As many of you may recall earlier in the year I joined the team at Virtual Administrator to start and build the Trusted Advisor Program. The Trusted Advisor Program is an Executive Level business coaching program designed to help IT firms focus on their business and not just the technology to grow their business. The program has grown and the partners that I coach are achieving many different levels of success.

One of the issues that I continue to run into with partners and industry vendors who wanted to collaborate with me was that I was employed by a “vendor.” While a large number of partners I work with have their own solutions, Virtual Administrator is a vendor. Virtual Administrator has teamed up with a number of very well respected industry partners to offer MSP OnRamp Solutions. The OnRamp is a way to start using the products from, Spam Soap, Intronis, hosted Kaseya and Sonicwall GMS with little to no investment out of pocket.

While working for Virtual Administrator I have determined that I can’t truly be 100% vendor neutral. So I have resigned from Virtual Administrator to start my own business, Stuart Selbst Consulting. The services that I will be offering with my new company will be 1-on-1 coaching, business development, planning and consulting. In addition, Stuart Selbst Consulting will be offering blog and newsletter writing services for partners who need this assistance.

I am planning an event this spring in Phoenix, AZ called Spring Training for Business. This event will consist of a number of topics from sales and marketing to social networking, business leadership, human resources, time management and much more. In addition to the lineup of industry veterans who have agreed to speak, I have handpicked vendor sponsors who I feel bring a lot more to the IT business than the average trade show. After 2 ½ days of seminars, everyone who attends will be treated to a Spring Training game in Scottsdale, AZ. Look for details and a website soon. The speakers, agenda and vendors will be announced by December 1, 2009.

It has been a pleasure for me to work with the team at Virtual Administrator this year. I would like that thank both Chris Amori and Rich Forsen for taking a chance on my idea and letting me move forward on this program. I would also like to thank the 40+ partners that I had the pleasure to coach and watch their businesses grow and prosper this year. I am forever proud of you. I know that you will all continue to do well.

I guess that is about it for this blog post. December 1, 2009, I will start my new venture full time. It’s going to be a blast!!

All the best in success,

Stu