In less than a month, on Jun. 6, 2012, large enterprises like Google, AT&T and Facebook will launch IPv6. Few people know about this upcoming change in the Internet, and many small- and medium-business owners will need help understanding how this change will affect them and their businesses.

A press release issued by the Internet Society announced that Internet service providers, Web companies and home network equipment manufacturers around the world will get together on Jun. 6, 2012, to launch the new IPv6, which will replace the current Internet protocol IPv4.

After Jun. 6, businesses that haven’t enabled IPv6 could have a hard time doing business. Internet service providers (ISP) AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, to name a few, have already signed on to launch IPv6. This bodes well for both their residential and business users. Small-business owners who use AT&T, for example, will have no problem doing business online with other IPv6 enabled businesses. And customers who subscribe to Time Warner Cable will have no trouble interacting with IPv6 enabled websites.

Managed IT services providers (MSP) are accepted as technology experts by not only their clients but also by the general public. So, who better to organize an event explaining IPv6 and its implications for business owners than an MSP? You particularly want your clients to understand how productivity and business continuity might be affected if they don’t follow the lead of large enterprises and enable IPv6 on their own networks.

An event around IPv6 and how it can affect small businesses can help a local MSP get in touch with local clients and also introduce the company to prospects. Offer to review your clients’ computers, printers and mobile devices to ensure that they are IPv6 enabled. If they’re not, then you could enable everything for them.

While you don’t want your clients to feel pressured, you do want to impress upon them how they and their own clients could be inconvenienced if their systems can’t easily and effectively communicate with IPv6 enabled systems.

Do you have a passion for IT?

Back in November 2008, I lost my passion for technology.  The perfect storm of why I hated technology had been brewing for quite some time.  We were hiring the best of the worst simply because available great talent didn’t exist, client frustrations were increasing and my love for what I did simply disappeared.

Luckily for me, around May 2010, my passion for IT returned and Ulistic started to focus on helping IT consulting firms, VARs and resellers with marketing support. Today, we also provide coaching and mentoring for IT firms.

Why is this important?  I got to talking to a client the other day about the lack of performance of sales teams.  After a lengthy discussion on what makes a great sales professional, we determined that it started with passion.  I love the story he told me. I’ll do my best to summarize it.

It started with a painter.  Any painter will do, but let’s say a painter of landscapes.

There are two types of painters.  The first is the painter who wants to have everything right and knows all about the types of paper, paints, canvas, the history of the scene he is painting and all the technical details of what he is about to do.

The second is the painter who has a passion to paint.  Sure, she may want to know all the details, but the details are not as important as the act of painting.  The canvas, the paper, the technical makeup of the paints, the process involved with the strokes are not as important as the finished product.

Now, let’s look at this from a sales and marketing perspective.  I help MSPs around the country with marketing and sales.  Many of my clients are running cloud computing events right now.  Why? Mainly because I tell them to,  and because there is a need for knowledge out there.  Many are successful; one is struggling. WHY?

The successful ones focus more on sharing useful information and less on the details of running successful events.  Kind of like my READY, FIRE, AIM approach.  Or even what I learned from T. Harv Eker when I attended his boot camps.  Sell IT before you create IT.  The successful companies are just getting  out there and learning as they go.

The one that is struggling focuses more on the details of what makes a successful event.  Emails and invites have to be exactly right. The venue has to be great. Everything has to be perfect and according to what pundits say make an event successful.  All of this refinement and attention to detail makes the invites and calls seem less genuine and more focused on making a sale.  Where’s the passion for IT, for helping others?

For my readers who are Howard Stern fans, this rings true.  When Howard was jumping from radio station to radio station across the US early in his career, he wasn’t succeeding because he was hiding his passion for radio behind a mechanical radio-appropriate persona.  It wasn’t until his wife Allison pointed out to him a time when he screwed up and was just himself on the air and let his passion for radio ring through  that he truly became great.

So, who are you?  Are you the mechanic, or  the passionate artist?

With a burning passion to serve the Managed IT Services community across Canada, MSP Coaching firm Ulistic to host full MSP training workshop in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

St. Catharines, ON – May 9, 2012– “Working on your business” is perhaps the most overused term in business today.  Many managed IT services organizations understand the importance of taking time out of the office to work toward creating a successful enterprise.

Stuart Crawford invites the managed IT services community to participate in the first Ulistic MSP workshop in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on June 14, 2012.  This full-day workshop will focus on creating a formula for success in today’s highly competitive MSP marketplace.

The workshop, which is limited to 15 companies, will combine the best of instruction from MSP coach Stuart Crawford with peer interaction.

“I have learned many things in my career as an IT professional working with some of the sharpest minds in the Calgary IT community, on the international stage with MSP University and from my peers as part of the Heartland Technology Group’s (HTG) peer group program,” said Crawford.  “Now it is my time to share with the community best practices, personal experiences, what I’ve learned over the years and all that I continue to learn as an IT professional and coach.”

Joining Crawford will be Wendy Frank, president of Accell Security, who will host a special lunch seminar geared toward helping attendees who are interested in rolling out an effective security practice.

“Accell is pleased to join an industry leader like Ulistic”, said Frank.  “Ulistic’s focus is totally on their clients and it is refreshing to work with a partner who is committed to their client success.”

Ulistic’s MSP Workshop will be held on June 14, 2012, from 8 AM to 5 PM at the Vintage Conservatory on Lombard Street in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Attendees will learn:

• MSP Business Leadership Skills
• MSP Sales Compensation Strategy
• MSP Marketing 101
• Building a culture of success
• The importance of accountability through effective KPIs
• Cloud Services – the ins and outs of focusing on the cloud

To register for or learn more about the Toronto MSP training and workshop visit http://successwithstu.eventbrite.com, and register with discount code “MSPPR” to save $200.00 off the registration fee.

Here are the best leadership principles ever!  I learned these when I was a young Master Corporal in the Canadian Armed Forces.  Forget them for a while, but really need to start living these once again.

1. Achieve professional competence.
2. Appreciate your own strengths and limitations and pursue self-improvement.
3. Seek and accept responsibility
4. Lead by example.
5. Make sure that your followers know your meaning and intent, then lead them to the accomplishment of the mission.
6. Know your soldiers and promote their welfare.
7. Develop the leadership potential of your followers.
8. Make sound and timely decisions.
9. Train your soldiers as a team and employ them up to their capabilities.
10. Keep your followers informed of the mission, the changing situation and the overall picture.

It would be awesome if these principles of leadership were also part of the civilian world.  Well, Ulistic will incorporate these principles in our MSP Business Coaching business.