Épisodes

  • Your Employees Wants a Career Path. Can You Keep Them?

    Your Employees Wants a Career Path. Can You Keep Them?
    Oct 14 2025
    This week, in episode 266, David C. Barnett, Jay Goltz, and Kate Morgan wrestle with one of the trickiest challenges for business owners: how to give employees room to grow without losing sight of the company’s mission. David points out that every business is on its way to obsolescence unless it deliberately evolves—and one way to do that, he says, is by letting employees experiment and try new things. That approach, Jay says, is exactly what led to his building a furniture business. Plus: Kate and Jay agree that while many aspects of running a business can be stressful, nothing has been more stressful for them than the period when their businesses were growing the fastest. And the owners react to a Reddit post from someone who has found that hiring employees has created more problems than it has solved. “Is this just what having employees is like?” the owner writes. “Please tell me I'm not the only one losing my mind.”
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    45 min
  • Dashboard: You Probably Should Be Doing More with AI

    Dashboard: You Probably Should Be Doing More with AI
    Oct 13 2025
    This week, Ted Wolf, who co-founded Guidewise, which helps businesses manage change, offers a slew of valuable AI suggestions for business owners, regardless of how big or small their businesses are and regardless of whether they’re just getting started or they’ve already taken the leap. Those suggestions range from how much to pay for an AI tool to how to protect your data to how to ease employee resistance to how to figure out where to begin. Here’s one step you can take right now: Ted explains how to use ChatGPT to do an instant SWOT analysis comparing your business’s performance with your competitor’s.
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    43 min
  • It’s Not Too Early to Be Thinking About 2026

    It’s Not Too Early to Be Thinking About 2026
    Oct 7 2025
    This week, in episode 264, David C. Barnett and Jennifer Kerhin say they’re already making plans for next year: adjusting pricing, conducting employee reviews, and setting budgets. In the past, Jennifer has chosen to restrain growth to give her employees and her processes a chance to catch up. But this coming year? She says she’s ready to “unleash the hounds.” And for the first time, she’s planning to budget for profit first and then force her expenses to fit her margins. Unlike Jennifer, who conducts employee reviews throughout the year, David saves his evaluations for the end of the year. As he looks forward, he’s trying to figure out what the economy means for his business. He’s seeing more companies in distress, but also more opportunities to help people with severance packages who decide to buy businesses. Plus: David and Jennifer share how they’ve each been experimenting with ChatGPT of late.
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    45 min
  • Dashboard: A Business Owner Takes a Sabbatical

    Dashboard: A Business Owner Takes a Sabbatical
    Oct 6 2025
    This week, Kurt Wilkin discusses what he’s learned about selling businesses and how he’s thinking about what he might do next. An entrepreneur, an investor, a mentor, and a former business owner who recently sold a recruiting firm, Wilkin tells us why his acquisition of the firm didn't work out the way he hoped and how he managed to turn it around and sell it. Part of the problem, Kurt says, was that he jumped back into the game too quickly after selling his previous business. It’s a mistake he’s not going to repeat this time.
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    27 min
  • You’re Shutting Down a Profitable Business?

    You’re Shutting Down a Profitable Business?
    Sep 30 2025
    This week, in episode 264, Mel Gravely brings closure to a story he’s been sharing in pieces over the past year. You may recall that he bought a facilities maintenance company a couple years ago that he was convinced he could scale—only to discover that it was hemorrhaging money. Mel dug in, diagnosed the problem, fixed it, bought out his partners, turned the company profitable—and then decided to shut it down. Why close a business that’s making money? Mel explains the surprising answer, along with three lessons he says he learned. He also joins Jay Goltz in a candid discussion of the painful flipside of hiring: When, and how, does it make sense to lay off employees? As Jay points out, it’s far easier to find advice about adding people than about letting them go, even though it’s a calculation many owners are facing today. Plus: A would-be entrepreneur preparing to launch a business with two friends admits he’s feeling scared. He wants to know whether that fear ever goes away. Mel and Jay think he’s asking the wrong question.
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    52 min
  • Dashboard: Married with a Business

    Dashboard: Married with a Business
    Sep 29 2025
    This week, Cameron Madill, an entrepreneur who’s married to an entrepreneur, talks about the challenges of building a business while maintaining a relationship. Along with his own experience, Cameron has done lots of research, including interviewing more than 100 couples, and has also started a business to help couples balance marriage and entrepreneurship. Among other things, we discuss the difference between healthy passion for work and unhealthy passion, how to handle the most common issues that come up between entrepreneurial spouses, and the most important lessons Cameron has learned on this journey.
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    31 min
  • The Product Is Great. Is It a Business?

    The Product Is Great. Is It a Business?
    Sep 23 2025
    This week, in episode 263, we bring you another 21 Hats Brainstorm. Elan Daniel, who started a small-batch hummus business inspired by a memorable experience in Israel, is trying to figure out his best path to long-term viability. So far, he’s been selling at farmers markets and direct to consumers, making all of the hummus and all of the deliveries himself. Since February, his sales have been growing between 5 and 10 percent a week, but his growth is constrained by his refusal to use preservatives, which adds flavor but limits the product’s shelf life. So how should he proceed: Should he sell to speciality markets and restaurants? Should he try to sell to Whole Foods? Should he open his own hummus restaurant, or hummusiya? Should he try to introduce his hummus to the uninitiated or should he focus on connoisseurs? To help Elan think through his options, we convened a panel of 21 Hats Brainstormers and recorded this podcast episode. It’s brought to you by New Bridge Studios, which helps companies, creators, and causes connect their story to the bottom line. And by the way, if you have a challenge you’d like to put before a panel of business owners in our next Brainstorm, shoot me an email: loren@21hats.com.
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    53 min
  • Dashboard: How Much Money Can You Make Franchising?

    Dashboard: How Much Money Can You Make Franchising?
    Sep 22 2025
    This week, Eric Stites, founder and CEO of Franchise Business Review, talks about the state of the franchising world. How much money do you need to buy a franchise? How much can you make? What are the hot categories? What are the most common mistakes? We also talk about life on the other side: What makes a business a good candidate to become a franchisor? And is it possible to avoid the tension -- and litigation -- that so often arises between franchisees and franchisors? Plus: If you buy a franchise, are you an entrepreneur? Or are you just buying a job?
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    44 min