Field notes
Short, practical pieces for entrepreneurs, side hustlers, and small business owners building these skills as they go. Research-informed guidance and reflections you can put into practice.
Start where you are
Each one points at the piece to read first, and at the part of the calculator that puts a number on it.
Refund requests, the message that lands at 9pm, the unhappy client. The conversation is the business.
Start here: The complaint is the momentWhat one saved customer is worth →
A quote, a proposal, a referral ask. Someone has to decide, and you have to ask.
Start here: Asking for the businessWhat one more close is worth →
A contractor, a part-time hire, the friend who started helping out and is now on payroll.
Start here: Nobody starts out good at thisWhat that next hire is worth →
Every conversation is yours: the client, the vendor, the person you hired.
Start here: What it costs to lose one good employeeWhat one lost client costs you →
A discovery call, an investor conversation, a vendor meeting: one pass at the impression.
First idea, first client, first time asking anyone for anything.
Start here: What I tell my own adult childrenWhy I will not put a number on this one →
Everything, newest first
Showing every post.
A small peer group gives entrepreneurs feedback, accountability, and practice they cannot get alone. What makes a peer group work, how to start one, and a simple format for your first meeting.
Map your customer journey on one page with sticky notes. Five rows, one customer path, and the moments of truth that decide whether people come back. A practical guide for small business owners.
You do not need a research firm to understand your customers. Ask about past behavior, learn the job they are hiring you for, and use free SBA and Census tools. A practical guide for small business owners.
Before you build the website or order inventory, run a 20-minute check on your business idea: the problem, the person, their current workaround, and what the problem costs them.
Confidence does not have to come first. Build your entrepreneurial mindset with small repetitions, practical habits, and a simple reset routine.
A Harvard Business Review interview on ethical persuasion, and where the line sits for your next sales call or hard conversation.
The ask is one sentence. Here is why it feels heavier than it is, and what the research says about the people on the other side of it.
For a pitch, a first client call, or an interview: what the research says about the opening minutes most people leave to luck.
For entrepreneurs with no manager to ask: the actual reasoning, the ask if a partner is involved, and what to do with a no.
Why "we hire for attitude" caps how good your team can get, and what the research says about training it instead.
For anyone 17 to 22 building a business, a side hustle, or a first gig of their own.
If you are a small business owner bringing on your first hire, the gap you will run into is a training problem you can fix in ninety days.
The research on this is unusually clear, and it is the opposite of how most training is built.
The research puts a number on replacing a frontline employee. It is worth holding next to the price of teaching them one skill.
For the small business owner who is also the one answering the unhappy customer: the structure to say it right.
One is job-hunting, one is building a business of her own. The part of the advice that nobody hands you in a course.
Every training company wants your whole day. Here is why I ask for an hour and a half, and what I do with it.
Most service recovery is decided before the first word. What to look for, and what to do with it.
A short script, why each part is there, and the two habits that undo it.
What happens to learning that lives in an email, and what happens to learning that lives in a pocket.
Short pieces on getting better with people: what the research says and what happens when you try it on a real shift. Plus new workshop dates before they fill.