December Delights: Pet Calendars, Client Connections, and Looking Ahead
December is a fun, albeit busy month for me. Each year, my fabulous team contributes the cutest pictures of their pets – typically cats and dogs, but we’ve also seen axolotls, ferrets, and more! Jo from our team takes those pictures, adds their names and funny captions, and sends them to Joe Dec and his team to print out our beloved annual calendars.
Most of my December is spent handing out these calendars to our top clients. It’s a thinly veiled excuse to get some much-wanted face time with my clients. You see, from our inception in 2007 until 2016, I wore ALL the hats here, and much of my time was spent doing the tech support my awesome team handles now. While I don’t miss doing the support myself, I DO miss the face time with my clients. For that reason, I really look forward to seeing so many of them in December.
If you’re one of our top clients, we either met in person recently or will soon, or you’ll have a calendar mailed to you this month.
If you’re one of our other, equally important clients, we hope to hear more from you in 2025 so you can join in the calendar love! =)
If you’re not yet a client, what personal touches does your IT company do for you? I’d love to hear about it!
A consideration for next year: what if we used amazing pet pictures from our clients for our annual calendar? Would you be into that? Would love to hear your thoughts.
This month, Murph Consulting turned 18. I cranked up Alice Cooper's "I'm 18" and Skid Row's "18 and Life" to get the vibes going. My company is now old enough to vote, get a tattoo, and get married, all without parental consent. Watch out, world!
In all seriousness, the passing of another year of entrepreneurship and running a successful business always feels like a good time to reflect. Since we started in 2007, we've assisted nearly 600 small businesses and residential clients. Businesses in every industry, ranging in size from the solopreneur to 100 employees. There’s no company we’ll say “you’re too small for us to help”, and that gives me great joy. Small businesses need tech and CyberSecurity support, and we’ve got their backs.
Speaking of, it's October again, and you all know what that means, right? The Mets have failed us, and the Islanders, Jets, and Rangers are about to. It's also Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Every small business should be implementing some basic security measures by now. It's easier and more affordable than you think it is, and definitely cheaper than dealing with the fallout of something drastically bad happening to your business.
How's your password game? Do you use strong passwords on all the sites you visit, or are they all slight modifications of one word, like your kids or pets' names or birth dates?
If it's the latter, let's chat. You should be using a password manager. They are easy to use, create complex passwords for you that you no longer need to remember, and keep them all safe for you. I can't remember the last time I had to click on the "forgot your password" link for any site, and I love that for me.
A password manager is just one of the seven software we feel EVERY small business should have in place to help keep them protected in 2025. We’ve packaged these up together neatly and made them affordable for the small businesses we will always support. If you’d like to learn more, please click the “Contact Murph” button below to send me an email.