Our I.T. Business Climate Today

After scraping off the ice on the back door to see the temperature, this is what I saw:

Yes, that is –31 Degrees Celsius or  -23.8 Degrees Fahrenheit.

We are in the midst of a fairly long running cold snap here in the Greater Edmonton Area.

So, “glass half empty” or, “glass half full”?

While in Redmond, some folks complained about the cold at –3 Degrees Celsius one morning. Meanwhile us Western Canucks, who were used to colder weather, were walking around not so bundled up and smiling.

I personally love the cold. I can bundle up against it. Can’t say the same for the heat! ;)

Now, we can look at the current state of I.T. in the SMB marketplace in the same vein.

Things are _really_ frigid right now. Business owners are holding onto their bucks, waiting for things to look up despite what folks say that “manage” our economies.

On the other side of that coin is the ongoing increase of the Cloud Services momentum into the SMB space which is seemingly putting another cramp on the small I.T. company’s revenue.

So, “glass half empty” or, “glass half full”?

Probably one of the most important things we small I.T. shop owners need to do in the immediate to near future is take stock of our business, the local and Cloud technologies we work with, and how our business will look in 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, and 5 years from now.

For those small I.T. shops that have technicians employed, get them in on the stock assessment too. It is a good thing to have a few more heads involved that are more technically minded. Add sales folks if there are any employed as well to provide feedback and perspective on what is selling and what is not.

Once that stock has been taken, look for opportunities in new local and Cloud based technologies that are coming down the pipe. Build a Business Plan around current and future offerings.

The time to look into where the company will be in the future is now. Otherwise, there is such a thing as Too Late (Vlad’s Thanksgiving post with some Wisdom on making it).

Despite the cold, there really is something positive to be found in the midst of the cold (glass half full! ;) ):

We smile because of the winter beauty that brings squeals of delight to our children when they see the snow! The winter really is beautiful. :)

Thanks for reading!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer