エピソード

  • Would Your Business Survive a Divorce?

    Would Your Business Survive a Divorce?
    2026/06/30
    Business owners spend a lot of time preparing for things that could threaten their companies. They buy insurance, build cash reserves, create succession plans, and they worry about recessions, lawsuits, and key employees leaving. But there's one potentially devastating risk that many owners would rather not think about: What happens if the owner's marriage falls apart? This week, David Barnett explains how careful planning—including a prenuptial agreement—helped him avoid the worst-case scenarios when he got divorced. Jaci Russo offers almost the opposite perspective. She says building a business with her husband hasn't strained their marriage—in fact, it may actually have strengthened it by making the cost of walking away so high. Paul Downs, meanwhile, says the subject has barely crossed his mind, and has never come up in decades of discussing business issues with fellow entrepreneurs.

    Along the way, we explore how divorce can leave a business frozen in place, unable to make important decisions or investments; whether owners should plan for the possibility just in case; and the remarkable challenge of couples who divorce but continue running a business together. Plus: Jaci reports back on what she learned at a Claude Cowork seminar.
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    52 分
  • Dashboard: The Growth Strategy Hiding in Your Supply Chain

    Dashboard: The Growth Strategy Hiding in Your Supply Chain
    2026/06/26
    Jared Bell never planned to own a fencing business. He took a summer job at Butte Fence in 1994, liked the work, and decided to skip college and stay. Thirteen years later, he bought out a partner and took over day-to-day operations—just in time for the Great Recession. The company survived that challenge and has gone on to thrive, but not by following a conventional growth playbook. Bell has expanded the business by repeatedly asking a simple question: Why buy from a supplier when we can do it better ourselves? Over the years, Butte Fence has developed new products, configured more efficient processes, and steadily moved upstream, turning vendors into competitors and creating entirely new businesses along the way. In our conversation, Bell explains how that strategy evolved, what it takes to pull it off, and how a small business can identify opportunities hiding in its own supply chain.
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    39 分
  • Why Do You Pay What You Pay?

    Why Do You Pay What You Pay?
    2026/06/23
    The new pay transparency laws were designed to help job applicants and narrow pay disparities. But they've also had an unintended consequence: Employees now have far more information about what other people are making—and that can raise some uncomfortable questions for business owners. How do you decide what a job is worth? How much should you pay compared to the market? How much should employees know about what their co-workers earn? This week, Jay Goltz, Jennifer Kerhin, and Ted Wolf compare notes on compensation.

    Jennifer explains how her philosophy has evolved from offering below-market pay and maximum flexibility to providing competitive salaries, benefits, and career paths. Jay discusses the challenges of determining what employees are truly worth—and why a bad bonus plan can be worse than no bonus plan at all. Ted makes the case for paying above market—not because he wants superstars, but because he believes well-paid employees become more committed, more flexible, and ultimately, more productive.

    Along the way, they discuss paying for health insurance, contractors versus employees, hiring mistakes, and the sometimes overlooked reality that while employees crave stability, business owners are the ones taking the financial risks. The result is a candid conversation about one of the hardest questions business owners face: What is the right way to compensate the people who help build your company? Plus: How concerned would you be if your employees found out how much money you, as the owner, are taking out of the business?
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    48 分
  • Dashboard: A Compensation Plan Becomes an Exit Plan

    Dashboard: A Compensation Plan Becomes an Exit Plan
    2026/06/19
    A health scare in 2015 prompted Julia Beardwood to confront a question many business owners prefer to postpone: What happens when it's time to leave the business? Over the next several years, the founder of the New York City branding agency Beardwood explored a range of possibilities, including selling to an ESOP and pursuing a strategic acquisition. But when the time came, the solution turned out to be much closer to home. Years earlier, Julia had implemented a compensation strategy that gave key employees a meaningful stake in the company's success. What began as a way to motivate and retain talent ultimately created a pathway for ownership transition.
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    39 分
  • Maybe EOS Will Solve Our Problem

    Maybe EOS Will Solve Our Problem
    2026/06/16
    The promise is seductive: Implement the right operating system and your frustrations disappear. Your employees become more accountable. Communication improves. Growth follows. Your business finally runs the way you always hoped it would. That's the promise behind EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System popularized by Gino Wickman's book Traction. Plenty of business owners swear by it. Plenty have spent tens of thousands of dollars hiring EOS implementers to help put it in place. But does it work?

