We started it in 2004 and my husband, Brian, is like most techs. They start a company and are doing everything. They’re trying to do the marketing, the business and also providing the service. So that’s how we started. It was a side gig, and he was a network admin of a law firm at the time. Then, over the years, we kept growing by word of mouth and kept acquiring. At some point I began to realize we were swamped and needed help. I started helping in the background, stepping in to help with the checkbook, answer phone calls and set appointments. Then we grew and found ourselves in a place where we weren’t really growing anymore and that is when we knew we needed to change. It took years of going through this cycle and then one day we get a campaign in the mail with a dollar on it.

I am Stephen Taylor with Lending IT. We specialize in monthly, all-inclusive IT and cybersecurity for organizations in all different industries, with 20 to 200 people, all across Chicagoland. We understand the technology needs of businesses and offer computer, network and cybersecurity support to help people get the most out of their technology. The first thing I did was challenge myself and went on a road trip. I did some reflection and introspection and found that I was not challenging myself enough. I wasn’t taking on enough risk. That is when I decided I need to take on some acquisition work and it’s been the fuel that’s given us our rocket ship.

I often see MSP owners that don’t want to raise prices annually even though costs steadily increase. This is a slow bleed and you must raise your prices to align with costs. However, how do you do an annual price increase with poor billing? You must have a good handle on collecting money. Let me give you an example, one of my Technology Marketing Toolkit members came to me and told me one of their senior engineers, who was also a partner in the business, was not logging hours and they found out nine months after the fact. Because of this, they had various clients that were not billed. It was an insane number of around $600,000 that they hadn’t billed clients. Now they have to go knock on these client’s doors and go, sorry, we forgot. I know it’s January, but we forgot to bill you in July. Can you pay this massive bill right now? And these clients shit a brick – some of them refuse to pay it. Now you are stuck with not getting paid or negotiating 20% or 50% of the payment. This will kill your profit fast. This is exactly why you must monitor your techs and enforce time reporting. Recording time will decrease missed billing by $17,000 on average a month.

I would consider our business, Intelecis, more of a mission-driven company. Our mission is to influence, inspire, and empower those we touch to accomplish their goals. For example, this week one of our clients, who works in the accounting department, was running payroll when something happened to her computer, I think it went blue screen, and she was frantic. She had to run payroll for 130 employees and one of our technicians got on there and was able to fix the computer. She was able to run payroll and she was so thankful. So that’s what it could look like for us to be able to help somebody so that they can accomplish their goals. But also, equally important is our team as well. It starts internally. If we’re not empowering, we’re not influencing, we’re not inspiring our team internally – how can they do it externally for our clients? We are very focused as well on the professional and personal development of our own people.

I started my company about 23 years ago and like many people, I just got thrown into it. I remember back when I started, it was because the company I was working for was being bought out by somebody. They ended up letting me go and out of necessity, I started my own business, Network Providers. We have seen substantial …

Apple has recently released its version of the Google Business Profile, which they call Apple Business Connect. This platform integrates with Apple Maps and is designed for businesses to connect with their customers with built-in features that allow customers to get directions, contact your business, visit your website, or book an appointment.

At Technology Marketing Toolkit, we provide clients with proven IT marketing services for MSPs. My mission is to educate clients on how to scale their business by implementing the strategies I give them. Watch how one MSP took the trial-and-error guesswork out of his marketing and attracted new, high value clients. In 2006, Matt Kahle founded Real IT Solutions, a reliable …