Tomorrow morning I’m going back on the road for what will hopefully be the shortest conference trip of the year for me – CompTIA Breakaway. It promises to be a great event and while both Looks Cloudy and ExchangeDefender will be there in force, I’m trying to look beyond it much like everyone else. What’s the next big hype that will fall flat on it’s face?

At this very moment, the cloud is a money printing machine.

Aside from that, not much is going on. People are still afraid to make major investments and when they do so they aren’t putting it into traditional hardware and software as you can tell by warnings and financial reports of tech companies. What they are selling like crazy is consumer electronics and that’s happening relatively untouched by the MSP/VAR community because consumer experience is both direct and disposable – lower total cost of ownership.

While I’m quite excited for this years Breakway, I’m also going to predict that it will probably be the greatest one ever – because the conversation is certainly changing. The future of small business IT isn’t in credentials nobody has heard of or an audit board trying to hopelessly chase one fad after another (security, virtualization, health care). It’s this:

This is a retail storefront whose tagline is “PC & MAC Repair” and their draw is a virus removal special starting at $49. They also apparently sell hardware and software, used laptops and generally everything your variety MSP / VAR happens to do.

A decade ago an A+ credential meant something because it was widely recognized as a hardware expertise certification by the IT managers that were hiring IT workers. Ditto for vendor certifications such as Microsoft Certified Partner. Finally bottoming out with Microsoft’s Small Business Specialist logo which separated small business IT experts from attorneys ordering the action pack. But massive new business influx as a result of a new logo – not so much.

OK – Now What?

If you’re heading to CompTIA Breakaway, don’t waste your time getting lost in the vision of things. The current small business marketplace for technology is dictated by the vendors and by the IT Solution Providers that are implementing various bits and pieces of those vendors to deliver their own solution. It’s not the next credential. Or the next vertical. Or the next hype cycle.

Lot’s of people missed the MSP train. They managed.

The Healthcare IT was all air. People moved on.

Many of you will never choose to deal with the cloud. And you’ll be fine too.

Point is to sit down and work on your service delivery and solution – that is ultimately what will make the difference.

It’s you vs. Microsoft/Google/Apple/Dell.

Own Web Now (my real job) makes 90% of it’s revenues from less than 20% of our partner base. We’ve had spectacular growth this year despite cutting our conference budget by 75%. Next year we intend to cut it even more – another half. Not to buy more Ferrari’s but to help you be more successful – there are far more cooler things we could be doing with our cash for our existing partners than spraying conferences in attendees in hope of finding a new partner. It’s clear to me you guys like what we’re doing – the referrals are through the roof and Shockey Monkey, a product with exactly $0 marketing budget, is adding people daily.

One thing I’ve been hearing a lot is:

“Vlad, I’m tired of being the middleman for all this. Just cut me a check.”

I hear you. I’ve been saying the same as well to my vendors – and we’ve been outsourcing stuff aggressively this year. Competitively speaking, you’ve got to pick what you want to be good at and stick to it – but make money on virtually anything. I’m pretty sure that’s the very definition of hustling don’t quote me on it though.

This is quite possibly the best time to be in business IT. The opportunity is tremendous because among all the confusion, people going direct, new hypes and new promises of untapped blue oceans and amazing financing schemes – really hard working people are making tons of money selling the cloud which in turn is fueling their project work and all the other stuff that goes along with it.

To pimpin’

Look forward to seeing many of you at CompTIA – my window there is quite tight – I get in around noon tomorrow and leave after the vendor festival on Tuesday evening. I don’t plan to sleep though so you’ve got 24 hours of my time – easy! Yes, I’ll buy you a beer. No, you can’t have the iPad.  In the meantime, sign up for this:

New ExchangeDefender Archiving Solution Pack

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/275688153

August 4th, 2010 at noon EST – Thursday

Remember, if it’s not something easy that’s going to put $ in your pocket every time you do it, it’s not worth it.

Today two big, obvious, truths were revealed to those who held their sword aloft and said “By the power of Greyskull…”:

1. I am a shameless, selfpromotional opportunisitic guy.
2. I am neither Vartruth nor The Channel Watchdog.

Here is the truth. I spend a truckload of money to attend, sponsor, wine & dine, iPad-coat and act as an overall Santa to the channel. And all you people want to talk about is some tween shenanigans of stuff we all know but don’t sit around and talk about because there is something grander at hand: success.

So now you know what will happen to the next sucker who asks me about the sensationalism in the channel. First, I will tell you I know exactly who it is. Then, I will proceed to pin you in a corner and pitch stuff so hard that cash will bleed out of your ears and eyes. 

What Started This

My ex-wife sent me a txt late at night saying that she was defending my honor whenever my name came up as the obvious identity. Her comment:

“Don’t make me look stupid.”

My response:

“One way you can tell it’s not me is that everything I do is for the goal of promoting myself.”

Obviously you all think it’s me.

