Small Biz Thoughts by Karl Palachuk

 

The SOP Friday series has been very popular. Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback and props. I appreciate it. Please tell your friends, post it on forums, Tweet about it, and shoutout on Facebook. Thank you.

I've been doing this series since May of 2011. It's called SOP Friday - or Standard Operating Procedure Friday. It's a series dedicated to helping small I.T. Consultants / computer consultants develop the right processes and procedures to create a successful and profitable consulting business.

All new articles are posted on my blog at Small Biz Thoughts. This is just a convenient place to index the articles.

Of course you can always subscribe to this blog on Feedburner or Kindle and you'll never miss a post.


Original Date / Article Title

Coming Soon:

June 13 = SOP Friday: Billing Procedures

June 7 = SOP Friday: Naming Your Processes and Procedures

May 31 = SOP Friday: Casual Fridays (and Dress Codes Generally)

May 24 = SOP Friday: Managing Temporary Files

 

Published:

May 17 = SOP Friday: Removing a Client from Managed Services

May 10 = SOP Friday: Healthcare and Other Benefits

May 3 = SOP Friday: Travel Policies

April 26 = SOP Friday: Assign Techs or Rotate Them?

April 19 = SOP Friday: Moving a Client Office

April 12 = SOP Friday: Employee Expense Reports

 

Apr 5 = SOP Friday: Using a White Board
(100th Post in the Series!)

Mar 29 = SOP Friday: Is This a Profitable Hour?

Mar 22 = SOP Friday: How to Work 8AM to 5PM in I.T. Consulting

Mar 15 = SOP Friday: Prudent Password Policies

Mar 8 = SOP Friday: Vendor Management and Coordination

Mar 1 = SOP Friday: Removing Old Information - From Everything

Feb 22 = SOP Friday: When Processes and Policies Become Obsolete

Feb 15 = SOP Friday: How to Use Velcro

Feb 8 = SOP Friday: Monthly Single Checklist

Feb 1 = SOP Friday: Employee Review Procedure (Quarterly or Annual)

 

Jan 25 = SOP Friday: On Call and Night Staff

Jan 18 = SOP Friday: After Hours Work

Jan 11 = SOP Friday: Voicemail Passwords, etc.

Jan 4, 2013 = SOP Friday: How to Maximize Billability of Technicians

Dec 28 = SOP Friday: Building a Business Plan for Your I.T. Company

Dec 21 = SOP Friday: Helping Clients with Audits - Security and Insurance

Dec 14 = SOP Friday: Employee Onboarding

Dec 7 = SOP Friday: Hiring vs. Outsourcing

Nov 30 = SOP Friday: Disaster Recovery - Simple Restores

Nov 23 = SOP Friday: Labeling Equipment

 

Nov 16 = SOP Friday: DNS and DHCP Allocation - Server vs. Firewall

Nov 9 = SOP Friday: Business Cards . . . All the Details

Nov 2 = SOP Friday: Sales Tickets and Sales Queues

Oct 26 = SOP Friday: The Monthly Maintenance Checklist

Oct 19 = SOP Friday: Why We Do Monthly Maintenance

Oct 12 = SOP Friday: Scheduling Monthly Maintenance and On Site Visits
(75th post in the series!)

Oct 5 = SOP Friday: Organizing Your Company Files and Folders

Sep 28 = SOP Friday: Patch Management Philosophy and Procedures

Sep 21 = SOP Friday: Client Personnel Changes: Employee Departure Checklist

Sep 14 = SOP Friday: Client Personnel Changes: New User Checklist

 

Sep 7 = SOP Friday: Final Friday Training

Aug 31 = SOP Friday: Backups Part 4 - Changing Technologies

Aug 24 = SOP Friday: Backups Part 3 - Backup Monitoring, Testing, and Management

Aug 17 = SOP Friday: Backups 2: Backup Philosophies and Client Communication

Aug 10 = SOP Friday: Backups 1: Defining Your Client Backup

Aug 3 = SOP Friday: The Tech on Call for The Day - Managing Daily Workflow

Jul 27 = SOP Friday: Daily Monitoring of Client Machines

Jul 20 = SOP Friday: Invoice Review and Processing

Jul 13 = SOP Friday: Adding a New Machine to Managed Services

Jul 6 = SOP Friday: Time Sheet Submission and Approval

 

Jun 29 = SOP Friday: Front Office Roles and Responsibilities

Jun 22 = SOP Friday: Troubleshooting Guidelines

Jun 15 = SOP Friday: Technician Supplies -- "Scary Box"

Jun 8 = SOP Friday: Technician Roles and Responsibilities

Jun 1 = SOP Friday: Service Manager Roles and Responsibilities

May 25 = SOP Friday: Guide to a Service Call

May 18 = SOP Friday: Technician Daily Time Management

May 11 = SOP Friday: Service Board Backlog Management

May 4 = SOP Friday: Do Billable Work First?

