Davesbs Blog

After doing an all nighter and a Server down/restore from first thing this morning plus a 6.45am BNI meeting where I did my 10 minute presentation, usual networking, quotes, quotes, qoutes and more paperwork……..

I do appreciate the thought of an extra pair of hands. Wage bill alone doesn’t bear thinking about even if it was a part time student to do some techie stuff. I would have to treble monthly contracts income overnight to contemplate getting help onboard!

It makes me wonder how others in my shoes get on? It must be a very common problem.

Anyone?…

Hi all,

One of the problems of being a single person company (or SPF: Single Point of Failure as Vlad puts it) is the time/work ratio.

This is the only thing that I sometimes have issues with. Not being able to delegate to someone else. It is the good and bad part of running your own (not OWN ) company. I am the SPF; the techie, the business promoter, the net-worker etc etc etc!

Things are now changing here at 101 Digital Services though.

Can’t talk about a few of them yet but mostly it is the realisation that I need help with certain things. Business processes must change so in that respect the following are being made;

1. Make more use of the tools I already have without spending too much time away from running and more importantly promoting the business. MOA with Outlook and BCM for one. Use ShockeyMonkey/Kaseya etc to my full advantage. Make time to do this by….
2. Passing off business processes that I have no inclination or skills to cope with. Bookkeeping is one example I have been struggling with since the start. I thought because I was in computers, that I should be able to do it myself. It’s like database and programming stuff, have tried to learn a few times but just don’t have the type of mind to do it. I know people who do though.
3. Making use of existing and new networking/word of mouth marketing opportunities. BNI works for me but need to leverage existing clients and their networks. Join other networking groups. Partner with other providers who can do what I can’t and vice versa.
4. Make use of my time to actually be the business rather than work in the business being the techie etc. If that is all I am seen as by clients then that is all I will be and the same I presume for any other SMB single person IT company.

Having a more productive time lately after a slow start to the year. (Is it me or did anyone else find it especially difficult to get motivated after New Year this time? )

Blogging took a bit of a hit but I am back now. All focused and that….

P.S. I have had some technical difficulties recently and therefore apologise to anyone who had commented on any of my blog posts but didn’t see them until now. Feel free to comment and these will be shown in a more timely fashion. Thanks to all who have read, tracked back to and commented on my posts! It is very much appreciated.

Apple Macs are Greeeeeat, as Tony the Tiger might say!

Except they aren’t. Not if you need any work done on their internals.

Case in point, a three year old Power Mac G5 dual processor Tower. Perfectly decent with enough ram etc to whip through even huge Photoshop tasks.

Client phones to say his machine came out of sleep, made a loud cracking noise and died.

Fairly obvious to even PC Worlds Colin that the power supply was goosed. I went round just to confirm with multimeter in hand and that’s where the problems started.

Firstly, just an aside to the usual refrain from Mac evangelists; ‘Macs look brilliant and never crash or get a virus unlike those PC things people always want me to buy’. Well, they may look good they may not it depends on your personal opinion. A Subaru whatever may look good to some people where as others love their Alfa’s. Chicken is nice to eat if you like it… see where I am going.

As for they never crash/go wrong etc or get a virus. It is pretty obvious again that as Apple has a much smaller share in the computer market that it will not be targeted as often. Most offices even if they are creative types have PC’s doing the admin stuff, the stuff mostly targeted by crims and basically PC’s are more prevalent so therefore it makes sense to target them with mass spam bots etc.

But, never go wrong or crash…. HA Fu**ing HA. That is the biggest li.. eh, mistruth that I have ever heard.

I have been using/servicing/installing/integrating Apple products as long as I have PC’s and although Apple have a distinct advantage when they make the OS and hardware, things do often go wrong.

back to the story…

Here is the rub. Basically this G5 is on the verge of being PC-ised in that it has standard SATA hard drives and other bits but many parts are still proprietary. This includes the power supply. Made for Apple by various suppliers to fit in the case, to get it out meant disassembling half the machine including the processors.

