What a week. After a worldwide press and webcast tour over the last 3 days I posted the following update on my Facebook account (vlad@vladville.com btw):

Now even though it was just 10 AM at the time, it had already been a 40+ hour week for me. One of my buddies from Autotask asked the following question:

“No turkey? Football? Even monkeys have a day off once in a while!”

My response:

“I’ve worked my entire life to get the company to this point where it’s on fire and everyone want’s a piece. If I didn’t stop when I was broke and just trying to get it off the ground I certainly am not gonna take a breather now Pedal to the metal man.”

…

Every day you wake up you have a choice. Get up or roll over twice and go back to sleep. The full comfort of bed, the warmness.. it’s certainly a challenge giving that up. Then you hit the shower.. could stand under that stream of warm water all day long. But it’s time to get on with the day, what’s for breakfast? Fluffy scrambled eggs or fried sunny side up? Crunchy toast, fresh veggies. Pancakes with syrup? Yum. Crunchy bacon… salty.. So tasty!!! Time to get dressed and go to @#%^ing work. Or call in sick. Lay around and get that midday nap.. catch up with the DVR or watch your favorite movie..

…

Every day you have a choice to work on being happy, or do what is immediately more comfortable (which typically amounts to nothing).

People talk about living each day as if it were your last.. So how do you imagine your last day on this earth being? Sleeping in an extra hour, slacking your way through the day and being remembered as what? What is important in life?

I am not here to judge anyone, so I will go ahead and explain myself.

The Vlad

I am, what most people would consider a workaholic. Almost everyone would also agree that this is a bad thing. Except I don’t consider what I do for a living as work. This is just who I am. My company and what I’ve created to this point is something I’ve imagined a long time ago and put in ridiculous hours to get to the point where it’s at. And it’s far, far, far from perfect. I wake up every (well, almost every day since I do a lot of all nighters) day trying to make what we do a little more perfect, get myself a little better at what I do.

Not every day is heaven and not every all nighter is fun filled excitement of trying to find the missing semicolon or mismatched bracket – but it all in a way goes towards what I do – and that’s making it easier for millions of people to communicate and share information. Small, insignificant.. but I think I do a better job at providing that than anyone else out there and every day is an adventure of addressing what I (or we) suck at and making it better.

My wife often jokes with me about Mr Burns’s line from The Simpsons: “I just wish I spent more time at the office.” and to a lot of people that is just a crying shame – yet I spend more time with my kid and my wife than most other people I know. But that’s why I go to bed at 2-3 AM and wake up at 6-8 AM. I know what’s important to me and what’s important to so many people that count on me.

What motivates me? What drives me? I grew up in a car family, in Italy. My dad worked in the tire business and seeing a Ferrari at UPIM or in front of COIN was like walking up to a masterpiece. I currently live in Windermere, FL and the road I take to work every day has a nice 2 mile onramp. On which, every day, rain or shine, I floor all four hundred something horses underneath me, burn a little bit of Michelin thread and get that roller coaster feeling for just a few seconds. And despite being picked on by my friends, I consider it a privilege to wear a suit every day, to tie a tie and realize that all the hard work has gotten me and my family the best things in life. From a Rolex to a house that we don’t even use half of, to a lifestyle in which my only goal each day is to just get better at what I do. Every day.

Not for everyone..

Every employee that makes it through the 90 day probation period and shows they can handle everything I throw at them flawlessly gets the Morpheus moment, to pick the blue pill or the red pill:

Making it big doesn’t happen in 40 hours. It takes a lot of extra effort, coordination, management and perpetual pursuit of perfection – doing more and doing it better each and every day. You can take your average raises that correspond with how much you exceed the expectations of your role and go on your marry way before 9AM and after 5PM. But if you want the big bucks.. much like this business, you have to earn them.

Very, very, very, very few people ever take the big money road. That’s not a bad thing, they just have other things in life that are more important that their perfection at their craft. Some people want a big family. Some people want to contribute their time to charitable causes. Different people find joy in different things. The important thing to note is that you cannot have it all.

So today, on this Thanksgiving, I hope you’re happy and thankful for what you’ve got and you dedicate your each and every day to the mark you leave on this world.

Channel, which is the name stupid marketing people at big hardware firms call the collection of VARs, MSPs, resellers and computer builders, is dying.

(you might not like what I have to say)

Let’s not argue about that, we have the numbers to back it and the number is growing rapidly.

And it’s not just the assortment of Action Pack pirates, SPFs, fly-by-nights and other types I’ve shamed over the years on Vladville. Legit IT Solution Providers have taken a big hit in 2009 and it keeps on getting worse.

My check for a motivational speaches bounced. So I’m going to be honest with you.

Today was the first positive conversation with an MSP that I’ve had in at least two quarters.

