In the final analysis, it’s about personal preferences and I look forward to your feedback as an SMB Nation member. When it comes to urban vs rural lifestyle and business models, both answers are right.

At a high-level – my AI-based Google research returned to following “ urban areas being more populated and having more amenities, while rural areas offer more privacy and lower costs of living:”  True that!

Rural

My experience has been that many rural MSPs run lifestyle businesses. Nothing like going fishing on Fridays with (perhaps with a client).It tends to be more relaxing than urban living.

Dramatic improvements in remote work/support

I have an interesting industry observation I’d like to share with you. Why is that the most successful MSPs in our space attend the fewest events? Conversely, less successful MSPs attend too many events. Let me assert my argument.

Successful MSPs

I won’t name names but here we go.

Mid-west MSP: This gentleman goes back to the start of SBS. We met on the partner advisory council in 1998. We were all young and dumb but several elevated in our community. He used to attend the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) (which then became Inspire) as his annual event.

The amazing sweepstakes contest has launched. Let's cut to the chase! 

Here is the basic story and you can click through (at the bottomw to join the sweepstakes. 

Are you a Managed Service Provider (MSP) with a passion for driving technology transformation? Here’s your chance to make a significant impact on a local small or medium-sized business (SMB) in your area while boosting your own capabilities!

Acer is excited to announce the Technology Transformation Sweepstakes, running from September 18, 2024, to November 19, 2024. The winning MSP will receive cutting-edge Acer equipment and a $5,000 cash prize to help a deserving SMB take their technology to the next level. This is not just a contest—it’s an opportunity to showcase your skills, support your community, and grow your business.

In 2025 the MSP economy could go either way. So keep one eye open! Here is what I mean. I want to share my observations about how MSPs and the tech industry historically have been impacted by macro-economic activity and recessions.

Earlies

Like a weekend curbside yard sales overwhelmed with lookie loos before the 9AM start, some parts of the tech industry go into a recession early (by analogy). My experience has been that storage tends to go into recessions early. I saw this first hand with SanDisk in 2006+ before the 2008 financial market meltdown (“The Great Recession”) but it came out of the economic setback early. Chips can go either way

Well-known Managed Services Provider (MSP) sales and marketing guru Chris Wiser is a complex dude.

He has the swagger and bravado of a Texan. Chris lives in the Austin, TX area  after relocating from the mid-west (Wisconsin) several years ago.  Wiser is one focused intense guy with the altruistic goal of helping MSPs make money with tough love. And he doesn’t lack self-confidence. He is a trail blazer for sure.

He is also a duck. When you are a public figure, people are going to throw slings and arrows at ya. But like a duck in the rain,

It's just good business. It's in our DNA to help as we're able.

It all started at the SMB Nation 2005 Fall Conference where we launched a WW Small Business Server (SBS) tour and raised relief funds for those impacted by the late 2004 Southeast Asia Tsunami. We gifted the fund at the end of the tour in a small moment in Bangkok

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.