Most executives who call me carry one worry underneath all the others. They are about to put real money into a business, and they wonder what happens to it when the economy turns. It is a fair worry. It is also a question you can answer early, well before you sign anything. Start With the…
The conversations I have with software engineers and technology leaders sound different than they did two years ago. The resume is still strong. The title is still there. The ground underneath it feels thinner. Teams are getting smaller. Junior work is getting absorbed. Roles that felt permanent five years ago now come up for review…
There is a phrase I hear from executives in their late 50s and 60s more than any other. I have more in me. It comes up on the first call. It comes up on the second call. It usually shows up in the fifteen seconds before they tell me what they actually want from the…
Years in commercial real estate taught me a clear lesson about how the best operators work. The owners I respected most spent their hours on a small set of decisions and trusted the people they had hired well to handle the rest. The work that grew the business looked very different from the work that…
The income claim is the first thing every executive asks about when they look at a franchise. It is a fair question. It is also the wrong place to start. A franchise contract is a ten-year relationship. Sometimes longer. The numbers on the page tell you one slice of what that relationship will be. What…