On a phone consultation a client he said to me, “I wish it was as easy to make an IT services sale as it is to sell what you do.” Ha! Hahahahaha! I laughed till I cried. He actually was sincere, so I took a little bit of pride in the fact that I make it look effortless. All true pros do. But EASY?

For most of the CEOs reading this, I would say you are very likely underpaid for the work, worry and effort you’ve put in to get where you are. Given that 96% of the American public do NOT have to make a payroll, they cannot possibly understand the difficulty of the task required to start, grow and run a profitable business, nor do they appreciate the risk involved in getting paid LAST as the CEO.  

“If I saw a competitor drowning, I’d shove a hose down his throat.” Ray Kroc, McDonald’s founder

Last week, I hosted rock legend Gene Simmons at our Producers Club meeting to interview him onstage. Let’s just say it was not a typical interview.  

I LOVES me some Halloween. The decorations, TV shows, costumes, you name it. If, like me, you like being spooked to the point of having the little hairs on your neck stand up, may I suggest a completely free, readily available horror show you can use to entertain yourself year-round? Record and listen to how your employees, techs and supposed-to-be salespeople are handling inbound calls to your office. Trust me, you’ll have nightmares for WEEKS.

But like all good things here on earth, at some point they come to an end. 

In the world of business consultants, advisors and even IT services, there are a LOT of “dogs” who paint themselves as “pandas” and attempt to sell you their services – people who are grossly incompetent fakes who can hang out a shingle and call themselves a pro.

Since we’re creeping up on the Halloween season, I thought I’d talk about the FEAR of making tough (but necessary) decisions. I see a lot of MSPs held back, suffering with stress, low margins, unnecessary anxiety and slow growth simply because they’re afraid of making a necessary but unpopular decision.

In a recent wave of tech layoffs, an employee posted their shock and dismay over their employer’s sudden decision to downsize by cutting 90% of the staff. Their comment was “I thought I was indispensable.”

the REAL money and progress in business is made from persistent, dogged, consistent implementation of “old” but proven fundamentals, systems and winning “recipes” that are perfected and known to work.