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.

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