    This week, we’re republishing one of our favorite conversations, one in which Shawn Busse, Paul Downs, and Laura Zander compare notes on their own experiences with EOS. Laura hired an implementer and spent years trying to make the system work. Paul took a more selective, do-it-yourself approach. Shawn has watched EOS play out inside numerous client companies. What emerges is a much more nuanced picture than the one promised in the book. The three owners discuss when EOS can be genuinely valuable, when it's the wrong tool for the job, and why no operating system can compensate for having the wrong people in key roles. As Laura puts it, EOS can be incredibly helpful "for people like me 10 years ago, who just don't know what they're doing." The question is whether that's enough to justify the investment.
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    53 分
  • Dashboard: Helping Creatives with the Business of Art

    Dashboard: Helping Creatives with the Business of Art
    2026/06/12
    For years, Kim Robinson worked on the brand side, helping major companies connect with artists and creatives. Eventually, he decided he’d rather be working for the artists themselves. So he launched 3pts, a company that helps creatives handle the business side of their careers—everything from pricing and marketing to partnerships and strategy—so they can spend more time focused on the work they love.The first challenge, Kim says, is convincing artists that thinking about money and business doesn’t somehow compromise their creativity. The second is helping them understand that even the most gifted creatives still need a framework for pricing, positioning, and building sustainable careers. In our conversation, Kim explains why so many artists struggle with the entrepreneurial side of their work, what brands often misunderstand about creative talent, and why he eventually realized he had more in common with his clients than he expected.
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    37 分
  • Would You Rather Risk Losing a Client or an Employee?

    Would You Rather Risk Losing a Client or an Employee?
    2026/06/09
    This week, Sarah Segal, Jaci Russo, and Lena McGuire tackle a question many service business owners face: Which is the bigger risk—an employee who feels overburdened or a client who feels neglected? The discussion begins with Sarah explaining why she's had to reestablish boundaries with some clients who were texting and calling her employees after hours and bypassing the systems her agency has put in place. Sarah wants her team to be able to disconnect at the end of the day, and she wants clients communicating with the entire team assigned to their account—not developing overly close relationships with individual employees. In her view, protecting employees from burnout ultimately leads to better service for clients.

    Jaci approaches the challenge very differently. Her creative staff rarely communicate directly with clients. Instead, account managers serve as the sole point of contact, much like restaurant servers relaying orders between diners and the kitchen. The goal is to protect specialists from interruptions, keep them focused on their work, and ensure that client communication remains clear and consistent. The result is a lively conversation about competing priorities, client expectations, employee well-being, and the hidden risks that can emerge when clients become too dependent on individual employees. Plus: Have you ever had an employee leave and take clients with them?
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    51 分
  • Dashboard: A Buyer That Doesn’t Want to Flip Your Business

    Dashboard: A Buyer That Doesn’t Want to Flip Your Business
    2026/06/05
    Sean Joy is head of M&A at Chenmark, a Portland, Maine-based holding company that acquires a handful of small businesses each year. At first glance, Chenmark may sound like a traditional private equity firm, but it isn't. The company is family- and employee-owned, and when it buys a business, the goal isn't to improve it and sell it a few years later. The goal is to own it indefinitely.In our conversation, Sean explains what Chenmark looks for in an acquisition, how it finds businesses to buy, what it's willing to pay, and how it approaches management after a deal closes. For owners thinking about succession, Chenmark offers a different path—one that sits somewhere between selling to private equity, selling to employees, or passing the business on to the next generation.
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    38 分