427: Guest Host - Tim Pearson of CreativeTechs

Topics:

• This week we welcome long time supporter of the show, Tim Pearson of Creative Techs.

• Tim joins us as a co-host.

• He talks about traveling on the ferry to do onsite work.

• The group discusses the wildfires out west.

• Tim shares a story about the time he made a mistake of wearing a Star Wars shirt, causing his meeting to go way overtime.

• The group helps Tim with approaching a mistake he made in his business.

• Jerry’s talks about the “Screwdriver Effect”

• Getting fired by a client is a great opportunity to take another look at how you do things.

• Everyone discusses MSP and contracts with clients.

• How are the group members finding new work throughout the pandemic?

• Sam explains how he started getting referrals from the Apple stores.

• The group talks about the Apple Consultants Network program and its benefits.

• What is everyone seeing regarding to employees coming back to the offices?

• Some people work better in offices and some at home.

• Do you have employees or paid friends?

426: Who Am I?

Topics:

• Jerry & Joe discuss client credibility.   

• Jerry recently did work with a client who made changed without consulting him.

• How do you build up credibility with your clients?

• Jerry takes photos of projects he is proud of as a method to show his work to other clients.

• What is the most effective way to communicate what you do with your clients?

• Clients don’t always have the same image of you that you have of yourself.

• Joe describes how he uses keywords on his site to appeal to potential customers.

• Photos are worth a thousand words.

• A good URL shortener that Jerry recommends is bitly.com.

• There can be tremendous benefits when there is an inherent level of trust with the client.

• Some clients want to know exactly what you do for the money they’re paying and some just completely trust you.

• When there isn’t a level of trust between you and the client if can make things difficult.

425: The Appointments You Make Are Equal To The Appointments You Take

Topics:

-Jerry shakes Sam’s tree to get the skinny on a fancy pants email signature he has from Wisestamp.
-As a part of his updated signature, Jerry includes features like a “pay now” link and social media buttons.
-One concern Sam has is including the Harmonizely link to book time.
-We continue part of a conversation from a “patron only” episode.
-What are the fees of waiting for payment vs a fee of a credit card transaction?
-Sam uses Moonclerk, integrated with Stripe for credit card payments.
-Harmonizely is now a full part of Sam’s workflow. He is now convincing Matt on his team to do the same.
-simplybook.me has acquired Harmonizely and has added to their already impressive features.
-Joe talks about a book called “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris.
-Sam talks about the mindset he needs in order to be able to take tech support calls.
-As part of being cautious with available time, Jerry explains methods used to curate his available time on Harminzely.

424: Ducktape and Popsicle Stick Solution

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Topics:

• Jerry recently took the Addigy Certified Expert training

• Text Sniper is an incredibly useful tool that is like OCR for your screen: https://www.textsniper.app.

• Jerry uses it during a presentation to capture text for notes.

• Addigy integrating Splashtop is a welcome addition to their feature set for remote support.

• Joe tells a funny story about Outlook reminders in his latest peeves corner.

• He prefers first party because he likes to know Apple’s solution first and know the ins and outs.

• The group discusses Mail issues.

• Western Digital MyCloud Drive isn’t our favorite choice for customers.

• We have to choose the right equipment or software for our clients based on what is right for them but also what we can support well.

• Sam shares a funny story about trying to talk to a tech person at Staples.

• Should the group start a show where they go to local stores and ask tech questions?

• Joe talks about the times before he was an Apple consultant and shares the story about how he found out about the Apple Consultants Network.

• Is Sam Neo from the Matrix?

• The crew talks about older, unreliable software like Retrospect

• Jerry has an internet recovery issue with a local Mac mini acting as a content cache

423: Dress Your Best & Billable Rates

Topics:

• Jerry talks about the used Mcintosh amplifier from 1967 he recently got for himself.

• He gives a warning about energizing older products like this because it can be dangerous.

• What is appropriate to wear on the job?

• Sam shares a story about his clients dog ripping his brand new corduroys.

• There’s a certain value you provide when you dress the part.

• Joe shares some of his favorite button down shirts.

• The group discusses raising rates and how to communicate that you are doing so with clients.

• Sam explains that he has stopped giving discounts to new clients to win them over because he charges what his services are worth.

• Jerry likes to slowly creep his rates up so it isn’t a huge jump.

• Sam recently increased his hourly rates and he explains how he’d rather have longer term relationships with his clients and his pricing shows that.

• Adding valuable monthly services helps you to bill outside of hourly labor.

• The group discusses billing for network monitoring.

422: 2015 Interview With Alsoft Makers Of Disk Warrior

Topics:

For this week’s episode of Command Control Power, we have decided to run a little experiment. We are making this episode a patron only feature. You can find this episode if you are a supporter of Command Control Power on Patreon. You can also click on the Support link in the menu above. Sign up if you are not yet a supporter. If you are a supporter of the show, you can simply log in to Patreon and you will be able to enjoy this week’s episode which we promise is extra juicy. It has some interesting client issues and interactions and we think you will enjoy hearing it. Let us know your feedback if you do. In the meantime, enjoy a highlight from an older episode.