Blogs

ACRBO to host FREE computer business webinar

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I recently received an e-mail from Dan Hand at ACRBO about an upcoming webinar that may interest members in The Force Field.

The webinar, “3 Easy Strategies To Double Your Computer Consulting Business In 6 Months Or Less”, will be hosted by Pamela Viveiros of Technology Marketing Toolkit and Daniel Hand of ACRBO (Association of Computer Repair Business Owners). The live webinar is FREE and will be held tomorrow, March 18, 2010 at 8 PM EDT.  

I wanted to pass along the information to everyone at The Force Field and am posting the entire content of the e-mail below. Anyone interested can sign up for the webinar in the link at the bottom of the e-mail.

From Dan:

Last week I sent out [an e-mail] about a new webinar we would be doing this month. I now have the outline, solid date and time. As you can see below it explains what the webinar is about. I made sure the time for this one would allow more people to participate.

Below is what I was given to send out (no time to construct something that intelligent myself 😉 )….But the bottom line is this is good content and well worth the hour of time. DO NOT feel obligated to buy anything or anything else. BUT, I would highly recommend attending and watching what Pam covers. It is very easy to takes bit and pieces of it and implement things into your own business at no cost.

I know for a fact that others have bought things from Pam, and others that have listened and done their own things based on what is covered in the webinar and it works both ways.

Looking forward to it myself, and hopefully everyone will attend.

Dan
ACRBO

“3 Easy Strategies To Double Your Computer Consulting Business In 6 Months Or Less”

FREE Webinar With Technology Marketing Toolkit’s, Pamela Viveiros & Daniel Hand of ACRBO

When: Thursday, March 18th
Start Time: 9:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. CT/ 7:00 p.m. MT / 6:00p.m. PT

REGISTER NOW at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/682501889

Dear Fellow IT Business Owner:

Many of you have shared with me how this economy has affected your business. You’re working hard, going the extra mile for your customers but business isn’t growing. You need to know how you can get NEW business. That’s why I’ve invited Pam Viveiros of the Technology Marketing Toolkit system back to come and speak to the ACRBO membership.

Because, as Pam says:

It doesn’t matter if you are the absolute best provider of technical solutions in your area; if you don’t know how to market your business to attract more high-paying clients, you are going to continue to be the best kept secret in your town, struggling to get by, barely generating any real revenue, and left to compete solely on price alone.
So, join me & Pam on this Webinar. Register Now:  
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/682501889   

You’ll discover:
•    The one thing you can implement IMMEDIATELY to prevent your customers from doing business with anyone else
•    The fastest way to get new business coming in your door that doesn’t require a big budget or a bunch of time
•    How to develop a PROCESS for your marketing rather than having to rely on referrals or wait for the phone to ring.
•    How to get good, qualified leads to yes “YES!” to more project work and do even MORE business with you

REGISTER NOW at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/682501889

First episode of The Force Field restored and re-released

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Last year the CDN which hosted the first six original episodes of The Force Field went offline permanently, taking the episodes with it. As we just released The Force Field Premium Edition Volume 1 in The Force Field Podcast Store on another host, which consisted of the first six episodes remastered with extended content and no advertising, there was no immediate concern.

The original, free versions of first six episodes of The Force Field have been remastered, restored and there are plans to re-release them online during the next few months. This evening I re-released The Force Field Episode 1 – Pilot and uploaded it to another CDN which hosts our current episodes. is now available in its original listing on The Force Field Podcast Episodes page.

This is the very first episode that started it all. It features Randy Campshure of Randy’s PC Repair and Steve Porter of Minuteman Tech. This is the premiere episode in which we discuss remote support programs and the difficulties of being a MacGyver when serving customers.

For those who remember the earlier days of OnForce, this will be a trip down memory lane. For those who just started listening and are curious, it will be a trip back in time and a glimpse into the start of an experiment in podcasting that became a project dedicated to The Business of Tech. It is interesting to compare the early episodes and hear how the show has changed to become what it is today. If nothing else, it should at least be entertaining.

