Author: Bob

If you’ve been in the marker for a small business, you have probably come across the term “Seller’s Discretionary Earnings” (SDE). SDE is a financial metric used in small business valuations to determine the potential profitability of a business and represents the amount of money a business owner can potentially earn from the business in […]

I was recently assessing a business to purchase and initially it seemed like it was a pretty good deal. It had a high earnings % and enough cash flow to keep my happy. However, when I ran it through a few recession-scenarios, something stuck out at me: when we encountered just a mild recession the […]

I like YouTube. In fact, I like it a little too much. I’ve found myself spending much to much time just bouncing around watching the “recommended videos” they serve up. Because I wanted to get distracted less, I installed a really nice FireFox plugin – one that hides all YouTube recommended videos. This only has […]

Getting a business off the ground requires a lot more than just a good idea and some luck. It requires intestinal fortitude, a will of steel, infinite patience and unstoppable persistence. The good news is that if you have those things, it’s a cake walk.

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. Ralph Waldo Emerson Two and a half years ago I left the corporate programming […]

It’s easy to avoid taking risks and get lulled into a sense of comfort for long periods of time. Avoid this. The Comfort Zone Trap Being risk averse and always trying to stay ‘comfortable’ is a prescription for boredom, depression and fragility. It ensures you’ll live in an ever-shrinking box. This picture from Feel the Fear…And […]

Do you ever get the nagging feeling that something isn’t “quite right” with modern daily life, but can’t really put your finger on it? You know what I’m talking about – the whole, 9-5, the commute, the coming home just to pop on the TV or surf around looking at some bullshit, going to sleep, […]

Feel trapped in your current job? Career hit a dead-end? Or maybe you’re just sick of the corporate grind all-together. Many people feel this way. The problem is that most think this is “just the way it is” and that’s that. I’m here to strongly proclaim that the nonsensical existence many of us lead is neither […]

For those that have who have found it difficult to proceed along the path of their calling, there isn’t a better book than The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  Although geared toward authors, I consider this an essential read for anyone attempting to create something of their own that they feel is true to themselves, outside […]

Almost everyone in modern life has some degree of stress and worry. In recent months, I’ve discovered the philosophy of ‘Stoicism’ and it offers an amazingly helpful technique for dealing with the troubles of modern life.

When the United States just originated, it was common for poor European immigrants to sign indentured servitude contracts. These contracts were sold by captains of ships and would state that in exchange for passage to the new world, the immigrant agreed to work a set number of years once they arrived in the new world. […]

What follow are my personal notes and direct quotes from the amazing book Beyond Success and Failure: Ways to Self-Reliance and Maturity.  I read quite a few books each year and along the way I do lots of highlighting and typically write notes into a Google Document. This time around I figured that it would […]

Every once in a while I come across a book that blows me away and completely shifts my point of view. One such book is Beyond Success and Failure: Ways to Self-Reliance and Maturity. The book discusses problems that are at the root of a lot of unhappiness in our daily lives and offers solutions for overcoming these problems. What […]

One thing I’ve struggled with much of my life is long-term goal setting. I knew that long-term goals would help structure my life but I would often get tripped up with problems I hit along the way. Lately I’ve been experimenting with a technique that’s much more visual, and it’s been working beautifully.

Modern life is busy. Insanely busy. However, much of the craziness is self-imposed. Or at we least passively allow it to continue. You do have the power to reign it in you know… Turn off the TV. Don’t check Facebook. Turn off email notifications. Check emails and texts every few hours instead of constantly. Delay responding to […]

Working on a team that’s split between two or more locations can pose many challenges and can be made worse when management doesn’t recognize the inherent problems introduced. Split teams aren’t simply one team in two locations; they are essentially two teams with different work cultures that happen to have the same goal.

In the last week I’ve learned more about niche site building, nullified some theories and refined others. The net result is that I’ve decided to switch from a ‘niche site’ building strategy to one of ‘niche-authority site’ building. This shift not only makes sense because of my personal sensibilities, but I think it makes sense […]