This week, in Episode 254, Jay Goltz, Mel Gravely, and special guest John Abrams have a frank conversation about what business owners can do to avoid what John calls the “fat-wallets-and-broken-hearts syndrome.” That’s his term for what can happen when an owner sells to private equity and the company ends up getting stripped. Jay, Mel, and John all agree they want no part of that. They all would like to see their businesses continue on without them. And yet, in thinking about succession, they’ve...
Jul 08, 2025•50 min•Ep. 254
That’s what Gene Marks thinks. In this week’s conversation, Gene lists the tax changes in President Trump’s big beautiful bill that he’s happiest about, while emphasizing that what he’s really happiest about is the tax certainty that passage of the bill creates for business owners. Gene also explains why he thinks owners who complain about Trump’s tariffs have no one to blame but themselves and why he’s not all that concerned about the uncertainty the tariffs are generating, including what will ...
Jul 07, 2025•43 min
This week, in Episode 253, Paul Downs tells Kate Morgan and Liz PIcarazzi that he recently posted a job on Indeed and got 153 resumes—more than he’s ever gotten before, which prompted some interesting questions: What does this mean for business owners? Should a job posting be more about what the company expects from a candidate or more about what the company has to offer? Do the owners ask candidates to take personality tests? If the owners get 150 resumes, do they ask ChatGPT to review them? An...
Jul 01, 2025•57 min•Ep. 253
This week, Tracy Bech, co-author of “The 60-Minute CFO,” tells us that she normally recommends that business owners check 14 performance measures on a regular basis. But during uncertain times like these, Tracy says, there are three in particular to keep an eye on: gross profit margin, operating cash flow, and current ratio. In our conversation, she explains how they work, what they mean, and what to do if they’re flashing red. She also says you can download a free tool to track your cash flow a...
Jun 30, 2025•23 min
This week, in Episode 252, David Barnett, Mel Gravely, and Kate Morgan discuss a somewhat unusual approach to succession, which is to not sell the business. Basically, it’s about taking a step back from leadership while maintaining ownership, and both Kate and especially Mel are moving in this direction. The approach can pay off financially in part because businesses often are worth more to the owner than they would be to a buyer. Why is that? As David explains, the business that the buyer buys ...
Jun 24, 2025•54 min•Ep. 252
This week, Gene Marks tells us why he’s skeptical of corporate CEOs like Amazon’s Andy Jassy who have started telling employees that they are likely to lose their jobs as the company continues to adopt tools that use artificial intelligence. Gene thinks CEOs who blame AI for corporate layoffs are really covering for bad management. In fact, he thinks anyone who is already replacing employees with AI is a fool. On the other hand, Gene tells us he’s incorporating AI tools into almost every aspect ...
Jun 23, 2025•26 min
This week, in episode 251, we meet Dan Carmody, who has gained an unusual perspective on what it takes to build a business in the United States. Dan has started and built his own businesses. He’s run community development organizations that have worked to support the growth of other local businesses. And until January, he was CEO of the Eastern Market in Detroit, which is one of the last great public markets in the country and has seen a remarkable number of businesses start, thrive, and even go...
Jun 17, 2025•47 min•Ep. 251
This week, Victor Hwang tells us that his organization, Right to Start , has big plans for America’s upcoming 250th birthday. Spurred largely by the widespread sense that the American Dream has lost some of its luster, Victor and Right to Start are launching a campaign to turn our semiquincentennial into a celebration of America’s entrepreneurial roots and a push to remove the barriers that make it harder than it should be to start and build a business. One key focus: finding ways to make it eas...
Jun 16, 2025•18 min
This week, in episode 250, we’re joined by special guest Alan Pentz, who recently stepped back from his government-contracting business to start the Owner Institute , which draws on lessons he learned the hard way to help business owners scale their businesses. In his new role, Alan has immersed himself in the world of generative AI, and he’s come to some intriguing conclusions, one of which is that AI will eliminate most B-to-B agencies—marketing agencies, public relations agencies, professiona...
Jun 10, 2025•55 min•Ep. 250
On the one hand, Gene Marks tells us this week that the GOP tax bill that has passed the House and is being debated in the Senate contains a lot of elements that should cheer business owners. Specifically, the pass-through deduction would get extended and increased, the capital-equipment deduction would go back to being 100-percent deductible in the first year, and the research-and-development deduction would also go back to being fully deductible in the first year. On the other hand, Gene belie...
