Kicking and Screaming I am Bloggin

Hey David, I have to admit I was the one beating the dead horse, as I really enjoy the Greatest Show in IT or SMB Nation as it was in the past. I just wanted it to have every chance of becoming as good as it once was and I thought Vlad’s presence would have added to it.  But after talking to Susan after Vlad did the Bridge, check, Match, check post; I decided she was right when she said the same thing I was not only beating a dead horse, but throwing fuel on his fire. Well they always say any press is good press, and I am sure all this chitchat didn’t have a lot to do with it, but Harry tells me booking are already over 500 for this years conference, so it looks like Dana & Arlin have pulled it off in spit of Vlad’s comments.

So now that we got that cleared up, I would like to encourgae you to continue on smemanaged.com, speaking as one SPF to another, there really is time during the day to get this all done. So please don’t give up!

So have you been looking for Wayne Small’s new hiding place, it was recently uncovered, take a look at http://blog.sbsfaq.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=2

 And speaking of Wayne and things down under, have you heard yet, Wayne is putting together a conference, details can be found at http://www.smbfocus.com/default.aspx

Someone forwarded me this post from Eric Ligman about a new program to take the pain out of Open License renewals, and the best news for those of you who work in the south east like me, is for our area the program is being administered by Tom Harshbarger, so we know it will get done right. If they make this much easier I may start to like licensing, naw still not gonna happen :>)

I got a note from Allen StClair asking me if I would come to Raleigh on teh 30th and participate in an SMB Workshop talking about helping small shops make a better living, how could I possibly refuse :>)

Below is an invitation to anyone who would like to attend this free workshop, directly from Allen. He asked me to help him get the word out, I figured I would just post his words :>)

Hope you can make it,
ha

I Need a Little Help
by Allen StClair

 It is no secret that most of us are in business to support our preferred lifestyle.Related to that, in my experience working as an independent IT professional for over two years now, I am finding it difficult to “go it alone.”  I have managed to keep my practice afloat, but, unfortunately, it hasn’t provided me with much of a life.Research shows that the top IT consultants—those who bring in the most revenue and have the highest profile clients—rely on a strong support network.Related to that, one of the things I am doing is organizing an event on Thursday, August 30^th at 6:30pm to help bring the “small business IT community” a little closer together.This open-discussion meeting is a 90-minute event that will give us an opportunity to explore the challenging business issues that we face.  This meeting will be professionally facilitated to ensure that it is fun, fast-paced, and relevant. You are guaranteed to leave with insights that could have an immediate impact on your business.I need your assistance in two ways. First, as you are an active member in the small business community, I would like you to attend. Also, please invite any IT professionals that you feel would benefit from attending the workshop. I would like a big turnout for this one!Microsoft MVP “HandyAndy” Andy Goodman, who lead the move of SMBTN to the east coast, will be travelling from the Triad area to participate and offer his insights and experience on running an IT business. Another nationally known IT consultant with over 15 years of consulting experience from eastern NC has also penciled us in. The floor will be open to address your biggest issues, whatever they are. Be sure to bring a list of topics and questions that are important to you.  Here are some possible suggestions:·        What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Recurring Revenue model versus the Time and Material model?·        How do I get more high-paying clients?·        Do I need a target market?·        How do I gain a unique edge?·        What marketing tactics give you the most bang for your buck?·        What strategies do you use to get prospects to invite you in and talk about their problems?·        How important are online newsletters and blogs?·        How important are referrals and how can I create a referral machine to grow my business?·        Is paid advertising a good strategy?·        Is direct mail a good way to attract prospects?·        How do I create a sense of need and present a compelling offer?·        How do I find customers that are a good fit?·        What is the key to long-term, loyal clients? 

I promise that everyone will walk away from this workshop with something of value. Let me know by Wednesday if you and anyone you invite are going to attend. Matt Carter of PCMedevac and I will be buying pizza and drinks for everyone, so we need to know how many participants to expect.  

