From A $13M Business To Considering Closing Shop I was what most business owners strive to become. A $13 million business with some high-profile clients. But they say the bigger you are, the harder you fall. Boy, did we fall hard! We went through more ups, downs and pivots than a roller coaster. We were the tail and never the …

I Knew The Importance Of Marketing But Just Couldn’t Make It Work Since I founded CloudFirst Technology Solutions in 2010, I always knew the value of good marketing. (At least, I THOUGHT I did.) In the early days, I put together a small marketing team and focused on building a website. We made some flyers and canvassed offices throughout Las …

Running 20 Years WITHOUT A Marketing Plan As husband-and-wife cofounders, we just celebrated our 20th year in business this July. My husband, Page, wears both the tech and sales hats while I have always donned the business administration hat. In 20 years, we have evolved from an e-mail delivery firm (2001) to an IT networking break-fix company (2003) to an …

Sabotaged By My Ex-Wife And Then Fired My Mom And Dad I started consulting back when our years started with a 19. I quickly built a client base through word-of-mouth and absolutely no marketing. I was a tech trying to be a business owner, but also juggling HR, payroll, operations, EVERYTHING. Sound familiar? As a result, not only did I …

THIS Kept Me Up At Night I started Juern Technology in 2012. Like many MSPs, I began as a one-man IT shop and grew slowly from out-of-the-blue referrals. Through the years, I would try random acts of marketing: Facebook Ads – check. ClickFunnels – yep. Even hired a marketing consultant, but never got one client. ZERO! Being honest with myself, …

We Were Ready To CLOSE SHOP! My husband, Moshe, and I founded ItCon in Spring Valley, New York, back when it seems all MSPs were getting started: 2008. He wears the tech hat. I wear the sales and business hat. Problem was, we had no marketing plan and no business plan. In 2014, our twins were born – kids #5 …

Early Struggles, Ineffective Marketing, Stagnant Growth – Sound Familiar? I officially started Bazar Solutions, Inc., in 2009. I grew my business the first few years the way most IT people do: word of mouth, referrals and a little bit of cold-calling. I tried my hand at TV advertising, canvassing and other one-off marketing campaigns. Nothing stuck, and we generated few …

Living In A Basement Apartment With 5 Kids And Not Knowing Where Our Next Check Was Coming From As a husband-and-wife team, we started Mid Atlantic Data & Communications, LLC, in Roanoke, Virginia, back in 2004. As co-CEOs, Mary is the business piece and Brian is the tech piece. Mary brags on her husband as a natural-born salesperson: “Brian is …

As a husband-and-wife team, we saw our MSP grow each and every year for the last 13 years, but we were STILL struggling and not paying ourselves what we were worth. FAR from it, in fact. We understood marketing was important, so we had tested the waters. Once we hired a local marketing consultant (that didn’t work out). Another time, …

I Had An Accident Doing The Work I Love You never know just how quickly your life can change. It was 2013, and I was wrapping up changing out an uninterruptible power supply for a client. A routine job we’ve all done a hundred times. But the circumstances were anything but routine. You see, their network cabinet was mounted nine …