Jun 09, 2025•19 min
This week, in Episode 249, we bring you a conversation recorded at our recent 21 Hats Live event in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of one of America’s most influential small businesses. Starting 43 years ago with a highly successful college town delicatessen that they could have replicated all over the country (including for Disney), Ari and co-founder Paul Saginaw have instead built Zingerman’s Community of Businesses , a collection of 12 Ann Arbor-based, collaboratively ru...
Jun 03, 2025•59 min•Ep. 249
This week, Sahra Halpern, who is CEO of the Business Consortium Fund, talks about a type of lender that is not particularly well known or well understood even among business owners. The Business Consortium Fund is a CDFI, or community development financial institution. Traditionally, many CDFIs, including Halpern’s, have sought to serve underrepresented business owners who have struggled to get a traditional bank loan. In the current political climate, however, CDFIs are looking to reach a broad...
Jun 02, 2025•29 min
This week, in Episode 248, we bring you a taste of what we experienced at the recent 21 Hats Live event in Ann Arbor, where we did a deep dive into a challenge confronting Mars Chapman, owner of Casey’s New Orleans Snowballs , a snowcone business in Austin, Texas. Mars, who is 36, bought the business from his parents and also inherited from them a somewhat laidback approach to ownership. The business has been operating for 29 years, but it has generally run only eight months of the year, which h...
May 27, 2025•39 min•Ep. 248
This week, Lance Tyson, founder of the Tyson Group sales consultancy, talks about how he’s using generative AI in his own business along with his suggestions for owners who are just getting started with AI. Among his suggestions: ask ChatGPT how best to use ChatGpt. Lance also talks about how salespeople can best navigate a business environment struggling with tariffs, uncertainty, rising prices, and talk of recession. One tip: don’t just accept an email rejection. Try to get them on the phone.
May 23, 2025•27 min
This week, in Episode 247, we welcome a new regular, Kate Morgan, who joins the podcast along with Paul Downs and Jay Goltz. Kate is the CEO and founder of Boston Human Capital Partners, which provides recruiting and HR services, mostly to other small businesses. After a very difficult stretch caused by the pandemic, Kate’s business has been growing again – but Paul and Jay think she’s leaving money on the table. They think she needs to raise her prices. “I mean,” responds Kate, “we're growing i...
May 20, 2025•46 min•Ep. 247
This week, John Arensmeyer, our man in Washington, reports on what small business owners need and what they are likely to get from Republicans and Democrats. The issues -- tariffs, access to capital, taxes, health care -- are tricky, but John says there have been some recent examples of legislators coming together to support small businesses.
May 19, 2025•24 min
This week, in Episode 246, we meet Ben Knepler, who, along with his True Places co-founder Nelson Warley, came up with an idea for an outdoor chair that they believe could be a game-changer. They liked the idea so much that they quit their corporate jobs, they raised money, they borrowed money—putting their own homes at risk—they fought through the pandemic, they found a manufacturer in China, they launched on Kickstarter, they found another manufacturer in Cambodia, and then they ran smack into...
May 13, 2025•53 min•Ep. 246
This week, Gene Marks -- normally a fan of automating anything that can be automated — says it’s too soon to think about turning important tasks over to artificial intelligence bots, mostly because they’re still making too many mistakes. In fact, Gene cites a survey of business leaders who said they came to regret offloading employees in favor of AI. In many cases, those leaders wound up trying to re-hire their employees. Plus: Gene also talks about how businesses using AI can get into regulator...
May 12, 2025•28 min
This week, in Episode 245, a new regular, David Barnett, joins the podcast along with Jaci Russo and William Vanderbloemen. David, who has been a guest on the podcast before, helps people buy and sell businesses—but, as he explains, he’s not a business broker. He’s found a different business model. David, Jaci, and William discuss why it’s so hard to sell a business, what owners can do to make their businesses more attractive to buyers, and why it can be in everyone’s interest for sellers to acc...
May 06, 2025•51 min•Ep. 245
This week, Rob Levin, co-founder and chairman of WorkBetterNow, talks about why he sees business owners—despite the uncertain economy—still struggling to fill key roles. He also discusses the importance of creating a culture by design, how owners can manage their profiles on Glassdoor, and what he thinks of Gen Z employees. Plus: Rob explains how he’s been infusing AI into all aspects of running his business.