You can hear the episode at http://www.theforcefield.net/wordpress/?p=9 or at Episode 1 – Pilot.

This is the first in a series of re-releases during the next few months. Episode 2 is planned for re-release next month. An additional episode will be re-released each month until May 2010. I will post an announcement as each episode is released.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Seven tips to help techs learn sales

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When I first opened my computer store, I envisioned myself behind a desk or workbench and building, selling and repairing PCs, but not necessarily in that order. To be honest, I mostly thought about building and repairing them. I really didn’t think much about the selling part at all. In fact, the whole concept of actually selling the computers was limited strictly to the part where they give me the money after I built or repaired the machines. There was no initial sales or marketing pitch included in my little fantasy.

Imagine the rude awakening when I finally realized that when I opened my store, I had to be a salesman and that my first and primary job in my business was not fixing stuff, but actually selling it.

I was not a salesman. On the contrary, I was someone who was typically put off by salespeople or the notion of sales as an actual, serious career. I didn’t consider myself particularly gifted for it and the fast-talking, classic used car salesman stigma I attached to the word when ever it was applied to any industry (or, worse, think Mr. Haney from the TV show Green Acres) was somewhat distasteful to me. Yet I knew that if I wanted to build computers, I had to sell them first.

So I did.

I never had any formal training in sales and the mistakes I made were many. But I realized that if my business was to survive at all, I had to learn how to be a salesperson and I had to learn to not only to accept, but embrace that role as a vital part of the operation.

This is one reason why a lot of techs don’t make it on their own. They are techs. Sales requires social networking and people skills. The personality of the typical tech isn’t geared for that type of interaction with others. The typical tech (think geek) is more analytical, more aloof to many of the social skills that others may master. This isn’t a slam on techs (or geeks) of course; I consider myself a member of that tech group as well. It’s just the way it is. It’s simply who we are.

It doesn’t mean those skills can’t be acquired or learned, either. Take Bill Gates, for example. He’s a classic symbol of geekdom, yet he built a software empire and is one of the wealthiest and most successful men in the world today. He sold the world on Windows. Now his software is another window to the world.

Then there are those who are born with a little of both. Is Steve Jobs a tech geek or a marketing genius? I guess it depends on how you look at him. Yet the story of Apple speaks for itself. When Jobs speaks, he’s speaking for Apple, and it seems like one big sales pitch. That’s Apple. It develops technology, but it’s really a marketing machine.

These skills can either be born within or they can be learned. The key is that they must be developed and utilized. Techs in the tech business must be techs, but unless they have their own sales staff, they must be salespeople too. As the tech needs tech training and, where necessary, certification, they need sales training as well. Without sales savvy you won’t have many sales and without sales you won’t have a business.

I know many in the business who are techs and don’t like playing sales person and don’t want it. But they need it. I did. We all do. But where can we find sales training on the fly without having to retrain ourselves for something completely different from what we learned as techs and without investing a lot of time, money and effort to do it?

Here are a few tips and resources for learning and channeling sales skills without sacrificing a lot of time and energy away from your workbench:

1. Vendor reseller and partner programs.

You know I am very pro-partner, and this is one reason why. Aside from the marketing tools, spiffs and product support vendor partner programs offer to resellers, Many of them offer sales support and training as well. A lot of it is FREE training.

For instance, Microsoft has a partner program and offers free sales kits, tools and training for its partner members. Trend Micro has a sales certification program that involves only a minimum of study and testing. It is free. I became a Trend Micro Certified Sales Representative in their TSEP (Trend Micro Security Education Program years ago. I completed the course in a couple of hours and not only learned specifics about the products, I learned a few things about selling security software to SMBs that came in handy later.