As I am not an Apple Authorised Service Provider, I cannot just order these parts from apple. I also can’t get apple hardware diagnostic tools. So to a third party provider. Cost of said part £200…for a Power Supply!!!!!!

Two things to be aware of if you are doing this kind of job.

1) If you upgrade or replace any processor, you must get an AASP to thermally calibrate the Mac.

2) If you replace a faulty motherboard, again it is a trip to an AASP (of which there are only 2 in Scotland)

If I were to try to become AASP I would have to jump through so many financial and time consuming hoops that I just will not do it. I therefore do not want to touch any more Apple hardware problems.

As much as people love their Mac’s, please stop the deluded ‘Mac is so much better than PC arguments’ and look at the hard facts.

Thank you PC is all I can say!

I was at an Edinburgh SBS user group meeting last night with a presentation about Microsoft Office Accounting.

I have been on the beta test of Microsoft Office Accounting since the beginning and hoped it would kick the traditional accountancy software market up the bum! 

Looks like it has.

Apparently, double the expected amount of accountants have signed up since the November launch and the official consumer launch is in early March.

It really looks to be a Sage and Quickbooks killer. It is somewhat in between the two of them regards ease of use and functions but is so much more intuitive if you use Outlook 2007, BCM and MOA together.

Many thanks to Duncan from Icelantic for the excellent presentation.

He has been using MOA (with BCM and Outlook 2007) for over a year in a production environment and is having excellent feedback from clients regards MOA. Many are accountants who say they will swap from Sage.

Also Angus from Amber Computing has been installing the Express version and again getting very good responses from clients.

I use Quickbooks 2003 at the moment but will be swapping over to MOA in April for the next tax year.

All we need now are some bookkeepers to really get to learn MOA and offer accounts setup services etc and I think this will really take of in the UK.

There has been a lot of chatter in the newsgroups recently about Microsoft licensing and what to do if you think the legality of clients software is suspect.

Here is my opinion. Funny that, it being my blog

Simple, get them to become legitimate (or legal) or walk away.

Let’s clarify this. Why I said legitimate or legal is because these can be two seperate things. Why? well frankly, just because Microsoft and it’s lawers say something should be the case, it doesn’t mean that it is the law.

It is Microsofts opinion, in their favour, of what it’s lawers interperit the law to be. For it to be seen as legal, it must be put through the proper judicial process. Yes, a court case. Some Microsoft license agreements have been through this process whilst others haven’t.

As a responsible business partner of your client (and business partner of Microsoft), you sell them the product and should do everything in your power to make sure they are buying and using it in a legitimate and/or legal fashion. Simple. You are not the Microsoft police like some have suggested and no-one really expects you to be so… but you also have to be a proper business partner to the client.

Would a solicitor or accountant turn a blind eye to a bit of ‘you didn’t see that did you’? Some might but I don’t want to do business with them and neither do I want to do business with clients who expect me to go against my own advice and potentially leave myself and the client open to legal action. That’s why I said walk away. The slight loss in revenue from this now grade c or d client is not worth the hassle.

Choose the right clients who want your advice for a reason, who see the value in their IT infrastructure and see you as a businees advisor and you can build on this.

Then again, Microsoft have to look at simplifying their licensing………Oh god don’t start that one

I was having a friendly discussion in the pub at the weekend and was introduced to a college lecturer. He spoke quite fluently about IT in his college even though he admitted he is not very technically minded.

Then it came…Why Vista he asked, it knackers things, so his techie people tell him? Windows 98 which he has at home is fine GRRRR!

Except, it isn’t fine. His PC was falling apart at the seams, things just weren’t working. The more I questioned the more it became like a broken record. Why had Microsoft not left things alone. The fact that his quite clearly 18million year old dial-up modem wasn’t working was obviously Microsofts fault. They only update things in order to screw money out of poor victims like him. (This did stay friendly I hasten to add and many more pints were sunk during the discussions!)

And then the explanation of why Vista is so bad. According to his techie department, Vista had made printers stop working! Oh really. How about the fact that the printers in question were well known branded lasers of years ago vintage. Who makes them? It doesn’t bloody matter, it is not Microsoft thats for sure!

