Archive | Entrepreneurship

Travel to maximize office/work time

The late Wayne Huizenga, who founded several major corporations and owned several professional sports teams, was quoted in a news article many years ago as endorsing the view that he and his employees traveled on business during the time most people are home, spending time with their families. For Mr. Huizenga, it was more important […]

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There is certainly a balance in scheduling work and work travel to meet the clients’ needs. Without imposing on our employees’ personal time or incurring too much expense related to overtime work, the clients’ needs must come first. And, one thing, I suspect, is not taught at law school is that the life of a […]

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It’s all Marketing

I will admit, I probably have a bias. Both my undergraduate and graduate business degrees had a strong emphasis on marketing. Therefore, in the context of operating a small business, I am cognizant of details that create impressions. As a result, it seems to me that almost everything done in a business is marketing. The […]

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David is right. It’s all marketing. From the manner in which the telephone is answered, to the style of written communication used in an email, to the attire worn in the courtroom (or research facility, during a mock trial), to a brochure, to a website, to the report of research findings prepared for a client, […]

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Small Business Ownership: Always On

One of the things I do when writing a blog post is to categorize it so that one can search for similar topics on our website. The list of categories has grown over time but has always included #WorkLife. Work Life is usually followed by “balance” as in work/life balance, meaning how to manage one’s […]

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Owning a small business is not for the faint of heart. Owning a small business with one’s spouse is only for the heartiest of individuals. David and I are fortunate, in that our jobs within our company do not overlap. David has expertise in many areas, such as business management, finances, accounting, etc. that I […]

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Cleaning the Closet

When we have lulls in “real work,” we have a to do list that keeps us from getting bored. At the top of that list recently was cleaning out the equipment closet. The equipment closet is where we store an array of items required for our work. You might think, by looking in our closet, […]

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As David mentioned, we have invested many thousands of dollars on equipment since Magnus’ inception in 1993. I have many fond memories of our huge video cameras that reminded me of those used by TV camera crews. Those old cameras, when new, cost a small fortune, at least as far as I was concerned. When […]

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Trials and Photography

I was writing a report recently and recommended that a client “focus” the jurors’ attention on a certain point. Given my 40+ years of photographic experience, I decided to test myself with this post to see if I can come up with analogies and metaphors between photography and litigation/trials. Focus is the starting point because […]

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David’s comparisons of photography and trials is an interesting perspective on two, very different, things. I will continue using his analysis with my interpretations of these areas of David’s interest by saying, from the outset, that photography and trials have one thing in common: they are not very interesting to people who are not photographers […]

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Dodged Bullets

We’ve all heard the expression, “I dodged that bullet” to indicate that one missed something that, in hindsight, would have been bad, or at least, less than positive. I was recently reflecting of at least 3 bullets that I have, or Melissa and I have, dodged. Two of these involved the beginnings of Magnus, way […]

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As John Lennon famously wrote in the lyrics of his song, “Beautiful Boy,” “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” It is interesting to see where our lives take us, including when it takes us in directions different from those we had planned. David and I founded Magnus in 1993 with big […]

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Cindy’s Question

We recently experienced one of our worst nightmares in our trial consulting business. A case on which we had been working for many months, and for which we had been planning a large scale mock trial, settled a few weeks before the mock trial was scheduled. I’m sure it was a good result for the […]

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The expression, “easy come, easy go” has no applicability to the situation David just described when we have been preliminary retained for a case that will bring in sizable revenue, only to have it cancel due to the settlement of the case. Although we always charge a sizable portion of our fees as a retainer, […]

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Good Cuban Sandwich

Recently, a small Cuban cafe opened near our office. While full service Cuban restaurants have never been far away, this one is really close, so I wanted to check it out (even though it is housed in a corner of a gas station). What I found was a guy with a plan. The owner proudly […]

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I agree with David; just as with many things in life, there are good Cuban sandwiches, great Cuban sandwiches, and then there are truly divine Cuban sandwiches. The differences among them are due to: (1) the quality of the ingredients; and (2) the training, expertise, and care of the person making the sandwich. One can […]

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Reflections on Technology Changes

I was thinking about my iPhone recently in the context of how that small, but complex, device has made changes to my daily routine, to my work pattern. It did not happen over night, nor with the iPhone alone. I have had a car phone since the early 1980s. My first was a radio-phone which […]

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I am constantly amazed at the numerous ways technology has changed our ability to perform work on behalf of Magnus’ clients. David and I have been in the trial consulting business for a long, long time. I used to marvel at the efficiency of sending a fax to a client instead of mailing them a […]

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The Law of Perpetual Motion

Busy seems to beget busy. And sometimes that “busy” maybe just doing things when time is seemingly available to fill the time. Then, when doing those things, real work happens. For example, a few weeks ago, I attempted to arrange a client meeting in Miami. Nothing happened, the scheduling just didn’t come together and it […]

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I don’t know if my perception is accurate, but it sure seems like not much happens when David and I are sitting around the office, wondering when our next case will come in. We have countless examples of “the law of perpetual motion” in our business lives, from the time, early in our owning Magnus, […]

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