2. Online vendor sales seminars and podcasts.

I’ve attended many of these over the years. They are generally free and provide tips on selling vendor products to specific target markets as well as offer insight into industry sales and market trends. Some of them give out free prizes for attending the video seminars. You can’t beat that.

3. Trade publications.

You’ve heard me promote them ad nauseum, but amid all the ads and self promotion inside industry trade publications, there are some good articles in many of them, including tips on selling in the IT marketplace as well as case studies of other successful IT companies and how they sell products and services to their customers. Learn by example. They are free too. Here is a list of FREE trade publications you can subscribe to.

4. White papers.

Like trade publications, white papers geared toward the reseller often contain strategies or “best practices” for selling specific lines of products or services to clients in targeted markets. Like trade publications, white papers are usually FREE. You can sign up for free white papers here .

5. Books about selling.

Okay, these are generally not free, but books are one of the oldest resources available. A good book on sales by a qualified author is a tried and true resource that you can keep handy to read at your leisure or keep just for reference. No time to read long books? Buy them as audiobooks and listen to them en route to or from the job or on your mp3 player.

6. Organizations.

Join your local Chamber of Commerce. Many will offer sales training seminars, networking opportunities and other events to help you gain education and experience. There are many small business organizations on the net that offer similar resources. Join NASBA , ASCII , ACRBO and  any others you can find and utlilize their resources. ASCII isn’t free, but the others mentioned are.

7. The Force Field.

Hey, we can’t forget where we are now, can we? Listen to The Force Field podcast, join the site, browse the IT Business Resource Directory and join the forums. You can enjoy yourself and perhaps learn something along the way.

Inkjet Cartridges: The Great Conspiracy

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Awhile back my Canon MultiPASS printer stopped printing and the print head needed to be replaced. I put off ordering a new one simply because I didn’t want to pay the $50 for it. Since I had a couple of other printers I could use, replacing the print head really wasn’t a priority anyway so I let it go for awhile with the idea that I would eventually get around to ordering it.

Unfortunately, one of the backup printers, an Epson, became a problem- not because it didn’t work, but because the rate of ink consumption was more than I bargained for or was willing to accept. The entire family was using it to print whatever they needed and it was constantly nagging me to replace ink cartridges- even if though they still contained plenty of ink.

I liked the Canon printer because it used four individual ink tanks for each individual color. Since they were simply tanks, using third party ink cartridges was not an issue and I saved hundred of dollars during the last six years that it worked.

Keep in mind the Canon print head did not go out because I used ink from third party manufacturers (which I did for years), but because this is a nine year old printer and I used it to print everything from invoices to marketing materials on hundreds of reams of paper and, occasionally, other materials as well. In other words, it just plain wore out.

Like the Canon printer, the Epson has individual ink tanks, but these are circuited cartridges, allowing the printer more control of them. This also empowers Epson to play games with me as a consumer, giving them more control over when and where I would buy more ink. I don’t like that.

My wife was aware that I wanted a new printer, so this weekend, for my birthday, she went out and purchased one. It was an HP.

Now, my wife knows how to shop. She is a very shrewd buyer. She can sniff out bargains in places you wouldn’t expect to find them and can negotiate with the best salespeople out there. However, like most consumers, she is not a tech, and the printer manufacturers know this. She, like millions of others, think cheap printers are a great deal. Instead she bought into the Great Conspiracy.

HP knows the printer business, and for the most part they make very good printers. There’s no doubt printers are their specialty and the quality of the printed pages proves it.

However…

HP knows the printer business.  Unfortunately they know it all too well. They know how to play consumers, even those as savvy as my wife. This is why I don’t buy HP printers. After graciously thanking her for her love and consideration, I explained to her why HP printers and I were not a good fit and why buying the HP printer was not a very good deal at all.

Techs who know consumer printers know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s the Great Ink Jet Cartridge Conspiracy.

Let’s be honest here. The inkjet printer business is rigged. These manufacturers sell printers cheap because they can lock you into their ink cartridges and they are in total control of your ink purchases. You are completely at their mercy.