Forgive me for stating the bleeding obvious but love or loathe Vista, it is not Microsofts fault if half-arsed software and hardware companies do not bring out updated product for this operating system.

It has been on sale for over a year, beta’d for many years etc etc.

Like all operating systems before and probably in the future, people just do not like change and moan.

Get over it, buy a decent specced PC with Vista on it or seek out XP if you must but remember, would you choose to drive around in an old bashed up car that has been patched to the hilt or a new shiny ‘reliable’ one

The biggie!

Business goals. All the time I am asked what goals I have for my business. Where is it going in 2, 5, 10 years? How do you want to grow your business?

Well, lets get this straight. I own and run a Lifestyle Business! See http://www.vladville.com/2007/02/vladfire-20-david-scrhag.html and you will see what I mean.

The goals I have are to become a proper business partner with my clients. Like a solicitor or accountant. They get on the phone to run anything technical by me BEFORE they buy or even consider looking at a solution.

They should want me to sit in on board meetings, go to training seminars in their line of business applications and see me as part of the company.  As David Schrag puts it, to become the CTO of an organisation. Americanism but valid.

As a lifestyle business, I want to work with people and companies that make me feel good. It also makes me feel good when I help these people and companies. See where I am going with this….

My company grew from back to basics, breakfix stuff (getting rid of adult orientated spyware on little johnny down the road’s PC) with me putting flyers through doors. Three years on and I am running down the amount of breakfix to only good clients that I have known for ages and a few great monthly maintenance/managed service clients who pay my mortgage. Two of which are charities. I love to work with charities. I got these through networking and referral in BNI. This is how I grow my business.

There is no rocket science involved here. I speak to people about how I can help them. If we find a fit, I get to do this, if not I can pass them on to other SMB IT partners. My clients get the service they want, I feel good, pay my mortgage, go on the piss at the weekend and feel good about the whole thing.

My clients talk to other people who then ask me to help and it all starts again. It may need to happen more often but I am working on this!

BNI’s motto is Givers Gain and I think this really suits how I do business. BNI is not for everyone but there are other great networking groups out there i.e. Chambers of Commerce etc etc, the point is, GET OUT THERE! Let people know who you are, to a lesser extent what you do and help people. Remember the old saying: People buy people. Well, I have found this to be so true that it is almost a mantra if I believed in that sort of thing.

My business growth will be what I am comfortable with. Simple. I don’t have a huge plan to be able to sell it for millions in a few years, nor may it still be going when i am no longer running it. I just don’t get the traditional business growth model of money/employees/bigger projects ad infinitum.

To me business is simple. If I enjoy it but don’t get paid it is a hobby. If I do get paid it is a business. If I don’t enjoy it I will move on or change it. If I like the people I work with, that is not a fluke…that is essential.

http://www.vladville.com/2007/11/smb-it-shops-need-a-new-messiah.html

So there it was, the challenge.

It wasn’t so much this particular Vladville post that got me going as I have been meaning to start blogging for ages. Bullshit excuses about not having time etc etc etc aside!

However, a challenge it is so…..

For the record, I disagree with Vlad about the ‘Community’. I see it in action in an albeit small way at every User Group meeting I go to. Not so much on the newsgroups anymore which have become a bit ‘he said she said’ and my all time bugbear, a newbie posts on say SBS2k google group and gets about ten reponses telling them to ’search the archive’! What the fuck, you just wasted your valuable time telling said newbie to do this in a very non-community fashion. I started with SBS 4.5 and immediately joined the relevant newsgroups where the names became very familiar. Very helpful they all were too and I don’t know if it is just that people are less tolerant that before but if you really want to help these newbs (like we all were) then just don’t reply if you deem the qusetion to be lazy or whatever.

Community is out there and it is individuals who care grouping together in a shared sense of trust and willingness to help that make it so.

Just look at Susanne Dansey! Well, we all look up to Susanne, she’s tall 

I don’t know about the States and Microsoft are very different in various global offices, but the UK is looking fairly good from an SBSC/SMB, whatever you want to call it…point of view.