Not positive in a sense that they are making a killing in the marketplace, but positive in a sense that they see some hope and ability to grow their margins through innovation and doing something new that their marketplace responds to.

You know what it doesn’t respond to? Everything that worked up until now: Large projects, large migrations, large network designs, huge purchase orders and massive upgrades. That stuff is in the past, along with a $12,000 server and $2,000 tape drive. Right under that $4,000 laptop.

In 2009 I’ve been sitting patiently, biting my lip as people pitch one doomed scenario of the recovery after another. See if you’ve said some of these:

SBS 2008 promises to be huge for our business..
Lot’s of interest in EBS..
I think Windows 7 will launch an upgrade cycle..
The economy is coming back, baby!!!

And the beat(down) goes on.

Why?

Because the taste and market demand have fundamentally changed.

You know how all those corporate IT jobs that people made 6 figures for watching a monitor and eating Cheetos never came back? You know how all those outsourced IT jobs are still in India and China? You know how people still seem to be buying those junk Netbooks left and right that the industry as a whole is losing a ton of money on?

Things change.

Profit margins change.

Demand changes.

We’re in the middle of it. And it’s a crying shame that with all the traveling, speaking and talking I’ve made it well into November for a single new idea to come to the market.

If you are waiting for the margins you used to get in 2005/2006 to come back, go look for a job now.

If you are waiting for an OS or device to bring back the margins you used to get in 2005/2006 to come back, go look for a job now.

If you’re thinking that expertise in the past is going to translate into success in the future, for the love of god, launch a training company and suck any money you can from the people dumb enough to think that doing shit the same way you did 5 years ago is going to make them profitable again tomorrow.

Now I have been working with a few friends in HTG and execs Autotask / ConnectWise / LPI / Kaseya on something new and while people are excited, there is a lot of hesitation to come to terms that things have changed. You’re as likely to uncover a business that is going to pay $50-$100 / workstation management as you are going to sell a $4,000 laptop.

Not saying that there isn’t a sea of people willing to pay $4,000 for a laptop, but that sea is drying up.

This isn’t a college thesis or a thought-provoking blog post… it’s just the way things are.

In order for “the channel” to survive, it has to change. It’s gotten you this far, right? But what now.

P.S. I wonder how big the market is for a “2012” or “The Day After Tomorrow” style book for the MSP industry…

There has been a lot of hype around the Droid phone from Verizon and with a few of my friends getting one and not sharing any impressions I had to go and check it out. I spent about half an hour playing with it: It’s cool, but not impressive. Sticking with the iPhone 3GS.

Here is my initial impression: the keyboard is too small to be far more useful than an on screen one. The web browser is impressive, but zooming in to read the content is painfully slow. One thing that did surprise me was the collection of apps, it doesn’t look like anything I have on the iPhone would be difficult to replace with the Droid and Android 2.0 marketplace. The other impressive thing – camera. Absolutely amazing. Ton of features but still sloooooooow.

Biggest disappointment: GPS. The GPS detected me about 6 blocks (over a mile) away from where I actually was. The device was not as snappy as expected. The picture album left quite a bit to be desired, even though the device is far more feature packed than the iPhone in nearly every area.

In my opinion, Droid might be the best smartphone that isn’t an iPhone. But as much as it pains me to admit this, and give Apple more kudos or money, the iPhone simplicity and smoothness wins. While I wish I had better 3G, the Droid requires extra $ to enable Exchange 2007 access and there is no tethering. So yeah, better 3G but still the same dirty telco tricks that will make this yet another device that’s a slave to it’s carrier.

If so, today is your lucky day. Erick Simpson from MSPU is hosting a webinar today and we’re going to be talking about how to position the cloud as a managed service. First half of the conversation is about various cloud options, what they mean, who is making money off them and how.

Then we talk about the actual MSP side of the cloud, or stuff that has traditionally been called “hosting” and how OWN has made a ton of money for it’s partners over the past two years with pretty much the same tools one would expect.

Click here to register; Seating is limited

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/252488307

It starts at noon EST, or roughly 2 PM. Yes, we’ll be talking about ExchangeDefender 5 since that’s pretty much what everyone wants to talk about and everyone within OWN is muzzled about it. Trying a bit of the Steve Jobs process because I don’t want the usual backchannel bs to get in the way of what this really is – a total game changer for anyone using anything but ExchangeDefender (assuming your run a business to make money of course)

Register. Talk to you at noon.

2009 was an awesome year for Own Web Now and we spent like there was no tomorrow. We’ve attended more events, conferences, user groups and corporate trainings than ever in the history of the company.

With that in mind:

Did you miss us this year? If so, let me know where at vlad@vladville.com.