It’s no secret the stuff is grossly overpriced. Forget the excuses that the circuitry in the cartridge costs more and you get a fresh print head with every new cartridge. The packaging costs more than the cartridge and ink combined. It’s price gouging, pure and simple. Since all the manufacturers do it, you could even suspect collusion, although that may be a little harder to prove in a court of law.

Remember that not all of the circuited cartridges even include print heads. Epson cartridges are merely ink tanks with circuits and no print heads at all. Their sole purpose, as far as I can determine, is to detect the level of ink in the tank so the printer can nag me constantly to recharge the heads and buy more.

That brings me to the next annoyance – the need to “clean” and “recharge” the printer with ink. Granted, the print heads do get clogged and occasional cleaning may be necessary, but what’s with the constant recharging of every ink cartridge every time a cartridge is replaced? Is this really necessary, or is it another gimmick used by the manufacturer to artificially use up more ink in every tank in order to hasten the next ink purchase?

I remember a customer who used buy a new printer whenever she needed to purchase a new ink cartridge. Why? Because it was a $49 printer and a set of replacement ink cartridges cost around $60. She could buy a new printer with fresh ink and come out even – or, if she sold the slightly used printer for about half the price of the new one, even way ahead in the deal. It just made more sense.

Apparently after awhile HP and Lexmark caught on to this type of “circumvention” because they eventually began stocking new printers with “starter” cartridges containing less than a full measure of ink. There was just no way they were going to let the consumer get one over on them.

Then there was the after market inkjet debacle. The mere existence of third party inkjet manufacturers who could aid the consumer and risk exposing the Great Conspiracy was just not acceptable, so companies like HP and Epson moved quickly to stop the insurgence. Inkjet cartridges were rigged to shut down when empty to prevent refills. (they were already rigged with phony “expiration dates” to stop working after a certain period of time. Hey, ink isn’t food. It doesn’t go bad after a year on the shelf.) Lawsuits and lobbying ensued to use the rule of law to protect the conspirators and punish those third parties who stood in their way of complete domination of the proprietary inkjet cartridge market.

Today the only sanctuary the consumer has from being totally ripped off by the Conspirators is to hold on to older printers with true plain old “dumb” ink tanks like the Canon BJC series that don’t know what year it is, much less how to turn themselves off. Those cartridges sell for about one third of what the manufacturer’s brand costs and it’s the same stuff, so the fear mongering instigated by the manufacturer about the dangers of after market ink is just another tactic to perpetuate and empower the Great Conspiracy.

I am not a fan of HP. I really do not like Lexmark. I wouldn’t recommend a Lexmark printer to anyone if they paid me to do it. Now my Epson is telling me the yellow ink tank is low. It told me the black was empty last week and I spent almost $20 for a new one, only to find out the old one was still half full.

I don’t want a new HP printer. I don’t like Epson so much anymore. I want my Canon MultiPASS. I plan to order a new print head for it, perhaps tomorrow.

The Great Conspiracy lives on.

TPN Weekly #42 – Who is that tech at your door?

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From the Things You Always Wanted to Tell Your Customers But Couldn’t Department:

How many times have you done contract work for another company and found yourself in a situation in which servicing the customer properly involved some procedure, information or disclosure that was in violation of some part of your service contract? There you are, onsite and on your own, in front of the customer and on the spot, trying to come up with a work around to accommodate him or her without breaching a confidentiality clause in the work order agreement?

Okay, forget for a moment that there are service technicians out there who don’t think twice about breaking a contract to circumvent the national that sent them and simply don’t care. I’m not talking to them.

I’m talking to those who take their relationships with their clients seriously and uphold their end of the service contract – not just so they will get paid and receive more jobs – but because it’s the right thing to do for both the nationals and their customers.

For the most part we don’t worry about it much. We show up, perform the work and leave. However, there are a few times where we’re put on the spot by the customer for work or information that the customer should receive or know but the work order contract prevents us from providing.