I do appreciate your support, and if you have any questions, please let me know. The formal discussion starts at 6:30. The pizza should arrive shortly after 6:00, so feel free to come early to eat and socialize.Date: Thursday, August 30
Time: 6:30pm (Pizza at 6:15)
Location:

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 Please RSVP by email to astclair-at-concia.com (Replace the -at- with @). Or call me, 919-454-5206. Allen St. ClairConcia Technologieswww.conciatech.com919-454-5206

For our upcoming meeting in September we have a marketing guru coming in to give us a marketing 101 on what works, what doesn’t and a high level what can we expect. Sara MacSween has been doing marketing for larger companies for a good number of years now and has decided to open up her own business, The Marketing Boutique. So not only can we pick up some tips on how to let the world know about our offerings, if you are interested in outsourcing your marketing, you can get in on the ground floor with a brand new outfit.

Also upcoming for our October meeting (10/2/007), which will be lead by our Co-Leader Scott Harvey of RTP South, we have our very own Kay Tatum of  Performance Dimensions, Inc. presenting on working with the new Office 2007, and how to get past the where did my tools go shock, and become productive. Kay has been working with Office 2007 since early in the beta, she participated in the Office 2007 Launch, and she knows the new Office better than anyone I know. I am sorry to have to miss it but I am going directly from SMB Nation 2007 to Silicon Valley to install a new Intel S5000Pal based server.  Speaking of SMB Nation, as of this writing they have sold over 400 seats and you still have a few days left to get the early bird discount.

And then in November (11/6/2007) we have a special treat, my friend, the father of the SBS2k Yahoo Group and one of the original SBS-MVP’s Grey Lancaster will be doing a live demo of the best thing to come from Microsoft since SBS itself, Windows Home Server. This is going to be one of those you can’t miss it events, so mark your calendars now. I expect we will fill the room at Fire Mountain, so get there early for a good seat.

Keep an eye on our website for updates at www.tSBSg.org or http://smbtn-nc-triad.org/

I just read Vlad’s recent post and though he had finally gone off the deep end, read my response here

Well tonight was a first.

It is not unusual for me to put a smile on someone’s face in the IT realm (especially if I just helped save their bacon), but tonight while we were eating at PF Chang’s a really nice Chinese restaurant in Greensboro, the waiter came over and told me I had made his day, and he thought of me like his uncle.
I have never been adopted in a restaurant before :>)
I was just being my normal jovial self, but I guess he was having a bad day and really needed cheering up.

Now if I could just figure a way to do the same for my little sister who got an e-mail from her boss this morning telling her they just closed down the company she worked for. http://www.firstmagnus.com/, we are rapidly going from a housing slump to a depression here in the US, so if you know of something to make her smile, I am all ears.
In any event thanks for the great service Chris,
Until Next Time,
Uncle HA

So Vlad has a teaser campaign in action, but even though some would say the character

couldn’t have been more appropriately named, I think our team can take him.

Hi Gang,

It is that time again, this Wednesday (8/15/2007)  is the SBS Chat at http://chat.sbsmigration.com/sbschat

Hope to see you there at 7:00pm est (gmt -5)

And for those of you in the US, I just heard about a free (register before 9/1/2007) ResponsePoint training, take a look at http://www.msreadiness.com/CourseDetail.aspx?id=6508, I am signed up for the Charlotte training, come learn with me if you are in the area.

And for all of you, don’t forget SMB Nation 2007 is right around the corner, have you registered at http://www.smbnation.com/SMB%20Nation%202007%20Fall%20Conference/2007%20SMB%20Nation%20Fall%20Conference.htm

C U  Wednesday,

ha

One of the members of my group was looking for a way to print a label for a contact from CRM to his Seiko Smart Label Printer. I told him unfortunatley there was no single click button like in Outlook, even with the Outlook client loaded, the Smart Capture sees no data. I told him I had a work around and in putting together a small how to for him, it seemed like a good thing to share here and maybe someone will reply with a more elegant solution (are you out there Anne?).

What we did was to create a Word mail merge document and save it. Then you highlight the contact you want a label for and open the saved merge doc and merge it and then hit the Seiko icon in Word to print the label I used this label which is close to the SPL-2RL we use.
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Go through the steps for the first mail merge to labels and save it when it looks like this

Then when ever you need a label just highlight the contact in CRM and click Actions, Mail Merge, and New Document from Existing Document

and then click the Seiko icon in Word.

So like I said it is not the most elegant solution, but it does beat typing out each label.

Maybe one of these days Seiko will give us a button like the one in Word.