Our biggest marketing push of the year is underway but I’m already narrowing down our road schedule for 2010. We’re looking to spend more but spend less time on the road if you get my drift. This was our biggest year in marketing and we learned a few things:

1. Paid events are no longer worth sponsoring. IT industry is no stranger to liars but this year in particular people really relied on the “sponsored event” organizers for vacations. Events that pay or beg people to attend for free are off the road trip list.
2. Some folks clearly spend too much time traveling and too little working. We have a 3 figure deep list of people that have gone to 4 or more events this year.
3. We aren’t stupid – we actually track our ROI – you can coach your attendees to go be nice to blow smoke up sponsors ass but when no sales come up as a result of it the sponsorship money dries up too.

Our business is really firing on all cylinders and we want to keep it that way – so keep your eyes on your mailboxes (physical ones) through November and December. I’d really appreciate any help with the above. I hope some of you don’t misinterpret what this means to our partners – the less money we waste on the road front the more will come out the market development and business resource end. But not letting that one out the bag until you get our mail

Relax. Slow down. Wait a minute.

It’s what I’ve been offering my folks that are dealing with a ton of questions about the launch of ExchangeDefender 5, Shockey Monkey, OWN Portals, OWN Configurators and all the cool stuff we’ve been working on.

“For news about Own Web Now products please keep a close eye on www.ownwebnow.com/blog for announcements and promotions.”

That’s the only response they are allowed to provide in portal and in tickets and over the phone. Now, naturally, if you know them – they’ll tell you more but allow me to explain..

For Santo’s Sake

A while ago Stanto asked for the Vlad-to-English dictionary so here is the translation of the above. For years, Own Web Now was a geek organization. To call it a business would be a compliment because it didn’t behave as a business, it behaved like a bunch of kids who got distracted by the latest coolest feature and just went for it.

Boy was it fun.

But somewhere along the path the company got successful.

That’s when it all went to shit.

At a point, features no longer become the thing that makes your product awesome but turn into a magnet for stupidity that you then have to document, fix, tweak and otherwise dumb down or coat in vinegar to keep people off.

Over the past year Own Web Now Corp went from a global geek empire to a corporation, with all sorts of evil roles and people that spend time tracking user satisfaction, peak performance, problem resolution times, etc.

Now that our flagship product is launching we’re not going to do what we did every single time in the company history:

“Hey, check this out! Doesn’t work? Try now? Works? Awesome! Yeah, I know it’s cool as hell!”

No.

On 16th of November we’re launching series of webcasts introducing you to the ExchangeDefender 5.

A week after that we’ll actually start talking about the feature set.

A week after that we’ll start a sales promotion.

You will know this product and love this product before we talk it up to high hell.

I understand that there is always that element of curiosity associated with a launch, and I promise you won’t be disappointed… but give OWN a chance to do this right. I did it my halfass way for 12 years which was fine enough to get us to this point. But the list of Ferrari collectors and enthusiasts is growing and I don’t want to be at the bottom of the order book anymore. Let’s focus on what’s really important here and why we’re all doing this to begin with.

Seriously – relax. We’ll take really good care of you. Those of you that have talked with us at ConnectWise and HTG know that there is simply no comparison for what we’re offering in the next wave and price point – so the two weeks aren’t going to kill you. I know you want it now, I feel your pain – I’ve endured months of bitching while this product was being designed and tested to a lot of personal and professional beatdowns – Dec 1….

Over the past few months many people have complimented me on my weight loss and apparently more positive attitude. To all of those comments I have responded with the following:

“Heroin is absolutely AWESOME!!!!!”

Now I’ve never done drugs in my life but the above is just awkward enough to stop random dudes from complimenting me – you know how many women have told me I look good? None. Zip. Zero. But I digress.

Last week, after the ConnectWise Summit, I shared my little secret over a quiet conversation with Erick Simpson. The concept I would like to introduce you to is called:

Shit Guard

We were reflecting about how the other CEO in our community had mellowed out recently. The conversation went like this:

Erick: Hiring ____ has really been great for him.
Chris: Yeah, he’s really down to earth these days.
Vlad: Yep, he’s the shit guard.
(laugher ensues)

But I am here to tell you that this concept is very real.

When you’re the CEO of the company your daily life consists of interacting with two types of people: shameless weasels that blow smoke up your ass about how great you are because they want your money and disgruntled clients that want to take you down a notch for personal fulfillment.

As a CEO it’s a part of my job to deal with shit. When I walk in to work there is a line out my door and into the hallway, filled with shit. It rolls uphill. I sit in my Aeron and do my best to deflect all this shit to the people and processes that can best help and then I get on with my day. And thats from people that work FOR me. Can you imagine the river of people that *I* work for?

