How many times have you been asked by a client or prospect to do a project and you had to say NO because neither you nor anyone on your staff possessed the necessary skills to carry it out? Well, next time such an opportunity arises you need to weigh your options before giving the standard ?NO? answer.

Have you ever outsourced your higher level work? What about collaborating with your ?competitors? or other IT firms? There is no shame in admitting that sometimes you just can?t do it all yourself. For example, a partner of mine was asked by one of his financial clients to upgrade the security of their network for compliance. However, this was not his exact area of expertise. After he and I discussed the project I put him in touch with a friend of mine who is a high level security and Cisco specialist. My partner was able to accept the project with my friend doing the install. On top of this, my friend managed to become contracted to do the quarterly security audits for this financial firm.

I am pleased to announce the launch of our EHR Academy for Healthcare IT Providers. The EHR Academy has been designed to help you succeed in the healthcare vertical before making a large financial commitment into an EHR solution. The EHR Academy through Stuart Selbst Consulting is an intense 2-day boot camp to prepare your company to become successful as a Healthcare IT provider.

During the boot camp you will be educated on different EHR solutions, meet and network with successful HCIT providers and learn from the doctors and practice administrators who will train you on medical terminology, practice management, what the doctors and healthcare practices are really looking for and more. We will also be discussing “the stimulus”, how to sell with and against it.. You will learn what the stimulus is and really how much money is available to you and the doctors. Attendees will get in-depth knowledge of HIPAA, what it is and why it is so important. Also you will learn how to overcome the objections from the doctors and how to truly qualify the opportunity.

As we go through life we come across people who make an impact in our life and inspire us to take “it” to the next level. Sometimes it is a teacher, a coach, a former employer or maybe a sports figure. No matter who it may be, someone has inspired us.

The biggest inspiration in my life, as most people know, is my wife Loree. But, Loree wasn’t always in my life. So who inspired me to build a business and succeed? Well my mom and dad obviously played a major part in my life. They taught me the value of a hard day’s work, the difference between right and wrong and to be honest. But there were 2 exceptional people (mentors) who inspired and helped me develop as a business person. The first one was a former employer of mine, his name is Michael Drzymkowski. Michael was always a go-getter. As very focused and driven man there was never any BS with Michael. Through working for Michael for almost 6 years I learned how to build a successful business, develop long term relationships and build a valuable offering. The second person who was an inspiration to me was a business colleague named Roger Fallihee. Roger owned a very successful company in the Bay Area and when I was up there seeing clients, I would always visit with Roger and his team. The advice, friendship and mentoring Roger offered to me as a young person starting their career was priceless.

How often do you hear, “that costs too much” or, “this other guy is only $75/hr”? I would bet you hear this sort of thing all the time just like I used to when I had my MSP.  How do you overcome that objection? What is your value to the prospect?

One of the things that I have realized, and I am sure you have as well, is that most business owners don’t understand the investment they need to make into technology to move their business forward. As business technology experts it is part of your unwritten job description to communicate the value to the prospect. If you don’t know the value of your expertise, you should figure it out.

Just the other day I was in a conversation with an IT business owner. We were discussing how I ran my MSP and some of the tough situations I worked myself through. The conversation lead us to a particular situation I had where a non-contracted client who needed a lot of work done.

Are you going to the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington DC? If you are planning to attend, I hope that you are thinking about trying to find new opportunities for your business. One of the opportunities you should be looking at is building a Healthcare IT practice.

Healthcare IT is an ever growing vertical in our industry. In this vertical you will have the opportunity to become a trusted technology advisor to healthcare providers in your area.  In addition, you will be in a position to provide solutions that will allow the healthcare care providers to streamline how they run their practice and to practice medicine more efficiently.  

This is your chance to speak and network with industry experts and peers on building a Healthcare IT Practice. The fine people from gloStream are throwing a party during WPC at the International Spy Museum on Tuesday, July 13 from 6:30pm until 8:30pm

This is an exciting time for our industry; two of the firms who took part in my Spring Training for Business event are collaborating to provide a full suite of services to the IT channel. The fine people at Live Virtual Helpdesk are partnering with my friends at PacketTrap to offer outsourced NOC and Helpdesk services to their partner community.

PacketTrap a remote monitoring and management tool provides IT professionals, through their flagship product PacketTrap MSP, with a 360 degree view of their customer’s single and multi-site networks and allows them to manage and maintain their infrastructure from a single interface. The PacketTrap MSP platform is designed to monitor your customer’s network in a secure, customized environment for your business. PacketTrap MSP sets up in minutes and auto-discovers system resources and their metrics, including hardware, operating systems, virtualization, databases, middleware, applications and services.

Live Virtual Helpdesk, based in Victoria, BC Canada is a leading North American “LIVE” Help Desk/NOC company providing service for desktops, laptops, servers, network devices and hand held devices. How LVHD works, Live VHD becomes an extension of your company and brands everything on your behalf; leveraging your existing technologies and legacy data to deliver support to your clients, your way! Our fixed cost model makes it simple for you to set your own margins.

A few years ago I sat on a panel moderated by Nine Lives Media (MSP Mentor, The VAR guy) editor, Joe Panettieri at the CompTIA MSP Summit on “When is it Time to Fire a Client?”  We had a great discussion going about the differences between customers and clients, what types of clients you want and more.  I recall sharing that in the MSP business I had at the time I would fire my bottom 20% clients each year.  In other words, the least desirable/profitable 20% of my client base were not renewed by my company.  These client was either too much trouble, didn’t pay, didn’t listen to my advice or there was something that made the relationship no longer work.

As a business coach there are also times I have to let my clients go so they can begin finding their own path.  Just last week I parted company with a few clients.

My friend Keith Nelson made this comment on my Facebook page.

"It is not about charging a higher price - Price is a focus that will cause pressures on pricing. It is about a value - a real and perceived value your presence brings to your clients. In our business it is not about fixing computers or keeping them running. It is the ability to be strategic in your customers C level management. It is when you become the "approver" for your clients not the "trusted advisor". It is when you stop advising and start directing."

Thanks Keith.

Have you looked at your marketing message lately?  What message is it sending to your clients, customers and prospects?  Does your marketing say, “Hey, we are the cheapest firm in town!” in hopes of winning their business.  Or, is it telling them, “Our firm brings value and great benefits to you and we will be helping you increase productivity and profits”?

There is a laundry list of folks touting to be marketing experts out there.  But, do they really know your business?  More importantly, do they know your clients, customers and prospects?  Probably not, so why are you listening to these so called experts?

Let me tell you how this post came to be.  One of my very successful partners recently engaged with a marketing company.  This marketing company had the presentation, talked the talk and walked the walk.  We were all in agreement that this was the firm to use.

Axcient is pleased to have you join us as Karl W. Palachuk presents:

"Make the Move to the Cloud"

Join Karl Palachuk for this webinar on practical first steps you can take right now to move into cloud services. Cloud services are HOT – and your clients need to hear about them from you before they find out about them from someone else. Join Karl to learn some great “First Steps” you can take to start making money in the cloud today.

Join us June 9th at 10:30 am Pacific / 1:30 pm Eastern!

To join Karl and Axcient, register today