And since everyone thinks it’s me – and nobody has claimed Vartruth or The Channel Watchdog – who am I not to exploit it for attention? It registered more people than the last corporate webcast I ran.

You’ve seen this blog for years go after Microsoft, Apple and other folks that I tried to work with. It was self-serving and opportunistic at every step – and I put my name/reputation behind it. Now I was stupid and in my 20’s and the way I justified it at the time was because I could not afford to buy the kind of publicity that things like SBS Show, SPAM Show and Vladville generated when I voiced the displeasure of the community.

But at some point I grew up (I’ll admit I’m still stupid) and found a better way to get things done. Then again, it’s easy to look back from my skybox and point a finger at a 20-something Vlad that was working 20+ hours a day.

Faceless destruction for the sake of damage makes no sense to me. Even The Channel Watchdog asked:

“I have a load of stuff on Chartec, Labtec, and SMB Nation that I am putting together for release. Attacking Harry worries me a little though because everybody thinks he is a saint and my politics are shakey right now”

My response:

I’m not sure what your motivation for doing what you’re doing is but whenever I start to second guess myself I ask “How is this going to make me money?” — if I figure out a way, I go with it. Otherwise, why bother?

You see, we all have a reason for doing what we’re doing.

What I learned from this

Just like almost everything else in the channel, most people are not paying attention. Which in this case is a good thing.

Surprisingly, most people found the stuff generated by Vartruth and Channel Watchdog Unprofessional / Offensive. It’s surprising to me because if I don’t find something amusing or interesting, I ignore it.

I also found out that my deep disappointment in my friends low opinion of me as a shameless selfpromotional pimping machine can be cured by 30 minutes of shameless sales pitching.

What you need to know

Vartruth has disappeared. The Channel Watchdog is still around. But if you’re offended, why do you talk about it, ask who it is, secretly snicker about it all the time.

Would knowing who it was make any bit of difference to you? Would you stop doing business with them, today? If so, it was Scott Barlow. For both. Oh and whoever runs Office 365 and Google Apps. In fact, they collaborated on the whole deal! But if you believe that, you’re an idiot.

As I mentioned in the webcast today, if you continue to pay attention to baseless rumors and support the sites that sensationalize stuff that is not immediately relevant to your business, this will continue. What’s even worse is that if you’re a vendor, it’s only a matter of time until a slow news day makes you the next target.

It’s a cycle. When you legitimatize rumor mongering vendors flock to it because they want eyeballs. They spend big money for even the smallest of banners and ads and then a magical thing happens – there are only so many ways you can touch the same press release you get from your vendors blog, twitter and Facebook. So you know what happens? You stop paying attention. Yes, the traffic dries up. There are only so many times people will care about whether they are the top 10, 100, 200 or 500 people in the industry – and then you read baseless stuff like “Hear folks are making career changes” or “Which service provider is going under next, stay tuned” – which happens ALL the time but you still click, still move stuff around and then act surprised when the very form you legitimized is somehow offensive to you because it publishes stuff that is slightly more controversial.

The marital infidelity of certain popular channel vendors is every bit as interesting as who just got fired from a major distributor as is the brand of bike or car I’m buying this week. The only trouble is when you pay attention to some of it you no longer get to choose where the line between appropriate and offensive happens to be. And by virally spreading it, you don’t get to pick who the cannon is pointed at.

So to the shocking number of people that filled out the survey and attended the webinar – I hope you enjoyed the prank. Remember what I said: At this very time dozens of great seminars and training opportunities are taking place and you chose to hang out with me. I hope I made it worth your while. It’s not that we as grownups don’t like a juicy rumor, it’s that we as grownups have a responsibility to focus on business first and foremost.

Who the folks behind the avatars happen to be doesn’t matter to you one bit. What matters is whether you choose to be sucked into it or choose to run a business.

The fever surrounding the daily channel soap opera has come to new heights as VARs apparently find their day-to-day jobs boring. You’ve probably heard or seen Vartruth video series on youtube as it spanked one vendor after another (or the even more hilarious public spanking of Harry Brelsford by Robin Robbins as a result of it) or the more recent outing of MSP vendor dirty laundry by the Channel Watchdog.

Tomorrow, at 2PM EST, Channel Watchdog and Vartruth will unveil their identity:

Click here to register!

Please join us for this one-time-only webcast during which we will not only introduce you to the folks behind the controversy.. but also back it with the live interview, email logs and more.

But what if you can’t attend? Well, you can still play and win an ExchangeDefender tshirt. Just complete this survey and email vlad@vladville.com when you’ve done it – and you’re in!

Who is behind Vartruth and Channel Watchdog? Think you know?

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/?C7QFFG6

Join in the fun!

