International trade might seem like a distant concept, but its effects are closer to home than you think. In the US or North America, there are simply many items that cannot be acquired locally. Our interdependence is here to stay. Even if you yourself don’t import or export something, your suppliers or clients probably do, and this can have a big impact on your bottom line.

Running a small business means juggling endless tasks, but AI can help you work smarter, not harder. AI isn’t about replacing people—it’s about eliminating repetitive, time-consuming tasks so you can focus on growing your business.

Learn how to automate emails, streamline research, and simplify your to-do list with AI—no tech expertise required!

When it’s time to sell your business, choosing the right exit strategy is crucial—not just for you, but for your employees and the legacy you’ve built. An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) offers a unique opportunity to sell your shares while keeping your business intact and rewarding your team. Learn how an ESOP works, its tax benefits, and why it might be the right move for you.

With tax law changes looming in 2025, business owners need to plan ahead. Discover six proactive tax strategies to maximize savings, reduce uncertainty, and keep more cash in your pocket.

Imagine you wake up and realize you’ve outgrown your house. It was great, but now it’s too small, or too big, or requires too much maintenance. You’re ready for broader vistas and new adventures. It’s time! Today is the day! 

Do you call the first realtor whose number you see on a park bench, sign a contract immediately, and hope for the best? 

Of course not! You do your research.

As a small business owner, you may be asking yourself “What the heck is FP&A and why do I need it?”

Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) refers to the process of budgeting, forecasting, and analyzing financial data to guide business decisions.

It’s more than just looking at your P&L (Profit & Loss) and sending your numbers over to your accountant: it’s a way of ensuring that your business’s financial health is closely monitored, plans are in place for growth, and adjustments are made as needed.

This guide will show you how to set up an essential FP&A system for your business.

In today's fast-paced world, high-performing teams rely on powerful tools to stay organized and efficient. Discover the secret weapon that can transform your team's workflow: a Work Management System (WMS).

Learn how a WMS can boost communication, streamline projects, and unlock unprecedented levels of productivity. This blog post will explore the key benefits of implementing a WMS and guide you in choosing the right solution for your business needs.

As an entrepreneur, you probably got where you are based on a combination of hard work, passion, and trusting yourself. You had to rely on your gut and your instincts to make brilliant choices. 

But there are two moments in your entrepreneurial journey where those very things can be your downfall, and they both have to do with keeping the right key performers on your team.

You’re not sure you want to sell your business any time soon.
You’d love to hold onto it, but it’s giving you headaches.

It keeps you up at night like the little drips that fall from your leaky bathroom faucet. 

I’m going to encourage you to go ahead and make whatever fixes you can, right now. This ultimately will make your business more sellable down the road, AND it makes it more enjoyable to run today. Read on to find out how!

Are you a busy entrepreneur drowning in a sea of administrative tasks? You're not alone. One business owner found themselves working late nights and sacrificing precious family time. But by making a strategic decision to delegate, they reclaimed their time and supercharged their business. Learn how they did it and discover 10 ways you can too.

As a successful business owner, you're wearing many hats - perhaps too many. From managing your team to handling finances and marketing, nearly every task seems to demand your attention. What if there was a way to lighten your load without sacrificing quality or productivity? The answer lies in automation.

Naturally, you want to sell your business for as much as possible. Of Course! You’ve put enormous work into your business over the years, it’s only fair to want to get as much as you can out of your exit, but the groundwork for a successful exit needs to be laid along the way. One of the most powerful key factors in maximizing your business’s value often gets overlooked: the importance of solid financial reporting, planning, and accounting processes.

Business partnerships, like any relationship, can evolve and change over time. What started as a promising collaboration may face challenges as circumstances shift and goals diverge.

It's essential to have a clear plan in place for navigating these potential conflicts. A well-crafted buy-sell agreement can provide a framework for addressing disagreements and ensuring a smooth exit if necessary.

If you’re like most business owners we work with, by the time you think about hiring someone to support you, you probably already feel pretty stressed and overloaded. Maybe you wish you’d hired someone six months ago!  It’s tricky because hiring someone to help (who you’ll have to train), is often just one more daunting task to business owners who already feel stretched too thin.

Here’s a glimpse of some simple tasks that you can get off your plate immediately to open up more time in your life and business for the things that matter.

Overall, if your business is growing and sales are coming in, you have a feeling that your sales team is performing well. If you’re getting new inquiries, you probably have a sense that your marketing efforts are working. Without a CRM in place, the owner will be mostly leading their salesperson off of how things feel, rather than based on reality. With a CRM, key metrics will be defined that allow leaders to point their teams in the right direction of the actions that lead to new business.

As a business owner you’re all too familiar with the phrase, “Every penny counts.”

You understand what’s at stake. Your payroll numbers are attached to real people: people who sit across from you in the lunchroom, work beside you on challenging projects and celebrate alongside when the Lions win! 

The weight on your shoulders as a business owner can be heavy. Having spent much of my career working alongside business owners like yourself, I know from first hand experience just how much of that weight can be lifted with simple easy to implement tools like a zero-based budget. 

Every business has a story. And some of the most heroic stories involve the numbers. All of these numbers add up to the story of your business. When it comes time to exit your business, this story is a key component of success. The story of how you got the business to where it is and a picture painted of where it can go are vital to a successful process.

Do you ever feel like a hamster frantically running around a cage? You're doing all kinds of tasks from sunup to sundown, but at the end of the day, you feel like you’ve made absolutely zero progress. Are you Bill Murray living in Groundhog Day? Is it a new day, but the same old problems? If this sounds like your daily reality, this article is for you. While it may sound counterintuitive, I’ve found that the best way to speed up in life is to first slow down.