and minds to different ways of approaching new objectives and old problems.

The most critical components to success in a BIG are humility, an openness to learn and share, a deep passion for what you are doing, and a commitment to grow your business. If you have these traits, your peers and the Taylor Business Group will help you with the rest.

Josh Peterson
Senior Consultant
Taylor Business Group
josh@taylorbusinessgroup.com
Chicago, IL

Easy Living

The Big Easy Offer 4.0 is a brand new offer from Microsoft for SMB customers.

Customers can take advantage of the Big Easy Offer 4.0 by making qualified purchases to earn subsidy checks back from Microsoft. They can then use their checks with their Microsoft Partners on additional Microsoft products, services or solutions.

The following licenses are considered "Eligible Licenses" for this promotion:

• Open License
• Open Business License (L Only)
• Open Local Government License (L Only)
• Open Value
  • Open Value License and Software Assurance (L&SA) for Commercial and Government
  • Open Value Subscription for Commercial and Government

By purchasing from multiple product groups over the course of the Big Easy Offer 4.0, SMB customers can increase the amount or their partner subsidy checks.

For a list of qualifying products and full offer details, visit: www.MicrosoftIncentives.com/BigEasy

Cool News

I have some cool news updates to share with you.

• Latest Cloud Services Roundtable podcast with @HarryBrelsford is now posted for members at www.CloudServicesRoundtable.com
• My SMB technology speech at the WW SME conference in Delhi India (December 2009) can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFP-jypxnus
• Computer Outlook radio show! This Thursday at 5PM PST, tune into John and Harry's SMB Nation segment (each 4th Thursday; details at www.computeroutlook.com). You'll be in great company joining over >1 million listeners on this national show!
• Work! Long-time SMB Nation tribal member Joseph Danielson, Somerset, NJ, is recruiting for a multicasting specialist. Phone: 732-213-0600
• Top 150 SMB poll. We have teamed with the Small Business Technology Network (SMBTN) to conduct a “who's who” survey in the SMB partner community. Go ahead. Vote for yourself and other thought leaders!
  Click HERE.

Enterprise Class Disaster Recovery That Any Business Can Afford

Running a business without reliable offsite data protection is a risk that more than half of all small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) take every day. Losing your data means losing your livelihood - so why take the risk? The reason is simple: it hasn't been affordable.

Not until now.

Introducing the Symform Cooperative Storage Cloud™

Symform was predicated on the realization that millions of small businesses have computers with an excess of inexpensive storage capacity, power running 24x7, and unlimited Internet bandwidth - especially nights and weekends. Accordingly, the Symform team has developed software that aggregates this relatively unreliable and un-trusted capacity over the Internet and has transformed it into a secure and reliable global storage system.

Partner Benefits

• 10x cheaper than traditional online storage services
• 50-80% margins
• For all your customers - everyone small business needs a BDR solution
• Open up doors with new prospects - start a conversation around BDR

Useful links:

• Check out the Product Tour - in takes 2 minutes: Symform Product Tour
• Review the Symform Solution - Comprehensive BDR - it describes the most effective way to think about Symform and backup/disaster recovery.
• A great orientation on how to install and configure Symform in an educational setting can be found here: Symform 101 Web Seminar (on demand - 40 minutes).
• Everything you ever wanted to know about Symform security can be found here: Symform Security and Reliability Web Seminar (on demand - 25 minutes)
• Review the FAQ's - the place to find answers to all the questions that you'll have from watching the Product Tour - Symform Partner FAQ
• Review the pricing - Symform Pricing
• Review the Partner Dashboard UI - Symform Partner Dashboard Example
• Free trial: Symform Free Trial

Boost Your 2010 Profits Now!

Our good friends at Kaseya are continuing their Revolution Sessions series of webinars and you are invited to attend on Wednesday February 10th (11 am PST/2pm EST/7pm GMT).

Please attend this Free Online Webinar with MSP legend Gary Pica, who generated $500,000 per month in MSP revenue, to learn which factors drive profit margin, key "smart numbers" to guide you, three steps to higher margins, and one number that will change your business.

By the way, Kaseya is giving away an ACER netbook to one lucky attendee and everyone receives two FREE white papers.

SMB VoIP Show Has Legs!

The SMB VoIP workshop collocation with Channel Partners has hit the news! See the press release <HERE>.

Looking forward to

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