Apr27 = SOP Friday: Managing Internal Administrative Tasks

 

Apr 20 = SOP Friday: Setting Up Alerts in Your PSA and RMM
(50th post in the series!)

Apr 13 = SOP Friday: Setting Up a New Managed Service Client (Checklist)

Apr 6 = SOP Friday: Third Party Tech Support - Documenting Calls

Mar 30 = SOP Friday: Third Party Tech Support - Rules of Engagement

Mar 23 = SOP Friday: Phone Procedures 2 - How Much Interruption is Okay?

Mar 16 = SOP Friday: Phone Procedures 1 - Philosophy and General Rules

Mar 9 = SOP Friday: Checklist for Major Scheduled Maintenance

Mar 2 = SOP Friday: Schedules and Timelines for Running Your Company

Feb 24 = SOP Friday: Server Down Procedures

Feb 17 = SOP Friday: Email Rules and Etiquette for the Consultant

 

Feb 10 = SOP Friday: Response Times - Guarantees and Delivery

Feb 3 = SOP Friday: The First Client Visit

Jan 27 = SOP Friday: Software Upgrade Policy

Jan 20 = SOP Friday: Keeping Your Standards and Procedures Organized

Jan 13 = SOP Friday: Hardware Replacement Policy

Jan 6, 2012 = SOP Friday: Employee Handbook

Dec 30 = SOP Friday: Cash Flow - Weekly Procedure

Dec 23 = SOP Friday: Hiring Your First Employee

Dec 16 = SOP Friday: Activating and Registering Client Software and Hardware

Dec 9 = SOP Friday: Running Regular Financial Reports

 

Dec 2 = SOP Friday: Defining Your Company to Clients and Employees

Nov 25 = SOP Friday: Celebrate Anniversaries (Employees and Clients)

Nov 18 = SOP Friday: Naming Conventions for Machines and Servers

Nov 11 = SOP Friday: Firing Process

Nov 4 = SOP Friday: Hiring Process

Oct 28 = SOP Friday: Phone Etiquette and Procedures

Oct 21 = SOP Friday: Time Tracking for Employees

Oct 14 = SOP Friday: Clients Who Abuse the Phones

Oct 7 = SOP Friday: Choosing Pay Dates

Sep 30 = SOP Friday: Documenting Backups

 

Sep 23 = SOP Friday: Cash Flow: Dealing with Late Payments

Sep 16 = SOP Friday: IP Address Allocations

Sep 9 = SOP Friday: Cash Flow: Getting Paid in Advance

Sep 2 = SOP Friday: Massaging the Service Board

Aug 26 = SOP Friday: How Do Service Requests Get Into Your System?

Aug 19 = SOP Friday: Setting Job Priorities

Aug 12 = SOP Friday: Service Ticket Statuses to Use and When to Use Them

Aug 5 = SOP Friday: Hourly vs. Salary Employees

July 29 = SOP Friday: Local Docs, My Docs, and Storing Files on the Server

July 22 = SOP Friday: Responding to Viruses

 

July 15 = SOP Friday: Router and Firewall Configurations

July 8 = SOP Friday: Troubleshooting and Repair Logs

July 1 = SOP Friday: New PC Checklists

June 24 = SOP Friday: Used Equipment and Warranties

June 17 = SOP Friday: Nuking and Paving

June 10 = SOP Friday: Approved Tools

June 3 = SOP Friday: Service Ticket Updates

May 27 = SOP Friday: Working in Real Time

May 20 = SOP Friday: Date Formats

May 13, 2011 = SOP Friday: The !Tech Directory

Please bookmark that page, check back often, and let me know if you have any feedback on the series.

:-)