386: Interview With Brian Burke - Chief Mac Man of SellYourMac.com

Topics:

-This week were are joined by Brian Burke, Chief Mac Man of SellYourMac.com

-Brian has always been passionate about computers and even helped teach his computer class in 5th grade!

-After successfully selling products, including used cell phones in college, Brian started buying and selling a lot of Apple products online. The idea of SellYourMac.com was born.

-Brian has purchased Mac computers as old as 2008.

-Sam always has family approaching him for used Apple products. Brian will be happy to take them off his hands.

-Joe also notes that support goes along with helping family acquire older products.

-Brian points to his customer service as the secret to his success.

-That level of customer service makes Joe recall offering support around the clock in his early days.

-The crew is reminded of a local grocery store chain, Stew Leonard’s, that has similar service etiquette.

-The flip side of always catering to the customer is those that attempt to take advantage.

-As Jerry joins the fray, he wants to know more from Brian about their process, from intake to checklist, cleaning, and resale. 

-SellYourMac has custom made boxes for every model of Mac computer.  It also helps to ensure integrity of the shipment so customers can get full value. 

-Brian’s company does sell parts they don’t use. 

-The topic of repairability comes up as Joe talks of past difficulties and Brian talks of the lack of repair options in the future. 

-How much RAM should you get in your Mac?

-What’s a Mac Pro?

-Sam inquired about selling multiple computers at once. Brian directs him to their Sell in Bulk are of the site: https://www.sellyourmac.com/mac-bulk-buy-back.html

-Brian talks about an option for purchasing renewed devices: https://renewedmacs.com

-Outside of the Apple world, Brian is also a sommelier, a notary public, ordained minister, and a certified scuba instructor. He also administered his own brother’s wedding!

-Brian’s biggest passion is actually cooking. 

-Speaking of cooking, Joe talks about Green Chef boxes. Organic food, ready to make. 

-Trade In For A Purpose - Brian began this formal campaign to gift Mac computers to underprivileged students. This has an amazing impact on their lives and work on their education: https://www.sellyourmac.com/trade-in-for-a-purpose/

-Sell Your Mac is offering all of our listeners a bonus. Just use the promo code “CCP” at Sell Your Mac and Renewed Macs. 

384: Interview With Jon Brown, founder & CEO of Grove Technologies

Topics:

-This week we welcome Jon Brown of Grove Technologies and VIP sponsor of Command Control Power!

-Jon takes us through his path of leaving a 9-to-5 job and starting a consultancy to fill a visible void.

-Grove Technologies started by focusing on organizations that had internal IT and could use supplemental support.

-Joe knows the feeling of not being able to take time off when you are a team of one.

-Grove Technologies is currently a team of 3 full time people and additional 1099 contractors.

-A problem we know all too well - customers reaching out to Jon personally. He turned to Apple Business Chat.

-Joe & Jon swap stories about taking over another consultancy’s business/client list.

-Their sweet spot of size of client is between 5 and 25 users.

-When transitioning a new client away from a PC MSP, it started them down a path of a partnership acquisition opportunity.

-Jon is very forthcoming about the talks about selling his company.

-He also reelizes his bookkeeping practices and business hygiene wasn’t where he wanted them to be.

-Once presented with a business valuation, he ultimately decided to continue building his business. He also learned a few key things that they were looking for.

-We learn about the EBITDA method of a business valuation.

-We discuss the race to the bottom that seems to be the model of PC MSPs. 

-Jon talks about needing to contribute to the community in order to be able to reap the benefits of that community. 

-Part of a value of a company is how much clients rely on the actual person selling. 

-Jon also discusses an opportunity to join forces with fellow Apple consultancies. 

-After the acquisition didn’t move forward, Jon was approached about an “acqui-hire”. 

-Sam proposes joining forces in CT and become Command Control Power Consulting. 

382: I love The Little Fish!

Topics:

-The hosts provide an update on COVID in the state of Connecticut and with their respective businesses.

-Joe has to make decision for his staff from another part of the country.

-The weather will definitely have an impact on things as people move indoors.

-Jerry has more close interactions with clients and he shares his thoughts on his comfort level.

-Joe is looking for an app that can provide a safety rating based on current COVID data. 

-Sam is happy with TeamViewer for iOS but Joe & Jerry are less enthused. 

-Jerry loves the fish that leads a user through steps for Full Disk Access in Carbon Copy Cloner.  Sam is clueless. 

-Jerry has jumped from the TeamViewer ship and moved to Splashtop. One of his gripes had to do with speed and clipboard issues. 

-TeamViewer advertisements are infuriating. 

-Working with Surveillance Station, Jerry has a heck of a time with cameras. The issue was related to the H.265 codec. 

-Joe is finally ditching CrashPlan PROe. 

-Microsoft pro tip from Joe...or is it?

381: Apple Pay?

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Topics:

-Jerry recalls an amusing call into his smith.ai service. 

-Is it Apple Pay, Apple Cash, Apple Card, or “paying with a credit card inside your watch”?

-“We have one more season before 2020 is hindsight” -Joe Saponare

-Joe wants to know how each of our businesses are doing. 

-Joe considers network projects. 

-Some A/V projects can get extremely costly. Are we in the wrong business?

-There is more of a wow factor with A/V installations whereas Wi-Fi is supposed to just work. 

-Safari Password Suggestion creates conversation with end users about security. 

-PsiMac has developed good verbiage and documentation regarding passwords, iCloud Keychain, and overall security. 

Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!

378: Boxers Or Briefs?

Topics:

-Sam has a rough start to a phishing campaign he was preparing.

-A recent visit to the dentist left Jerry thinking more about cleanliness.

-A round table discussion brews about protection measures.

-While working with a client, Jerry has some issues dealing with an OWC ThunderBay and SoftRAID. Meanwhile his client becomes confused about how the technology works together.

-Not surprisingly, another client becomes confused about mail storage vs local disk storage.

-Sometimes people’s computer habits can get in the way of when we need to troubleshoot issues.

-Do you use tabs or new windows in your browser?

-Sam has really struggled with setup and working with Sonos. 

-Sam mysteriously disappears!

371: Sometimes It's Not Pretty To See The Way The Sausage Is Made

Topics:

-The show starts with Joe & Jerry as Sam is rushing back from a job. 

-Jerry has been spending his free time on Facebook Marketplace. He gives us a little history of stereo equipment as he picks up a couple of Marantz receivers. 

-A client reaches out to Joe for a fan repair on an old Mac running OS 9!

-Jerry puts out a call to listeners for old stereo equipment. 

-The guys recall childhood stories of being band geeks and nerds. 

-Pro tip from Jerry.  Cotton face masks under disposable masks have cut down on the fogginess that can occur for those who wear glasses. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085CNR5QQ/

-Friendly PSA - stock up on PPE while there is inventory and before the start of school brings more panic buying. 

-Jerry has a possible tip for those that have had trouble using QuickTime to display an iOS device. 

-“How did we do?” - we discuss how beneficial those post support surveys really are. 

-On the flip side, Malwarebytes took a unique approach to incentivize people to attend a seminar. 

-Sam had a negative experience with malwarebytes sales. 

-Some of Jerry’s clients text their requests. Sometimes the informality can create confusion. 

-Pro Tip from Joe: try deselecting the auto join checkbox in macOS Wi-Fi network list instead of removing networks.

-Sam also uses a script to remove unwanted networks. This can be run on an ongoing basis as a maintenance script for computers.