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Business: every article
46 articles, newest first.
23 September 202632 pieces
- BusinessSay the hard thing Tuesday morning, not Friday at fiveHow to tell somebody their work isn't good enough, in a way they can act on, without torching the rest of your week.
- BusinessGive the hard feedback while the problem is still smallMost managers don't have a delivery problem. They have a timing problem, and by the time they finally speak up the conversation is twice as expensive.
- BusinessWhat to check in the books before you buy somebody's businessThe seller's P&L is a sales document. The bank statements are the truth. Start there and work outward.
- BusinessNegotiating with suppliers when you're the small accountYou don't have volume leverage. You have four other kinds, and most small operators never use any of them.
- BusinessWrite the job post so the wrong people don't applyMost hiring problems start with a posting that could belong to anybody. Put the pay in, name the hard part, and watch your applicant pile get smaller and better.
- BusinessHanding the family business over without blowing up the familyMost successions fail years before the lawyer gets involved. The fix is a date, real authority, and a number everybody agreed to while things were calm.
- BusinessLeading a team through a mess you didn't makeThe supplier burned down, the client went under, the parent company changed the rules. Your people still look at you first. Do this in the first 48 hours.
- BusinessWhere AI Saves Your Small Business Time and Where It Doesn'tA simple test for every tool you're being sold, plus the jobs it genuinely handles and the ones it'll quietly cost you money on.
- BusinessDelegating When You're Convinced Nobody Else Can Do ItTrack two weeks, price your hour, hand off the boring thing first, and budget for the mistakes that come with it.
- BusinessThe culture you tolerate is the culture you haveValues on the wall don't build a company. What you reward, repeat and refuse to put up with does. Here's how to set it on purpose.
- BusinessThe insurance policies a small company actually needsFour policies carry almost all the risk, two more catch what they miss, and one clause in the property form can gut a claim you thought was covered.
- BusinessRun a meeting that ends on time with the decision madePut the decision in the invite title, name who decides, and stop recapping for people who showed up late. The rest is housekeeping.
- BusinessHow to run a one-to-one that isn't just a status updateThirty minutes, same slot every week, their agenda first. Most managers get the order backwards and then wonder why nobody tells them anything.
- BusinessYour vendor didn't change their bank details. Somebody else did.The two attacks that actually hit small businesses arrive through the same door, and the defenses are boring, cheap and mostly free.
- BusinessA complaint call is the best sales call you'll get all weekThe customer who tells you what went wrong is handing you a second chance most businesses never get. Most operators waste it in the first ninety seconds.
- BusinessHow to fight a chargeback, and when to let it goMost merchants contest the disputes they can't win and give up on the ones they can. Fix that with a deadline calendar and one piece of arithmetic.
- BusinessRolling reserves, chargeback ratios and the numbers that biteTwo thresholds decide whether your processor trusts you, and one of them isn't the one you think. What the merchant agreement doesn't spell out.
- BusinessYour high-risk processing rate isn't your processing costThe 4.35% on the quote sheet is the smallest number in the deal. Work out the reserve, the float and the chargeback drag before you sign.
- BusinessHow long a MATCH listing follows you, and how to get off itYour merchant account got shut down and now nobody will board you. That's a five-year clock, it's tied to your name, and here's how it actually works.
- BusinessKeep a second processor warm before you need oneThe day your merchant account goes under review is the wrong day to start underwriting a new one. Here's what warming a backup actually involves.
- BusinessYour processor just shut you off. Work the first six hours.A hold notice at 6:40 a.m. is survivable. What kills companies is the four days people spend arguing with a support queue instead of moving.
- BusinessWhat your merchant agreement says about leavingThe exit fee, the notice window and the equipment lease that won't cancel. Find all three now, not the week you finally want out.
- BusinessThe four-digit number that decides how your business gets paidYour merchant category code sets your interchange, your customers' rewards, and whether a corporate card will even approve you. Most operators never check it.
- BusinessWhat your processor means when it calls you high riskThe label isn't a moral judgment. It's a bet on who pays for your refunds if you disappear, and you can change the odds.
- BusinessRaising your prices after years of charging too littleThe arithmetic, the email, the script for pushback, and the one situation where you should hold off.
- BusinessWhat you owe the person you're about to fireThe meeting takes seven minutes. Everything that makes it survivable happens before and after it.
- BusinessWhy a profitable month can leave you unable to make payrollYour P&L and your bank balance are telling two different stories. Only one of them can shut you down on a Friday.
- BusinessThe invoice terms that actually get you paidNet 30 isn't a magic phrase. What moves money is knowing the payment run date, the PO number, and who to call on day ten.
- BusinessProfitable and broke is a real placeYour P&L can say you made money in a month you couldn't make payroll. Both things are true, and only one of them can close you down.
- BusinessHiring your first employee changes what your job isThe salary is the smallest part of the cost, and the paperwork is the easiest part of the change. Everything else is on you.
- BusinessGetting paid on time starts before you send the invoiceDeposits, due dates, PO numbers and a chase ladder that works — the small print that decides whether cash turns up in 14 days or 74.
- BusinessHow to fire somebody without wrecking themThe decision is the easy part. The meeting, the money and the week afterwards are where managers do real damage.
22 September 202613 pieces
- BusinessProfitable Businesses Go Broke and It's Always the Same ReasonProfit is an opinion about timing. Cash is a fact. Learn to run the second number and you'll survive long enough for the first one to matter.
- BusinessThe first employee changes your job more than theirsGoing from one person to two is the hardest hire you'll ever make, and most of the work happens before anyone starts.
- BusinessNobody should be surprised on the day they get firedA practical walkthrough of ending someone's employment with clarity and decency, what you actually owe them, and the mistakes that cost you a team.
- BusinessSelling without the sales voiceYou don't need a different personality to close business. You need better questions, a straight price, and the nerve to say what you don't do.
- BusinessMost late invoices are a process problem, not a people problemThe awkward conversation about money is one you can mostly avoid, if you do the unglamorous work before the job starts.
- BusinessManaging people who have been doing this longer than youAge gaps on a team are normal. The mistakes new managers make around them are avoidable, and most of them happen in the first month.
- BusinessHow a Profitable Business Runs Out of MoneyProfit is an opinion formed at year end. Cash is a fact that shows up on a Friday, and Friday is when payroll clears.
- BusinessRead your own profit and loss in ten minutes a monthThe bottom line tells you something is wrong. It never tells you what. Read the statement in this order and it will.
- BusinessWhat to file before your first employee startsThe order of operations for hiring employee number one, the forms that have real deadlines, and the mistakes that cost the most to unwind.
- BusinessHow to fire someone without wrecking them or your teamThe decision is the easy part. The fifteen minutes, the paperwork and the week afterward are where most managers fall apart.
- BusinessRun your week off one page of numbersMonthly financials land three weeks too late to change anything. A twenty-minute Monday review on a single page will.
- BusinessThe weekly numbers that keep a small business out of troubleMonthly accounts tell you what already happened. These eight figures, reviewed every week on one page, tell you what's about to.
- BusinessThe numbers to check every Monday before you open your emailYour monthly P&L arrives three weeks late and tells you what already happened. A one-page weekly review tells you what's about to.