Insights

Plain thinking on the realities of running a business.

Written from the owner's seat, not the lecture hall. No theory for its own sake, just what I've seen actually move a business.

Thinking Out Loud

You're the only person in the building no one holds accountable

Everyone in your company answers to someone. Except you. It sounds like the reward for building the business. It is also the quietest problem most owners never put a name to.

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Strategy & Execution

Always busy, never moving? You're working on the wrong things

Win a customer, lose one. Make a hire, two leave. The bottleneck is usually the owner working hard on the wrong things. How to find the rocks that actually move the business.

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Owner Blind Spots

How to evaluate a vendor without getting sold to

You're not just buying technology, you're buying a relationship. The questions that cut through a polished demo, including the one most sales reps dread.

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Thinking Out Loud

When a consultant is the wrong answer

Why would I give you reasons not to hire me? Because a consultant can't want it for you. When outside help won't help, and when it actually will.

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Owner Blind Spots

Every business will face a crisis it didn't see coming

Not might. Will. A short, written incident response plan is the difference between one bad day and a fight for survival. What goes in it, and where to start.

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Operator Perspective

Buying a business? Look hardest at what you don't understand

You skip the bootstrap phase, but acquisitions hide their problems like a used car. Five things to look hard at before you sign anything.

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Operator Perspective

The honest pros and cons of running your own business

Running your own business is incredibly rewarding, and genuinely hard. The honest pros and cons, from someone who has lived both sides of it.

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Leadership

When things go sideways, your people need honesty

Leaders feel they have to look in control at all times. What people actually need in a hard moment is the truth, and a clear way to help.

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Leadership

The best boss I ever had

A tribute to Terry Fukami, and the leadership traits I valued most in him. He made everyone around him feel like he genuinely wanted them to succeed.

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Owner Blind Spots

Your biggest client is your biggest risk

One client at 20% or more of revenue isn't a good problem to have. I've lived what happens when you lose them. Two things to do about it, starting now.

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Thinking Out Loud

What AI actually means for a $5M business

No IT department, no transformation budget, eleven minutes between meetings. Your first AI business case is simpler than all the noise makes it sound.

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Owner Blind Spots

The biggest bottleneck in your business is probably you

Be honest about the biggest bottleneck in your business. It's you, isn't it? It was me too. Why that happens, and why you have to get out of the way.

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Owner Blind Spots

The most expensive technology mistake in small business

It isn't a bad vendor or a botched project. It's having no one in the room who understands both the technology and the business. That's not a tech problem. It's an accountability problem.

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Operator Perspective

Most consultants have never had to make payroll

There's a difference between learning from case studies and actually walking the path. I bought a company, ran it for nine years through the highs and the lows, and sold it.

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Operator Perspective

At $3M, the business has to run without you

At $500K the owner is the business. By $3M it has to stand on its own. The four things that make the difference.

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Operator Perspective

When gut feel is no longer enough

You're great at the work. Then one day you wake up with seven employees, fifty customers, and chaos. The leap from working in the business to working on it.

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Owner Blind Spots

Skeletons in the closet: why you should audit your technology

Replace your IT provider and the new one might paint a bleak picture. Sometimes the business was one failure away from disaster. Why it happens, and how an annual audit protects you.

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Leadership

When nothing happens, you were successful

The hardest part of leading IT: when you're doing it best, nothing happens. Why success quietly gets punished, and how to show the value anyway.

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Strategy & Execution

Why most strategic plans fail by February

You spent an energized day in January writing down goals. By March they're a distant memory. Three reasons these plans fail, and what to do about it.

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Rather talk it through than read about it?

A discovery call is straight talk about what's going on and whether I can help.

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