Karl's SMB Email November 29th

Nothing Happens by Itself

Welcome to December!

December will be here in a couple of days.

2021 has been a long year. But it's almost over. I hope you're already well into planning for 2022. I have my annual State of the Nation address planned for January 13th (see the calendar). AND our new classes crank up January 11th with Lori Hartke's super-popular class on being a super-successful one-person shop.

AND very, very soon we'll be announcing a major overhaul of our entire training site. It will include a name change, and the addition of a great program that will help YOU and your entire staff. Stay tuned.

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Raising Rates

Tis the season for increasing your rates. I don't care what else is going on, just do it.

A few things to consider. First, "raising rates" is always a good time to simplify your rate structure. In a perfect world, you will have two rates: Regular and twice that. So, evenings, weekends, and emergencies are all twice the regular rate.

Second, standardize your rates. Many companies have clients at very different rates. Some are just on old contracts. Some are friends of the family. Some just got a deal because the sales person was more interested in their commission than the long-term health of the company. Whatever the reason, make changes as big as necessary to get all the rates in line with your new rate structure. Many of you will want to do this in two or three stages. Just do it.

Third, managed services makes it easier to raise rates. If a client receives most of your labor as part of a managed service agreement, then they actually don't buy very many hours. Tell them this! Go find out how many hours they bought last year and remind them, "You only bought 100 hours in 2021." So the increase times that number is not a huge raise in their costs.

Fourth, stop worrying that clients will quit you. If you raise your rates five or ten dollars per hour and a client drops you, there was already something wrong with the relationship. Changing IT service providers is a huge pain in the neck for clients. So they're not going to drop you over a change like this.

Finally, fifth, you consider raising some rate each year. Perhaps increase the per-use price one year and the hourly labor rate the next. That way, there's always some kind of increase, but each of them is quite tolerable when it happens.

For those of you who haven't experienced inflation before, it can be quite cruel. If we get inflation in the neighborhood of ten percent, I think you will see about twenty-five percent of the IT consultants out there go out of business. Take this seriously!

Note: This roundtable will *not* be recorded as requested by Paul – you’ll want to join us live!

The December SBT Roundtable will be a spectacular holiday party!

For this month’s Roundtable, we’re happy to welcome Anthropologist and Mentalist, Paul Draper!

December 2nd

9:00 AM Pacific.

Paul is an anthropologist and organizational expert. He has taught at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and served as a master lecturer at Yale University. For seven years, he represented the Casino Floor and Marketing Department for Sands Corporation at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

He has recently consulted for Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, and in Florida, he has acted as a consultant for Martin Memorial Health Systems, Orlando Healthcare Systems, Tallahassee Healthcare Systems, and for Lee Health in Fort Myers.

Members can always find the Zoom link is in your dashboard.

Non-members need to join in order to attend this event.

SBT Community Prices Go Up Jan. 1st

Now is a great time to join the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community.

If you've had a good year and need a great business expense for 2021, you can join the Community today - and lock in the price for life.

Starting January 1st, the Annual Membership is going to $1199 and the monthly is moving to $129. All existing members will continue at the price they' already paying.

One GREAT reason to join is the free training you'll get. We put on ten five-week classes every year. And we have an additional ten on-demand classes - all intended to help you be more successful as a managed service provider or any kind of serious IT service provider.

We have a Big Announcement coming in December. We are re-branding our classes and introducing an amazing program to help you and your staff improve your operations and professionalism.

Community members may attend all classes at no additional charge!

This really is a great deal. The cost for twenty class is just under $6,000. And, of course, the Community includes all of my books, white papers, checklists, and more. It's very easy to get your money's worth immediately.

Join us! www.smallbizthoughts.org

I've added a few goodies to the 2022 calendar. But if you know of scheduled in-person events, please send them my way.

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Have a great week. - Karl P.

:-)

Have You Considered a 4-Day Work Week?

In the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community, one of our members (Vince Gerasolo) has been keeping us up to date on his "trial" program for a 4-Day Work week. Vince is from Toronto and started the program earlier this year.

Now he's written up his Four-Day Work Week policy and placed it in the Community for all members. Of course we'll be talking about this more. Join us every Thursday to keep up on cool new ideas people are trying. Our own Amy Babinchak has a four-day work week during the Summer months when it's feasible. That way her employees can enjoy sunny Summer Fridays, as long as their clients are taken care of.

A few days ago, the New York Times had an article speculating that the pandemic has created an atmosphere where people feel comfortable trying new arrangements - and the four-day work week is being tried in several companies of all sizes.

If you're not a member of the SBT Technology Community, now is a great time to join and lock in the current membership rate for life.

www.smallbizthoughts.org.

:-)

You only missed one week!

Service Agreements for I.T. Consultants

Course 5W16

Taught By: Karl W. Palachuk

Five Tuesdays

November 23 - December 21 - Register Now

All classes start a 9:00 AM Pacific

You're guaranteed to learn something that will make or save you the price of admission!

Based on the best-selling book Service Agreements for SMB Consultants, this course covers everything you need to know about developing your service agreements. And the book subtitle is important, too: A Quick Start Guide to Managed Services.

Most IT Professionals sign - or don't sign - contracts for the wrong reasons. Most think contracts are intended to draw battle lines for when you have a disagreement with your clients. In fact, that piece of the relationship is almost always outside the contract! We'll explore why you really need contracts or service agreements.

We'll also look at various options, including a 2-page "terms of service" as well as managed services, programming agreements, and more.

Tuition for this course include the ebook version of the newly revised and expanded Service Agreements for SMB Consultants! That includes all the downloads from the book as well.

You will learn

Defining Yourself and Your Relationships
Define Yourself
Define Client Relationships
The Language of Service Agreements
The Service Agreement Construction Kit
A Sample Credit Agreement
Boilerplate: A Sample Service Agreement
Flat Fee or Managed Services Parts
The Managed Service Agreement
Getting Help and Managing Agreements
Getting Help - Lawyers, Accountants, etc.
Managing Your Service Agreements

PLUS lots more.

This class is filled with great advice and tips on running your I.T. company and moving into the world of recurring revenue with managed services.

Includes five weeks of webinars with related handouts, assignments, and "office hours" with the instructor. All classes are recorded for download.

This course is intended for business owners and managers. It is particularly useful for the Service Manager or Operations Manager.

Week One: Introduction and Defining Relationships

Week Two: Money, Money, Money

Week Three: The Parts – Part 1

Week Four: The Parts – Part 2

Week Five: Managing Contracts . . . And Relationships

For the week-by-week agenda, see www.greatlittleseminar.com

Only $299

Only $299 per student

Delivered by Karl W. Palachuk, blogger and author of the very popular "SOP Friday" posts at http://sopfriday.com.

Includes five weeks of webinars with related handouts, assignments, and "office hours" with the instructor. All classes are recorded for download. All classes include suggested "homework" that is totally action-focused and intended to move your company's marketing forward.

This course is intended for business owners and managers. It is particularly useful for front office and financial managers.

A Few Details . . .

Each course will be five one-hour Zoom webinars
There will be handouts and "homework" assignments
Class webinars will be recorded and made available to paid attendees only.
All calls start at 9:00 AM Pacific Time

Questions? Email concierge@smallbizthoughts.com

All the Resources That Are Fit to Print

Recent Blog Posts, Podcasts, and Videos

Small Biz Thoughts Blog:

SMB Community Podcast - New episodes drop every Thursday

The Killing IT Podcast - New episodes drop every Tuesday

National Society of IT Service Providers News Blog

Relax Focus Succeed:

RFS: Keep that "Holiday Pace" All Year Long

Selected Recent Videos and Webinars:

A quick guide to my Playlists:

Total: More than 770 videos on the Small Biz Thoughts channel
315+ SOP videos
100+ Relax Focus Success videos

Plus . . .

Training, Courses, Seminars on Managed Services
Product Reviews
and more

You can always check out my YouTube Channel and subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/smallbizthoughts

OR my Relax-Focus-Succeed Channel at https://www.youtube.com/relaxfocussucceed

Small Biz Thoughts Community News

SmallBizThoughts.org

Prices Go Up January 1st

Members always lock in their price for life.

Annual membership will go to $1199 on January first. Monthly membership will go to $129.

Join now and you can lock in the lower rate forever!

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I won't repeat the big Roundtable announcement from above. But please do yourself a favor and be on the Community Roundtable call December 2nd. It will be great - and it will not be recorded.

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Starting Right Now: All Members Receive All Classes Free

All members - both annual subscribers and monthly subscribers - Attend Free

For each class, you may have one person attend a live class free of charge. Additional employees may attend for only $99 - a savings of $200. Or, of course, you can buy an additional membership.

In all, you can attend ten live classes each year, plus we have ten additional on-demand classes.

That's a $5,980 value!

For larger companies, consider the "Corporate" membership: Ten logons with full access for only $3299. Email me if you want details.

Please check out the newsletter. Discounts on training, roadshow, and more.

If you're a member and it's not in your inbox, contact us and we'll figure it out.

The video is here for everyone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJBpBWDeipQ

:-)

Picture of the Day

On the wall at the Bike Dog Taproom, Sacramento

A cute tribute to Jaws.

:-)

Live Events Calendar

What's Here?

This calendar lists two kinds of things: LIVE in-person events from any organization that focuses on the SMB consulting community; and MY events, whether live, webinar, etc.

If you have live events on your calendar that may be useful to others in the SMB Community, please let us know. We'd be happy to list them.

Of course: Everything here is subject to change based on Covid. Click the links for the latest details. Please send updates so we can post them.