Business Strategy & Marketing

“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong.” – Richard P. Feynman Hardly anyone is fully content with their current situation – least of all entrepreneurs. If you ask 100 business owners, even those […]

A few years ago, I did a string of articles talking about the importance of charging appropriately. They talked about how customer loyalty can sometimes be fleeting, how low prices can diminish perceived value and the volume of customers you get, and how low prices can attract the wrong type of customers. In the last […]

Bookkeeping is the bane of most business owners’ existence. But ignoring our books or putting them on the back burner can be one of the costliest mistakes we ever make. A few years back, SCORE conducted a poll asking entrepreneurs what was the worst part of owning a small business. A whopping 40% answered bookkeeping and taxes. […]

One of my favorite things in music is when one artist samples another artist’s work. (“Sampling” means taking a portion of an existing song and using that as an element of a new song.) Musicians in all genres do this, but you seem to see it the most in R&B and hip-hop. The sample can […]

“I can do that myself. I don’t need to hire someone else to do it.” How often have you heard the above statement? Someone is capable of doing a task themselves, so they don’t want the “unnecessary” expense of hiring someone else to do it for them. And in some situations, that’s perfectly reasonable. For […]

2019 and all of its tax deadlines are upon us! Below is a quick guide of the most important dates to keep in mind this calendar year. January 15th: due date to pay 4th quarter estimated taxes. January 31st: Due date to send out 1099s and W-2s to recipients. Due date to file 1099s/1096s with amounts […]

Every year, I have (nearly) countless conversations with clients about how they can reduce their tax bills. And, obviously, that is a big part of the expertise we provide and the service for which they pay us. When we meet, at least half of the conversation centers around legal tax maneuvers they can make to reduce their […]

“Hit the road Jack and don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more Hit the road Jack and don’t you come back no more.” – Ray Charles   I fire clients. Not with great frequency, and not on a whim. But I do fire them – and more often than you […]

The recently passed business tax plan is the most comprehensive tax reform passed in three decades. As a business owner, here’s what you need to know:

“I’d like to pick your brain. Let me take you out for a beer” – many generally well-meaning individuals A few articles ago I talked about how everyone loves to give advice – irrespective of whether they have any idea what they are talking about or not. Most people love to pontificate to anyone who […]

“Gloom, despair, and agony on me Deep, dark depression, excessive misery If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all Gloom, despair, and agony on me” – From the TV Show “Hee-Haw” In the last article we talked about how viewing our gifts and abilities as inordinately spectacular can be damaging. We […]

“‘Normal’ is the cruelest of all insults” ― Mike Snelle That quote embodies the perspective that most of us have. No one wants to be typical. No one wants to be a simple cog in the machine. No one wants to be a faceless blob indistinguishable from the masses. All of us want to be unique. […]