So many of you have emailed me to ask about my impression of what was said and done at Microsoft WPC that I have to make this brief post about it. If you ever have a question, feel free to email me at vlad@vladville.com

First of all, the attendance. I wasn’t there so I can’t speak to the count of people that Microsoft says was on hand. My staff (we sponsored Microsoft WPC and were there as huge Microsoft fans) was there at a booth and mentioned to me that we had a lot of foreign audience – so I see no reason to doubt the numbers and I don’t think that really matters as far as the big picture is concerned. I know many of you feel like WPC is a waste of time for a small business and that there is no ROI to it. And you’re wrong. And perhaps Microsoft would put in more SMB tracks if there was more SMB interest in working with Microsoft. It’s a causality loop – and I’m not playing the devils advocate here just pointing out the common business sense – you have to spend your money with Microsoft to make them care about you, not the other way around.

Second, Office 365. No big surprises there. But suffice to say if you’re not doing this, your clients are being marketed to and you’ll soon be pushed out of those accounts if you don’t have an offering.

Third, Apple. Every year Microsoft shows it’s remarkably low level of class when it addresses whoever is pissing them off at the time – be it IBM, Oracle, VMWare, etc – and they seem blissfully ignorant of the fact that the audience is not their staff and is not brainwashed to believe that Microsoft is the only technology capable of making money on the planet. Same mentality exists at Apple but at this point Microsoft is doing more than just shamelessly copying Apple products poorly – they are going after their business model too.

I tweeted recently that when you see the flamboyant loudmouth (CEO, Ballmer) of the company say the exact same thing as the guy running the company (COO, Turner) there should be no doubt where the company is heading.

It is what it is.

Microsoft doesn’t need partners in a sense where partners are a part of the solution. It needs partners in a sense of partners being a part of completing the transaction.

This is a major change since the days of technical complexity requiring a geek – the world is changing to the one that is decidedly geek free. It’s not there yet but it will get there eventually.

The decision for IT Solution Providers seems quite clear: Are you providing a solution or are you making a sale? If it’s the later there needs to be a clear and major distance between you and the Microsoft brand.

One of the more neverending debates I have with my entrepreneurial friends is over development of new business lines. Regardless of how big or small you are, venturing outside of your comfort zone tends to require new skill, new connections and cash. Most of all, it’s about the right timing.

There are a few things that success is not about:

Potential. Ever hear someone tell you that they have an awesome business, incredible revenue growth and potential – but they just don’t have the cash to grow as fast as they possibly could? Bullshit. Investors love great ideas and growth potential – what they don’t like the risk. So if you have an incredible potential and incredible risk – you’re like everyone else out there.

Uniqueness. Almost every hopeless entrepreneur that has sold himself his own dream believes they have a unique business model. The problem with that is that business models are easy to copy and more savvy people can get things done faster than people obsessed with perfection and quality.

Connections. It’s all about who you know, right? Unless you deliver a total disaster. Then those connections are your enemy because nothing spreads faster than bad news. In every new venture, you have to establish new partnerships but that is by no means the primary vehicle for business development. For some reason, many people I’ve met in business spend an incredible amount of time trying to network but it rarely works out – I suppose because it’s more enjoyable and easier than actually working.

Right Message, Wrong Timing

Even if you have a great product, if your timing is wrong you’re going to be spinning tires. For example, if you just decided that you were going to start building networks or selling computers at the time when the world turned to the cloud and tablets, you’d be out of luck even if you got fancy with financing because you’re pushing in the wrong direction. Marketing hardware and large investments in a bad economy is the wrong message.

But let’s say you had the right message – it’s all about the cloud now so let me ride the hype! I’m gonna build me a data center! Well, slow down Bob. First, what is different from your data center and thousands of others that are already built and not at capacity.. aside from not having SAS70 Type II audits, bandwidth redundancy, power redundancy, business history – you know, the stuff that takes years to develop and prove? Being right alone is not enough if you’re showing up late to the show.

Right Message, Perfect Timing.

The trick to having the right message is research, experience, case studies, test marketing. That part is relatively easy.

In terms of timing, you have to be lucky.

There you go, class dismissed. Do some research and toss the dice and hope they come up lucky. Hey, the blog is free

On a more serious note, I wanted to write this because I speak to a lot of you that are currently reorganizing and refocusing your companies to move them forward. Not all business models work forever – we had a great run with managed services. The cloud move in the small business we are enjoying right now won’t last forever either.

Focus on growing a dynamic, versatile company. Don’t fall in love with what you’re trying to sell, try to build what your customers want to buy. Demand should drive sales which should drive marketing which should drive more demand. If your chain is not spinning in that direction or is missing any of the components you’re going nowhere fast.

Most of all, accept failure. For every Own Web Now, ExchangeDefender, Shockey Monkey and CloudBlock I’ve got 20 other things I’ve tried to build and it just didn’t work out. Remember all that hype around Health Care IT that flopped? Well, what if you sunk all that money and effort into the cloud? The point isn’t to dwell on the stuff that didn’t pan out but to stay focused on building the next thing.

Do your research.

Stay ahead of the curve.

Stay loyal to your clients and deliver what they are asking.

Everything else will fall into place given enough passion, effort and luck.