Coffee Time

“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 […]

I have always tried to be a good referral partner. Whenever people bring up that they are looking for someone in a particular field, I almost always have someone I am able to send them to that will do an excellent job for them. But I recently realized that I have been falling short in […]

“ I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” – Alan Greenspan I remember being in a meeting a few years ago when the railroad unveiled their new marketing campaign. When everyone saw the commercial along with […]

“An extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof.” – Marcello Truzzi Everyone who is involved in Multi-level Marketing (MLM) will espouse the wealth and wonders it can bring to your life…but somehow those results are not readily visible to the rest of the world as far as the person who is pitching the idea to you. These people […]

“I call it push and pester, or grab and clutch…a guy who has less athletic ability can still block someone. There are some big people that are athletic that are good… But there are guys that aren’t athletic that … are playing.” – Pat Morris, agent for over 100 professional hockey players. In business, when […]