There are also times when a demanding or difficult customer could be easily satiated by educating them on the operation on the back end, but which we generally can’t do, even when they ask.

It’s happened to me a few times and wasn’t an easy thing to dance around, yet I wanted to be honest and not lie to them. Now I have the chance to be upfront and open about it and without violating any contracts.

As most of you know, The Force Field Podcast is a member of The Tech Podcast Network , a  podcast network of family-friendly shows that cover just about every aspect of technology from the latest news, business and tutorials to digital photography, amateur radio and gaming.

The Tech Podcast Network has an official podcast of its own called TPN Weekly . This weekly podcast is hosted by various podcasters on the network who take turns producing and guest hosting the show.

This week I am the guest host of TPN Weekly podcast Episode #42 . Since the show is primarily aimed at the general public, it was a perfect venue to reach the other side of the service provider-user relationship, that of the user and potential customer. With that in mind, it is a unique opportunity to tell the customer everything we’ve wanted to tell them about the relationship from our perspective. The end result is to educate the customer as to what we go through to servicing them so they will better understand the overall process and hopefully increase their trust and improve their perception of their service provider – without violating any contracts.

Here are the show notes for TPN Weekly #42 with Rick Savoia – The Force Field: Who is that tech at your door? :

I will introduce myself and give listeners some inside information about the computer repair business they need to know as a well informed consumer.

Topics of discussion:

I will tell you a little about my experiences starting small tech businesses that were too far ahead of their time.

We will find out how and why I created The Force Field podcast and portal.

Most importantly, we will talk about the field service technician who shows up at your door to fix your PC, who he really works for, how much money he really makes when he shows up to service your computer, whether or not he is even qualified to perform the work and your rights to such disclosure as a consumer.

If you want to know more about starting and managing a computer or IT service business, give The Force Field podcast a listen. Questions, comments or feedback? Visit us at http://www.theforcefield.net, visit our forums or email comments(at)theforcefield.net.

 

Last day to enter State of the IT Industry Contest – Win an mp3 player!

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Last month we launched The State of the IT Industry Contest in which I challenged everyone to guess the reoccuring theme in a series of The Force Field podcasts released last year about The State of the IT Industry in which four IT professionals predicted where their business and the industry as a whole would be in the coming year.

The idea is to find out if their predictions were true, what happened in their segment of the industry that made them come true in spite of current economic conditions and why.

I challenged everyone to review the episodes for themselves and discover what I believe to be one reason discussed that can make or break your success in this market, especially in a difficult economy.

To enter the contest, listen to The Force Field episodes 29, 30, 31 and 32, guess the common theme and post your answer in The Force Field Forums or send an e-mail to comments@theforcefield.net.

If you guess answer correctly or figure it out I will put your name in a drawing to win a Coby MP305 2GB Go mp3 player similar to the one we gave away in the Summer of Podcasts contest last  year. (The winner was in Sweden).

The Coby MP305 mp3 player is great for techs in the field. It can hold 2GB of podcasts, music and data, includes a seven color display, an FM radio, has a direct USB connection and can be used as a USB thumb drive.

The mp3 player will be shipped loaded with The Force Field Podcast Special Edition Volume 1. This edition, which is currently available in The Force Field Podcast store, is a collection of the first six episodes of The Force Field (when it was for OnForce Providers only) remastered with additional content and an additional segment in each episode written and produced specifically for the collection and never before released. The episodes are COMMERCIAL FREE.

Contest rules: 

  1. Post your answer in the forum contest thread or via e-mail.
  2. You may discuss the topic in the thread but only one official posted answer per entrant.
  3. You must include a valid name/username or e-mail address in the post (you can spell out (at) instead of @ to prevent spamming. If you use username only make sure the e-mail address on your member account is correct.
  4. You must be 18 years or older to participate.

