What it takes to run a business

Podcast

This week, Paul Downs, Jaci Russo, and Sarah Segal talk about how and when they start planning for next year. And here’s one happy challenge they’ve all confronted: What do they do when they don’t have the capacity to handle all of the work that’s coming their way? Do they staff up? If so, what happens if the work subsequently falls off? Do they create a backlog? Do they miss deadlines? Do they raise prices? Plus: Jaci shares an AI tool she’s been using to learn more about the decision makers her agency targets. And the three owners respond to a case study in ADA-compliance litigation taken from a Reddit post: “What are we supposed to do about this?” a business owner who has been sued for having a non-compliant website writes in the post. “I am trying not to overreact, but having my savings and my income taken from me this way is just devastating.” Jaci, whose agency builds websites, says there is a way to protect against those lawsuits.

This week, Jay Goltz and special guests Peter Koehler and Jimmy Kalb discuss the hottest new thing in succession planning. You may recall that earlier this year Peter was a guest on an episode in which he explained how he helped Laura Anderson sell her seafood restaurant to what’s known as an employee ownership trust or a perpetual purpose trust. Both Jay and Jimmy listened to that episode and were intrigued. Both had questions for Peter. So we recorded a conversation in which we discuss what makes a business a good candidate for trust ownership. The issues we address include: Is this only for businesses that have a save-the-world type of purpose? How much does it cost to create an ownership trust? Can owners sell to a trust and still run the business as they wish? And perhaps the biggest question of all: What can go wrong?

This week, Jay Goltz, Jaci Russo, and Jennifer Kerhin discuss some of the systems they’ve created that have made their businesses successful. Jay established a process that helps employees diffuse conflicts with angry customers. Jaci has a process that tracks the performance of her agency’s lead-generation efforts and has helped her target clients more precisely. And Jennifer recently created a process to deal with change orders that makes it easier to walk the line between offending customers and forfeiting profits. Plus: We follow up on some issues we’ve discussed in previous episodes. Jay told us recently that he’s cutting back on his advertising spend. Is that the best response to a softening market? Jennifer told us when she first joined the podcast about her long march through what is often called the valley of death. Is she still in the valley of death? And Jaci told us at the beginning of the year that she had two big clients that were ready to sign on. Did they in fact sign on?

This week, I’m replaying an oldie but goodie, an episode that Shawn Busse and I recorded with Jeff Braverman, who turned his family’s failing retail business into a thriving ecommerce business. I’m replaying this episode both because Jeff has a great story to share, with lots of takeaways, and because—well, actually, because I took a little time off last week. But listen to this: Jeff walked away from a career as an investment banker and went to work in the family’s nut store, the Newark Nut Company. “My dad and my uncle told me I was nuts,” says Jeff, but he made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. He would put the family’s snacks online—this was way back in the early dotcom days—and they wouldn’t have to pay him unless he actually sold some nuts. As it turned out, Jeff’s little internet play wound up unleashing explosive growth and consumed the business. And despite being a former investment banker, he managed to do that without taking any outside capital. Since we first published this episode Jeff has promoted himself from Chief Nut to Chair Nut.

This week, Shawn Busse, Jaci Russo, and Jay Goltz discuss what it takes to stand out these days, especially if your business—like most businesses—isn’t exactly the Next Big Thing. What about trash collection? What if your business is selling scrap metal? What if you happen to be one of 69 picture framers in Chicago? What’s an owner to do to stand out then? Is it enough to execute really well? Can any business make itself remarkable? Shawn, Jay, and Jaci all believe it’s possible, and they offer examples from their own businesses as well as those they’ve observed. Plus: As Google waffles about whether it’s going to kill cookies on Chrome, will business owners still be able to target customers digitally? And Jay’s not happy about a very big bill he got from his accounting firm. Should he just go ahead and pay it?