Everyone’s got problems. That doesn’t mean you, as the CEO, must become the corporate janitor in charge of cleaning up all of the organizations messes. So you get yourself a Shit Guard, someone who gets to deal with the clients shit day in and day out and consolidate what we really need to address as quickly as possible.

That way you can focus on creating and motivating resources to fix the problems and move the organization forward… not be stuck in the middle of river of complaints without a paddle.

So go on, get yourself a shit guard.

It’s 3 AM, I’m tired, motivated and enthusiastic by what I see.

Inside, I’m depressed and frustrated by what I hear and witness because it’s so hard watching people who know what they need to do ignore it because change is too scary. So they sit, look for comfort and try to avoid stuff that becomes more real with each passing day.

Over the past few days I’ve had a chance to talk to so many people that my voice has completely given away. Shot. In that time, I’ve discussed things with people that are growing and that are slowing. Let me sum it up:

The era of nickel and diming, tiering, layering and stacking is over. Really, I am happy you’re making a living at it now, I really am. But we all know that the money next year won’t come from the basics. So either give it up now and grow your share/client base, or watch your empire erode.

And as many of you have seen & heard in Orlando, and will soon be reading in the press, these aren’t just words my friends.

There is a reason janitors, door greeters and security guards with flashlights make minimum wage. Be IT innovators. Not IT janitors.

What a fantastic few days it has been playing a host to the cloud of MSP providers the ConnectWise and HTG conferences have brought to Orlando. I have three quick thoughts I have to share with you all, but given the extent of NDAs and confidentiality agreements I have to be a bit vague:

1. Thank you all for coming to Orlando. Having spent most of the time in hotels and on the road (vs. my new house) I am truly glad that I can drive ten minutes back to Windermere and just sink into my own bed.

2. It’s tough out there for a pimp. Most of the owners and managers I’ve been talking to are not doing well. As a matter of fact, a few percentage points of growth seem to be good news. Sales of hardware are down. Adoption of managed services is down. Overall climate seems to be decidedly down. People are making money but they want more. That’s capitalism.

3. Our new pitch of “cloud direct” is going well. The “ExchangeDefender 75 Cent Cut Throat Special” has been amazingly received by everyone I’ve talked to and the market share we will gain on the back of this is amazing. We are really going all out here because even a blind man sees the end of this tunnel: everything shall soon be free. That’s not good news for people that had hoped to make money selling software but the true definition of a business success is in the amount of the profits it generates, not how it goes about doing so (within law and reason of course).

The conversations I’ve had today, even with the rabid fans of other products, makes it clear that business people make business decisions. They don’t buy it on personal intangibles over how much they like the guy, we’re not Hannah Montana fans running around with glitter in our hair – bottom line is.. well.. what contributes to that bottom line. Profits.

And as I said in the previous post – game on folks. This isn’t the IT sector of the 90’s or 2000’s, fighting for every dollar and every penny is going to get harder. It’s your call whether you’re going to do it, or watch from the sidelines as others take it all over. Not sure what you’re going to be doing but I’m not stopping. Google isn’t stopping. Microsoft isn’t stopping. Yahoo isn’t stopping. Opportunity is yours for the taking.

One thing I heard the most this week: “Well, I’d love to work with you on that” when talking about the direct model. Looks like all the partner feedback built something good, eh? We’ll be at CW and HTG all week, track me or Shannon down and find out what it means for you.

ConnectWise Partner Summit starts in a few days and it’s one of the biggest MSP-centric events of the year that brings together all walks of IT life.

Last year the vibe was very positive, attendees were excited and everyone was “trying to move my clients to managed services” but since then we’ve had a catastrophic collapse of the banking industry, something damn near a stock market crash, record streak of unemployment growth and a slowdown of all measurable economic growth indicators.

Looking over the numbers that we track, pure play MSP’s have been hit the hardest. They led the pack in the percentage of closed shops and they were overwhelmingly the ones that lost the largest number of seats.

In the same time span, OWN has had an all time record growth in accounts, revenues and profits (unfortunately we’ve also had to do a lot of collections and longer DSO as economy spares no one). Today is our biggest $ day, ever. Our partners at MSP University, ConnectWise, Autotask, CharTec have also posted record numbers and the MSP solution provider presence at conferences and events is bigger than it’s ever been.

What Vlad would like to know is….

It’s obvious that the only people making significant money in the MSP industry are the software and outsourcing companies providing managed service providers with services that they use to manage end customers. MSPs aren’t doing so hot. Some are even losing out to their suppliers that compete for MSP business, such as Dell.

With the space getting crowded and the deliverable/value very difficult to differentiate and distinguish between MSPs.. which other lines of business are MSPs going into to actually generate profit growth?

So where is the money at? Let me know, we’ll have a booth at both HTG and ConnectWise events next week, would love to hear some really good MSP stories and ideas for a change.