May 05, 2025•24 min
This week, in Episode 244, Jennifer Kerhin, Jaci Russo, and Sarah Segal talk about how they’ve been using ChatGPT. Jennifer has deputized the AI chatbot as a key advisor, feeding it all kinds of performance data and soliciting its analysis before making hiring, financial, and strategic decisions. Recently, she asked it to identify her biggest blind spots as a CEO. Five seconds later, it spat out five answers with detailed explanations and suggestions. And what did Jennifer think of the feedback?...
Apr 29, 2025•45 min•Ep. 244
This week, Gene Marks highlights some recent tech developments, including: Quickbooks is selling a lifetime version of its software for just $250. Microsoft has reintroduced its somewhat controversial Recall AI tool, which captures and indexes screenshots of user activity every three seconds—a function that is intended to improve cybersecurity but that has raised some interesting questions. Plus: Gene explains how—if you have the time and money—you can now connect the various software platforms ...
Apr 28, 2025•29 min
This week, in Episode 243, Liz Picarazzi tells Sarah Segal that she’s taking another pass at finding a domestic fabricator. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, Liz says, but she’s hoping that now that her business is more established, she just might find an American factory that wants to partner with a growing business and would be eager to help her re-shore her manufacturing. She’s also decided she’s going to keep speaking out about the tariffs despite the hate mail she’s been getting: “I'm not going ...
Apr 22, 2025•49 min•Ep. 243
But not every business knows how and where to tell it? This week, Sarah Segal talks through what business owners should know about public relations: How can they get better at explaining what they do? How can they figure out what others will find interesting about their business? Should they share their story themselves or reach out to a journalist? If they decide to reach out to a journalist, should they do it themselves or hire a PR person to do it? If they decide to hire a PR person, how much...
Apr 21, 2025•33 min
This week, in Episode 242, Jay Goltz and Lena McGuire talk about an expense a lot of business owners may not even realize they’re paying. When former employees collect unemployment, they get a check from the government, but then their former employer gets docked. It can add up to real money, and that’s likely to become a bigger issue if the economy deteriorates. Of course, as Jay and Lena discuss, one way to keep your unemployment insurance as low as possible is to do a better job hiring. Jay an...
Apr 15, 2025•39 min•Ep. 242
This week, Gene Marks offers some suggestions for how businesses can survive President Trump’s trade war. Those suggestions include exploring free-trade zones, raising prices strategically, scouring the world for alternative suppliers, and getting out of China. Despite all of the disruption and upheaval, Gene continues to believe that the long-term gain will be worth the short-term pain.
Apr 14, 2025•26 min
This week, in a conversation recorded on March 27—shortly before Liberation Day, the day Donald Trump announced his so-called reciprocal tariffs—Liz Picarazzi told Shawn Busse and Jaci Russo what it was like to get her most recent tariff bill for a shipment of trash enclosures from China. “I knew what it was going to be, because I had calculated it,” she says, “but to actually see it on paper was terrifying.” And of course it’s only going to get worse now. In our conversation, we discuss a coupl...
Apr 08, 2025•53 min•Ep. 241
This week, John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority, talks about the unprecedented crisis confronting small businesses. At the same time their business models are being upended by President Trump’s tariffs, business owners are also watching their support infrastructure get decimated by budget cuts. John talks about what owners can do to hunker down, to survive, and to make sure their voices are heard.
Apr 07, 2025•23 min
This week, in episode 240, Paul Downs tells Jaci Russo and Sarah Segal about laying off a third of his workforce. “Here's the problem in a nutshell,” he says. “Last year, January to March, we sold $1.356 million. This year, January to March: $680,000. March is on track to be the worst month I've had since I started taking records.” Paul also tells the owners that he used to have a rainy-day fund for such occasions, but he used it to renovate his house. He does think the layoffs and other cash sa...
Apr 01, 2025•51 min•Ep. 240
The problem, says David Barnett, who helps people buy and sell businesses, is that if we all hang on to our cash, we will definitely have a recession. David, who’s based in Canada, also talks about how the current disruption looks from north of the border, what advice he’s giving to people trying to buy or sell businesses, and where there might be opportunities lurking within the uncertainty.
Mar 31, 2025•21 min
