Business Strategy & Marketing

“Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it’s someone else’s witch being hunted.” ― Walter Kirn Every single one of us is guilty of some kind of hypocrisy. Try as we might to avoid double standards, we will all have some. After all, we’re only human. But the double standards that fascinate me are the […]

“Advice is a peculiar commodity. Those who have the capacity to give good advice generally have too much sense to waste their time trying to get rid of it.” – William H. McMaster In our last article we talked about the epidemic of “Rent-A-Friend”-style business/career coaches – those people who give nothing but vague and generic […]

Leslie: “No Ann, please. I beg of you. Will you just shut your beautiful pie-hole? Just sit there, let me stare at you while you silently support me on this game plan.” Ann: “Leslie…” Leslie: “Shh, Ann! Your quiet support means the world to me, as well as your tacit endorsement of all my behaviors.” […]

“To love his maker, for he was SELF-MADE! Self-made, self-trained, self-willed, self-satisfied, He was himself, his daily boast and pride.” – “Two Millions” by William Allen Butler Last year I went to a conference at which most of the speakers were fairly big time authors, coaches, and online marketers. In practice, those speakers are people […]

“I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French.” – Charles de Gaulle Most of the people who walk into my office work. And work very hard. They put in long hours, come up with innovative solutions, […]

“Debt can be a very good thing. The calculations are pretty simple. Some people just seem to think I’m lying to them with math.” –  Me (Micah Fraim) –  just now People hate debt. It is almost universally viewed as negative – and in many cases with good reason. Certain kinds of debt (high interest […]

“Take this job and shove it I ain’t working here no more My woman done left and took all the reasons I was working for You better not try to stand in my way ‘Cause I’m walkin’ out the door Take this job and shove it I ain’t working here no more” – “Take This […]

I am far from an investment expert – and I’ve never tried to be one. I’ve always contended that a financial advisor has a very different skillset than an accountant – and that those who try to be both are rarely good at either. But an image that came across my LinkedIn feed last week […]

“I’ve gone into hundreds of [fortune-teller’s parlors], and have been told thousands of things, but nobody ever told me I was a policewoman getting ready to arrest her.” – NYC detective Small business owners are some of my favorite people. I talk with them every day and they can be truly inspiring. Most of them […]

“He was a tycoon, then a cheapskate Went out looking for a keepsake To tuck into his suitcase on Viceroy’s Row He had a satchel full of cash And dishes full of ashes He went from boom to bust In the blinking of a lash” – “Viceroy’s Row”, Elvis Costello & The Roots For the […]

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about the importance of charging appropriately for the services you render. The article focused on the common phenomenon of “what have you done for me lately?” and the corresponding need to charge properly (since a client’s favor can sometimes be so fleeting). But there is actually an […]

Years ago when I was first starting my business I picked up a client who’d had a series of terrible accountants. How terrible? The first accountant had made some material errors that cost him over $100,000 in tax penalties. The accountant after that seemed better…at least until I looked into prior tax returns. I discovered […]