A winner will be chosen from all correct entries posted in this thread or received by midnight EST January 31, 2010. The winner will be announced on episode 40 of The Force Field.

Missing episode of The Force Field recovered and reposted online

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Several months ago the CDN which hosted several episodes of The Force Field, including the first six, went offline permanently, taking the episodes with it. As we just released The Force Field Premium Edition Volume 1 in The Force Field Podcast Store on another host, which consisted of the first six episodes remastered with extended content and no advertising, there was no immediate concern.

It was also discovered that episode 12, which was not included in The Force Field Premium Edition, was one of the shows lost. The episode was titled 2007: The year in Review and was a recap of events in the IT industry for 2007.

Initially there were no immediate plans to restore it as the episode covered news from two years prior which seemed somewhat irrelevant to current events. However, the episode was a popular download with listeners. Apparently listeners attempted to download Episode 12 within the past three weeks. It was brought to my attention and a search through the show archives began.

This evening I located the original mp3 recording and uploaded it to another CDN which hosts our current episodes. The Force Field Episode 12 – 2007: The Year in Review was restored and is now available in its original listing on The Force Field Podcast Episodes page.

On further review, I can understand why there would continue to be interest in an episode about events that are now over two years old. It is a look back at what is now history and provides a perspective and a better understanding of where the industry is today and how we got to where we are now.

You can hear the episode at http://www.theforcefield.net/wordpress/?p=37 or at   Episode 12 – 2007: The Year In Review .

The first six episodes of The Force Field have been remastered, restored and there are plans to re-release them online during the next few months. Episode 1 is planned for re-release next month. An additional episode will be re-released once a month until May 2010. I will post an announcement as each episode is released.

State of the IT Industry 2009 Contest – Win an mp3 player!

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Last week I posted an article on the front page of theforcefield.net revisiting a series of podcasts about The State of the IT Industry in which four IT professionals predicted where their business and the industry as a whole would be in the coming year.

The idea is to find out if their predictions were true, what happened in their segment of the industry that made them come true in spite of current economic conditions and why.

Of course, not everyone has had the same optimism or success in their businesses, which brings up an interesting point. Why did some do well and others didn’t?

I think there are a few reasons but there is one in particular that was discussed in all four episodes that became a common theme. Hint: It was discussed outright in episodes 31 and 32.

At the end of the article I challenged everyone to review the episodes for themselves and discover what I believe to be one reason discussed that can make or break your success in this market, especially in a difficult economy.

To find out if I’m right and what it is, we are holding a contest. I invite everyone to listen to all four interviews again and post your comments in The Force Field Forums or send an e-mail to comments@theforcefield.net.

If you guess my answer correctly or figure it out I will put your name in a drawing to win an mp3 player similar to the one we gave away in the Summer of Podcasts contest earlier this year. (The winner was in Sweden).

This mp3 player will be shipped loaded with The Force Field Podcast Special Edition Volume 1. This edition, which is currently available in The Force Field Podcast store, is a collection of the first six episodes of The Force Field (when it was for OnForce Providers only) remastered with additional content and an additional segment in each episode written and produced specifically for the collection and never before released. The episodes are COMMERCIAL FREE.

Contest rules: 

  1. Post your answer in the forum contest thread or via e-mail.
  2. You may discuss the topic in the thread but only one official posted answer per entrant.
  3. You must include a valid name/username or e-mail address in the post (you can spell out (at) instead of @ to prevent spamming. If you use username only make sure the e-mail address on your member account is correct.
  4. You must be 18 years or older to participate.

A winner will be chosen from all correct entries posted in this thread or received by January 31, 2010. The winner will be announced on a future episode of The Force Field.

The State of the IT Industry 2009: Looking back, were we right?

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Earlier this year we ran a four-part series on The Force Field podcast called The State of the IT Industry, a comprehensive study of the effects of  national economy in a downward trend on the IT services industry.  During this series we interviewed four service professionals and asked them how their businesses were doing and where they thought the industry would be in the coming months. Given the situation with banking industry, high unemployment and a world economy on a downward spiral their answers were somewhat surprising. Overall, they were very optimistic.

 In episode 29 we talked with Pat Palmer of The Computer Guy, heard how his business is doing well in spite of the economy and how he expects this trend to continue in the months and years to come. In episode 30 we talked with Kris Crispell, a computer consultant in Oregon and he told us the same thing. In episode 31 we talked with Crisantos Hajibrahim of Virus Woman. He told us why he entered a new and growing area of the IT market to keep his business profitable, heard how he did it and found out how he is riding out the economic storm with Google Apps. In episode 32 we wrapped up the series with The VAR Guy, listened to his advice on diversifying and found out where he thought the industry is headed.

They represented four different segments of the industry with four different business models. Yet their views were the same: they all were very optimistic about where their businesses were going, in spite of the economic situation.

I wanted to revisit this at the end of the year and find out if their expectations were met or exceeded, or if they had all been overly optimistic. A general look at the current state of the industry indicates that, overall, IT has fared well, especially compared to other industries, and this trend is likely to continue, at least for awhile. In fact, I received a number of comments from other IT providers who seemed to support this observation.

For instance, at the start of an interview in a recent episode with Pat Palmer, who returned to discuss business plans, I asked the follow-up question, “How has business been since then? Is it about what you expected?” The short answer was yes. In fact, in July of this year he expanded his business, opening a retail storefront downtown.

In a discussion on the topic in the FF forums , Chris Bequeath indicated he was having one of his better years and responded “recession my ass.. if this is bad.. keep it bad!!!!”

A tweet from Leon Jackson (ljtechservices) said: “I was busier than ever this year.”

I received a number of other comments from service providers as well, most were similar to those above.

Not everyone agreed, however. There were a few who said business was about the same or slower and one or two said they were getting out of the business entirely, though not necessarily due to the economy.

Interestingly, this general spike in business for IT is in stark contrast to the last major economic upset which occurred in 2001 – after 9/11. At that time the industry took a serious hit and it was somewhat slow to recover.

What happened? How did the industry escape a fate in 2009 it endured eight years earlier? What changed between then and now that made IT more resilient to such an economic downturn? Personally I believe it has more to do with our society and our increased dependence on technology than anything else.

During the past decade we have become more reliant on a high tech infrastructure in nearly all facets of our existence, from computer controlled electrical grids, utility delivery systems, transportation, communications and national security to business operations, domestic activities and personal diversions. We now have devices, tools and processes that either did not exist ten years ago or were luxuries that became commodities on which we rely heavily for both domestic and commercial use today.

What was considered a novelty then is now almost a necessity. When it fails or breaks, it needs to be fixed or replaced pronto. Such is the state of the IT service industry in 2009. It is no longer just another field, it is one that has become increasingly vital to the maintenance and perpetuation of our entire societal infrastructure. The economy may be bad, but without IT, it could become worse.

While that may answer the question as to why the industry as a whole survived and flourished, there is still the question as to why most service providers did exceedingly well and others didn’t. To answer that question, I went back to interviews and analyzed them from another perspective.

I listened to the series again (yes, I listen to my own podcast!) and found a common denominator among the responses from all four guests. Yes, their views were all positive and optimistic. Why? What was the common element here that made them optimistic and sure of their success?

I think I know the answer, but I want to know if it is indeed the one thing that made the difference. To find out if I’m right and what it is, I invite everyone to listen to all four interviews again and post your comments here, in the forum thread The State of the IT Industry 2009 – Win an mp3 player! or send an e-mail to comments@theforcefield.net. If you guess my answer correctly or figure it out I will put your name in a drawing to win an mp3 player similar to the one we gave away in the Summer of Podcasts contest earlier this year. (The winner was in Sweden).

I will give you a hint: there are clues in each episode and it was actually discussed outright in episodes 31 and 32.