Holiday Weekend: Can MSPs Really Unplug?

As the July 4 holiday weekend approaches here in the U.S., it’s time for MSPs, entrepreneurs (and me…) to face the following facts: First, as a small business owner you need to fully unplug from time to time.  Second, if you can’t unplug you need to admit that you’re really not an effective small business owner. Here’s why it’s time for quite a few MSPs and entrepreneurs to take a vacation. Including me.

Let’s start with few words from Arlin Sorensen, founder of HTG Peer Groups for VARs and MSPs. In a recent blog post, Sorensen wrote:

“If you have a business – it is not dependent on you to proceed and operate. If you have a business – you can get away and have a life. If you have a business – it is not about YOU.”

In other words, if you plan your business correctly you should be able to completely unplug from time to time. I wonder: How many MSPmentor readers will really manage to unplug during the July 4 holiday weekend here in the U.S.?

My Own Addiction

I admit it: I’m pretty much addicted to work. I enjoy it. A lot. But it’s time for me to concede an important fact: Nine Lives Media Inc. is no longer an “Amy Katz and Joe Panettieri” production.

Sure, Amy and I launched the business together in January 2008. But since that time we’ve expanded our team of sales pros, developers, bloggers and project managers.

Prime examples: Contributing Associate Bloggers Matt Weinberger and David Courbanou both have written more than 300 blogs on MSPmentor and The VAR Guy since October 2009. And senior sales consultant Kim Daniels has been helping drive our business development and customer service for more than a year.

It’s time for Amy, Kim and me to disappear — in separate cars, of course — for the week of July 4. Heeding Arlin’s advice, we’re taking much-needed vacations and unplugging from the business. I hope you manage to do the same in the days or weeks ahead.

I’ll depend on Matt and David to carry the blog load on our sites from July 5-9. They’ll update our site content daily. Thanks for joining in the conversation with Matt and David while I’m gone. This is my 1739th blog entry for MSPmentor. I’ll be back to write 1740 on July 12th… reporting live from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.

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