The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy is on a road trip today… wearing his $10 jacket and exploring rumors involving a software company pumping $20 million into the managed services market. In the meantime, here are six blog entries The VAR Guy didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending Jan. 22, 2010.

Here’s a quick riddle from The VAR Guy: How does Stuart Crawford, a solutions provider in Alberta, Canada, plan to make money by giving away $5,000? Here’s the answer.

Many business owners attempt to be “everything to everyone.” This is not a winning formula. In fact, the ‘right’ things you need to do include narrowing your solution offerings and becoming focused on core competencies. These will be the real winning strategies for today’s IT service firms.

Stuart Crawford, a long-time IT consultant who is fluent in all things Microsoft, claims OpenOffice isn’t ready for business. The VAR Guy agrees with many of Crawford’s points — but our resident blogger sees a bigger problem with OpenOffice that Crawford failed to mention.

General crankiness with technology appears to be on the rise. Is it because of the stress in the US financial marketplace, are people in general just overworked? Are they getting what they were promised?  Were they promised something and didn’t get what was asked for? Here are five ways to prevent customer crankiness from spoiling your revenue stream.

Twenty minutes — that is all it takes to become “a knight in shining armor” in your client’s eyes, adding stickiness in all of your business relationships. What do I mean by the 20-minute miracle? The 20-minute miracle is something that all successful IT Professionals can perform automatically. Let me explain.

Just like have the wrong employees on your team, the wrong clients can hurt your business and create a lifestyle you don’t enjoy. So, how can you attract the clients you want, avoid nightmare customers, and have a fulfilling and satisfying business life? Here are seven tips to get you started.

Many small business professionals toss and turn in the middle of the night, losing valuable hours of much needed sleep worrying about making a key decision. So, what can the average small business IT pro do to make better decisions at a faster pace? Here are some recommendations.

There is no secret sauce to help you thrive in uncertain economic times. But IT professionals can follow nine simple and effective principles — which will serve you well regardless of the economy around you.