Thoughts and Opinions

Since 2013 I’ve updated this piece about the underappreciated and forgotten boss of A Christmas Carol, Mr. Fezziwig. I hope that you enjoy it. Merry Christmas! Last week was the 182nd anniversary of the publication of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (December 17, 1843). The immortal words of Ebenezer Scrooge are ingrained in the memory of the entire English-speaking world. I’d venture to guess that “Bah, Humbug!” can be correctly identified as to the source and ...

If you’ve been a business owner for a long time, you’ve lived this shift firsthand. Many Baby Boomer owners started out alone—just an idea, a customer, and a willingness to take a risk. Hiring that first employee was a milestone. Now, years later, some of those same businesses employ dozens or even hundreds of people. And every one of those people comes with rights, protections, and obligations that ultimately land on you. As a business grows, so does ...

When Fear Dictates Decisions I can’t. We won’t. I shouldn’t. Sound familiar? These thoughts creep in as your business grows. You’ve overcome a lot already—taking that first leap, pushing through uncertainty, making tough calls when the stakes were high. But now, you have something to lose. The fear of getting it wrong can paralyze progress.

Work from anywhere has been a necessity, an epithet, an obstacle, and an opportunity over the last 3 years. To paraphrase Aristotle’s axiom about Nature (“Horror Vacui”), business abhors a vacuum. Where one occurs, it is quickly filled. Work from anywhere started as a COVID-induced necessity. During the lockdowns of 2020-2021 (and longer in some places) we all had a crash course in video calling, VPNs, and virtual meetings. Employees quickly expanded the definition of anywhere. They ...

Supply chains and labor shortages are the chief topics among the 40 or so business owners I currently work with. Their anecdotes are widespread and widely varied. I wanted to know why, so I did some research on behalf of you, my business-owner readers. Supply Chains A broken foot was diagnosed at an urgent care center. “You are lucky,” said the nurse as she handed over a pair of crutches. “This is our last pair, and all ...

Each year I reprint a post from 2013 about the underappreciated boss of A Christmas Carol, Mr. Fezziwig. I hope that you enjoy it. Merry Christmas! This week was the 177th anniversary of the publication of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (December 17, 1843). The immortal words of Ebenezer Scrooge are ingrained in the memory of the entire English speaking world. I’d venture to guess that “Bah, Humbug!” can be correctly identified as to source and speaker by over ...

Dealing with  COVID fatigue unites business owners. If that sounds strange to you, let me make my case. I’m not doing this to whine, but I want business owners who don’t have an existing support structure to know that they aren’t alone. I facilitate several peer groups of business owners. For decades, we’ve met monthly to discuss trends and issues in our businesses. It is typically a lively roundtable. Hiring, termination, customers, vendors, regulation, new initiatives, ...

“School Daze” is more than an old Spike Lee movie. It’s the latest “COVID-19 gift” as one of my clients facetiously refers to ancillary issues created by the pandemic. As employers, we are watching and waiting to see what new burdens are going to be foisted on us in the coming weeks. School Daze Plans for reopening, partially reopening or not reopening schools will have a huge impact on our employees. (We’ll get to the impact on ...

The longer this virus goes on, the more I am reminded of Don Henley’s 1982 song “Dirty Laundry.” A friend and his wife declined an invitation to come over for a glass of wine (OK, maybe a bottle) on the back porch the other night. They were concerned about being with their daughter the next day, who is immuno-suppressed. I get it. It’s funny. We went back to our office a few weeks ago. There are only ...

As I interact via Zoom and telephone with clients, family and friends, I keep thinking of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. As a life-long science fiction fan, I see our surreal living situations born of the world-wide coronavirus epidemic as separating us into different “classes” of people, who are quickly developing different views of the world around them. In Wells’ novella, the Eloi are lotus eaters. Living in a classic paradise of beautiful weather and constant ...