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Helping business owners grow their companies and transition with confidence, added value and complete control.
Tag Archives: entrepreneurship
Santa Boss: The Role of a Business Owner
Ebenezer Scrooge was visited by three ghosts, so it’s fitting that I tackle the issue of the holidays three times. We’ve discussed terminations close to the holidays, and the custom of dispensing year-end bonuses. But in the end Dicken’s Scrooge was … Continue Reading
Holiday Terminations: Scrooge or Chicken?
This year, my first holiday termination conversation came on November 20th; a bit early in the season. Like traditionalists who hold off on Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving Day, most business owners start avoiding termination announcements a few weeks before the holidays.With the Great … Continue Reading
Success: Is Good Enough, Good Enough?
On Friday’s On Point program on NPR, Devlin Barrett and Tom Ricks discussed the burgeoning “Generals’ Affair” scandal. This weekend, the Wall Street Journal has a commentary by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, which reinforces several analyses in that paper … Continue Reading
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Leadership
Tagged business ownership, entrepreneurship, leadership
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Politically Speaking: Do Small Business Owners Have a Voice?
The political parties have completed their prime-time convention pageantry, and are buckling down for the 60 day dash to the election. Both profess to be focused on the”little guy,” the middle class backbone of America. One party says that you … Continue Reading
Posted in Entrepreneurship, John's Opinions, Leadership
Tagged Ayn Rand, economy, employees, entrepreneurship, news, politics
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More than a Feeling
This is the story of two business owners. It is true. It is real-time. Both stories occurred last week, and I was present in both conversations. The first story is one of disaster. A restaurant owner I work with was … Continue Reading
Entrepreneurs Love Paperwork
Entrepreneurs love paperwork. Not. The truth is that most entrepreneurs hate paperwork with a passion otherwise reserved for the college team that ran up the score on their alma mater year in and year out. If I want to get a guaranteed … Continue Reading
Thinking Isn’t Doing
My friend Phil owns a mobile imaging company. His employees criss-cross the major cities in South Texas in dozens of trucks outfitted with portable X-Ray and ultrasound machines, responding to calls from nursing homes and home health providers. In th beginning, … Continue Reading
An Army of One
Hollywood has done an excellent job of defining what it takes to be an action hero. George Smiley, the grey civil servant of John Le Carre’s spy novels, is a protagonist, but not a hero. Heroes are cast in a distinct … Continue Reading
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Leadership
Tagged business ownership, entrepreneurship, leadership, small business advice
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Choosing a Buyer for Your Business
You may be questioning this title. After talking in depth about the shortage of buyers over the next 10 years, the differences in values and work habits of Generation X, and the competition for ambitious people from better financed and … Continue Reading
Beating the Boomer Bust
We’ve looked at the coming generation of business buyers, and many things about that picture aren’t pretty. When I present to business owners about the Boomer Bust, this is around the time that someone in the audience says “So, are we just … Continue Reading
Outsourcing America
The Baby Boomers created seismic shifts in American culture and economics throughout their lives. Their mere numbers caused much of the shift, but their competitiveness and commonality enhanced the impact at every stage of their lives. In the mid 1960’s, … Continue Reading
Work-Life Balance
The term “Work-Life Balance” is widely cited as first occurring in the United State in 1986 in a research paper. I can’t identify the specific source of this much-referred usage, but it is telling that it would pop up when the last … Continue Reading