War Stories

Showrooming is killing retail stores.  “Showrooming” is when you go to a store, but buy the product later online, because it’s cheaper. The product is cheaper for two reasons: low overhead (no store or employees to pay for) and no sales taxes.  Amazon’s freedom from charging sales tax is unfair…

My friend, Karen Lennon, is a serial entrepreneur, lawyer, former math teacher, activist and arts patron. She is proof that a successful, engaging life comes in phases with different goals and projects at the center of each one. Karen was interviewed in the Daily Herald about her life in…

Today on The Profit and Laws Radio Hour In 1978, Apple had cool new computers, but no operating system and no one on their lean staff who could code one quickly.  They had started publicizing the Apple II, but they couldn’t get to market without an operating system.  Steve…

Aereo demonstrates everything wrong with today’s version of American free enterprise. Well-funded, parasitic and amoral, Aereo will make money specifically by not creating anything. Aereo streams network TV shows to internet devices. Aereo neither makes nor even pays for the shows. Instead, it intercepts network TV signals and sends…

I don’t care whether you run a bagel shop or a car manufacturer. Once you forget that your employees are living humans, you begin marking time until you close up shop. Why? Because your business thrives on workers who give a shit – about the customer, the business and their…

You are just like any of the guys who rode against Lance Armstrong and lost. Those guys – clean or not – lost to a world-class cheater. Tests and testers failed to pick up on the constant doping and blood-swapping in trailers on the side of the race routes….

Consumers in the US and Australia have sued Subway for cheating them out of 1 inch from their foot long subs. I know what you think – you hate these suits and the lawyers who bring them. It’s one damn inch and these people should get a real job….

Note to Janice: Janice, thanks for calling in to my radio show today. I’m republishing this post so it is easy for you to find. Keep me posted on your progress. *** A person you hire to work for you is either an “employee” or an “independent contractor.” Trying…

It’s May. Soon, the kids – drinking age and younger – will come seeking internships. So, this is the season when accounting and legal bloggers do a post on the legal treachery of using unpaid interns. And, we are no exception. Let’s say you are tempted to take the…

This is a classic war story from first year contracts that shows the treachery cocktail of contracts and liquor. THE WAR: Lucy v. Zehmer Hardy and Ida Zehmer were a married couple living in Virginia in the 1950s.  Together, they owned and operated a a bar, a gas station,…