The Freestyle Entrepreneur

 Mort, an accountant, stomps the snow off his boots after a day of skiing in Colorado, stokes the fire, pours a cup of coffee and settles down at the kitchen table to work on tax returns for his clients back on Long Island. John, a business writer living in the Caribbean, punches a button and [...]

As Director of Technology and Marketing (titles both self-ascribed) for The Freestyle Entrepreneur (TFE), I’m pleased to bring our readers a complete face lift. Starting out in late 2006, our goal with TFE centered on getting a site where we could express our entrepreneurial thoughts up quickly and easily. TypePad, our original, full-service blogging framework, [...]

In previous TFE pieces, I have expressed great appreciation for my mentor, Bob Jamieson. When I became of full-time life insurance agent with MONY in 1977 at the age of thirty-three, I took full advantage of his guidance and coaching. His combined work ethic, integrity and creativity served as a tremendous model for me over my next twenty years in [...]

While networking helps you meet people you need to know, it is relationships that make business both profitable and personally rewarding. How to stay in regular contact with your business friends: Schedule regular meetings and/or telephone calls with key professional friends either monthly or quarterly.  The best part:  No agenda.  Just chat and catch up.  [...]

Honesty pays.  It’s as simple as that.  Unless you’re in business to make a one-shot killing and then plan to take the money and run, honesty will always be the best policy.  Business owners who fail to play straight — whether it is with their employees, their suppliers or their customers — eventually undermine the [...]

In case you’ve been on another planet, there is a hot ‘n heavy horse race of an election battle heating up this year. As a business owner, you probably have your own views on who is the best (or least worst) candidate. I operate under the assumption that politics and business do not mix. So, [...]

Like most men, I don’t like carrying change in my pocket–especially pennies. Therefore, I throw the annoying little buggers in a drawer and deal with them when a pile has accumulated. When that occurs, I often count out a handful and go down to my favorite deli near my office and purchase a banana (currently @ 74-cents per). In the [...]

Several months ago I heard a fascinating story on WHO radio in Des Moines. The host was chatting with a couple of his colleagues about an incident he witnessed at the Iowa State Fair several years ago. “Enough time has passed that I can probably safely share this story,” he began. “It was a typical sweltering August day in Iowa when television celebrity, [...]

I know a man in his late 30s who can barely read and has no math skills. But I admire him because, last month, he set the bar impossibly high … at least for himself.  He plans to have his GED (high school graduate equivalency diploma) within two years. Will he make it?  Beats me. [...]

I know business owners who, if they did the calcs, would find that they make somewhere between $5 and $10 an hour.  They could make the same income, maybe even with benefits, clerking at the Quickie Mart … AND get to go home at night without a care. Sadly, strangely, proudly, that’s just not us. [...]

My personal coach, Mary Duwe, and I were having a telephone session when she mentioned a danger that people who are not prepared for retirement face. “All too often,” Mary stated, “men and women who answer an alarm clock and head out to work each morning for years fail to give ample thought to how [...]