395: Waiting For Godot

Topics:

-Joe & Jerry geek out about the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

-Jerry gushes over Gal Gadot.

-He also confuses the term “throw some shade”.

-Jerry talks about his fancy water rower and using Apple Fitness+.

-There are some limitations of Apple Fitness+, including needing an Apple Watch when using it with an Apple TV.

-Joe & Ashleigh take daily walks as part of their exercise and he talks about sharing fitness data

-A post holiday COVID update.

-Joe talks about 1Password’s regression.

-Evernotes update is underwhelming as well.

-In the “I should know this” nook, Jerry discovers how to swipe between apps on the iPhone.

-Joe actually attended the MacWorld when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone.

-“Drag up and make an upside down L”. Sound advice from Jerry Zigmont.

-On New Year’s Eve, one of Joe’s clients has a greyed out Get button on her iPad. Turned out to be iCloud Family Sharing restrictions.

-Splashtop SOS on the iOS App Store gets two thumbs up from Jerry:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/splashtop-sos/id1230853703

394: Stupid Epson Printer & Nana’s Extension Cord

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Topics:

-We discuss where our businesses stand for the year after the financial affects of COVID

-Jerry & Joe share a moment discussing a job they collaborated on.

-What appeared to be a standard Wi-Fi upgrade takes a left turn as they have to focus on a printer that simply won’t connect.

-Is a wooden box waterproof?

-Did Sam need to be on the show this week?

-Joe finds that there is no reboot option in the GUI for the UniFi Dream Machine Pro so he describes how to SSH to the device and send a reboot command.

-From the Reddit Eero forum, Jerry has been hearing a lot of rumbling and negative feedback about the new Eero Pro 6. Joe backs up Eero’s responses.

-What Apple devices support Wi-Fi 6?

-As Joe assists a client with extending Wi-Fi coverage by phone, it creates more questions for us as far as billing and planning. While Sam thinks it takes less work, Joe counters that there is more work on the planning and preparing side of things.

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392: Super Spreader Clients

Topics:

-PsiMac and MacWorks joined forces for a Wi-Fi job. Sam was feeling very left out. 

-UniFi and Eero and go to equipment for Wi-Fi jobs. 

-Jerry & Joe go into detail about the job in an aging house with some wireless challenges.

-Using UniFi on this job, Joe talks about adjusting wireless uplink settings in the UniFi Dream Machine controller.

-Sam finally gets to join in and he gets into working with Eero on a job. He begins by dealing with an oddity where an entire network comes to a halt when a particular computer gets turned off.

-He learns some things with Eero like the lack of functionality when using the web interface vs the app.

-Since we are all doing more remotely, Joe takes us through a remote Eero setup. 

-Joe found that setting up this network was actually faster offsite. Which is good on the one hand for efficiency but also a negative for business reasons as it means less billable time. Sam finds similar results.

-Sam brings back an old favorite “pop quiz”, networking edition.

-Jerry has a PSA regarding a Synology with Seagate drives. Be careful where you buy from.

-Amazon had an offer to give a 20% credit on old routers but Jerry has a bad experience with his return.

391: The Nana Package

Topics:

-After our show with Jon Brown of Grove Technologies, Joe wanted to listen again to absorb the information on things like pricing models. 

-Sam is exploring option for changing up his monthly number to a tiered system, similar to Grove Technologies. 

-As they get into the tiered option, the hosts begin to discuss their thoughts about everything from profit to detail of services. 

-Joe talks about his model and how he includes a smaller monthly fee with a discount on pre-paid hours. 

-We revisit reselling services that our clients need. Even small numbers add up over time. Services like Microsoft 365, Backupify, BackBlaze are common. 

-Sam discusses the ease of use with Backupify and has a recent use case. 

-Dopbox Business Partner Program has a good incentive for partners who sign up. 

-What about Synology and local servers? Where do they fit in with our clients?

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.