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🔥Do you need a CRM?
I have noticed some posts/questions starting out about CRM or platform for leads. 💥If members of this community need a web/mobile CRM to help manage customers and opportunities, let me know I will provide a free platform for members. I can include even tools like GHL Social Media posts and scheduling to help manage your social content.
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Welcome to The SVL Community
Hey everyone, and welcome to the community. I'm JT (J. Todd Jennings), and I want to share why I built this community and assembled the SVL Team of Mentors. I've crossed 31 Ironman finish lines, including competing at the World Championships and multiple Ultra-Marathons. Each of those 140.6-mile journeys taught me something profound: success isn't about the sprint—it's about showing up mile after mile, especially when it gets uncomfortable. The same principle has guided my 30+ years in tech leadership. As a CTO who's scaled SaaS platforms from startup to 400M members, led distributed engineering teams, and navigated the chaos of hypergrowth at companies like Gold Athletics and Endurance Zone, I've learned that building a business is the ultimate endurance event. Here's what I know to be true: - Your first mile won't be pretty (my first startup wasn't either) - You'll hit walls at miles 13, 20, and 26 (we all do) - The difference between DNF and crossing the finish line? Community, strategy, and relentless forward motion - I didn't start Startup Venture Lab to teach theory from an ivory tower. I built it because I've been in the trenches—debugging code at 3 AM, pivoting business models on the fly, and turning "impossible" technical challenges into competitive advantages. This community is for entrepreneurs who understand: - Building a business is about daily consistency, not overnight miracles - Real growth happens when you're uncomfortable - The best insights come from people actively in the arena - Tools and templates are worthless without execution Just like in endurance sports, you don't need to be the fastest or the strongest. You need to be the most persistent. You need the right training plan, the right nutrition (in our case, knowledge and tools), and a support crew that gets it. What you'll find here: No fluff. No "get rich quick" schemes. Just battle-tested frameworks, real-time problem-solving with peers who are building alongside you, and the accountability to keep moving when motivation fades.
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what RMM tool are other small MSPs actually using day to day?
I've got about 6 clients right now, mix of small offices and a couple remote-only teams, and I'm trying to decide if I should commit to something like NinjaRMM or just keep patching things together with what I already know. The per-seat cost starts to feel real when you're not billing at scale yet, and I keep going back and forth on whether paying $150-200/month now buys me enough time back to justify it. Honestly not sure if I'm overthinking the tooling side because it feels more comfortable than actually going out and closing the next client. Anyone been through this call at a similar stage, like under 10 clients, and what did you actually land on?
what tech stack are you actually using to run a one-person agency?
I'm about 4 months out from leaving my corporate job to start a digital marketing agency and I keep getting stuck on the ops side before I even have a single client. Right now I'm looking at something like GoHighLevel for client management but the $97/month feels weird to commit to when my revenue is literally zero. I also can't tell if I'm overcomplicating this early, like maybe a shared Google Drive and one Notion workspace is fine until I hit client number three or four. Honestly just trying to figure out what you wish you'd set up on day one versus what you wasted money on before you had proof the business was working.
is google ads even worth it for a small IT company?
I've been running my MSP for about 8 months now, got 6 clients mostly from referrals, and I'm trying to figure out if putting $500-800/month into Google Ads is going to do anything or just burn cash. The problem is most of my competitors are bigger shops with way bigger budgets, and I keep going back and forth on whether I should even bother competing there or just double down on LinkedIn outreach and local networking. I honestly have no idea what a realistic cost-per-lead looks like for IT services in a mid-size city, and I can't find anyone who's actually run these campaigns for a small shop and is willing to talk numbers.
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