Gene Marks is a dynamo. Every morning he gets up at 5:00 to write on small businesses issues for Forbes, The Guardian, Inc., and other publications he contributes to regularly.

Then he heads off to run The Marks Group, a CRM reseller and consulting firm that serves a predominately SMB client base. So Gene has a variety of perspectives on small business software and technology.

He writes about small business technology trends in his weekly column for Forbes magazine, as well as in The Guardian, and talks about small business issues in regular appearances on Fox, MSNBC and other outlets.

He also lives it in his job, where he comes face to face with small businesses owners struggling to understand how to deploy new technology in their businesses. Gene has a front-row view of how the questions we ask at the Tech Adoption Index are playing out in real life.

On What’s Wrong with SMB Software Sales

“A lot of my clients are not experts in what they are buying. So when they are dealing with the software vendors, they just try and sell them their bill of goods instead of consulting with them…..I miss that objectivity.”

On the Commoditization of Small Business Software

“The way I think of SMB software in 2018, 2019 is, if it is implemented the right way, it will get you where you want it to get you. It’s like there is a Ford Taurus, a Toyota Camry and a Honda Accord. They are all really great cars and they will get you to our destination. The problem I see with my clients is, they are not using all of the features.”

Is small-business software commoditized? Gene things it is, to a large degree. The bigger issue is small business owners are not taking advantage of the features software has to offer.

On the “Romanticization” of Entrepreneurship

“People get romanticized into starting a business and they don’t have the skill set to do it. The best business owners I know are not emotionally attached to their businesses. They just want to make money, and they know how to buy something for a dollar and sell it for three. Passion is nice. But profits are more important.”

In this clip from our podcast with Gene Marks, we discuss why it’s better to go into business to make money than to start a “dream” business.

On How the Cloud Has Made it so Much Easier to Start and Run a Business

“Can you imagine running a business in 1978 vs. 2018? You can’t even compare what you can do now. And it is all because of technology….There are literally millions of small business owners today who are running profitable businesses from their houses and apartments. At it is all because of the CRM software and Quickbooks and Shopify.”

You can listed to the full podcast here: