After the startupworkgrab, you know, the first months or years when a new business will take any paying work, there has to be a time of self reflection. You now have some data and you need to ask yourself some questions. I suggest that you pose these questions as negatives: What work is the least [...]
Do you feel like you are not getting anywhere? Like you are spinning your wheels? Like you keep revisiting the same problems over and over? We, the self-employed, the creatives, the freelancers, the sales people, have all been there. It can be discouraging. Here's the good news: You know more. You are generally better than you [...]
If you are not familiar with the phrase, Hum a Few Bars and I Will Fake It, you are probably under 40 years old. I am not sure of its origins, but it was uttered by a deeply experienced musician who, with just a hint as to the melody of a song, could play the song [...]
I have discussed this before, but I still marvel at the phenomenon. I blog daily. I love it. It makes my heart sing. Work gushes in. I mean gushes in. Like a fire hose. There is no cause and effect I can identify, but I end up tempted to give up blogging. The pressure to [...]
I got thinking about who I want to reach with this blog. Through the process of elimination I decided that it was not "entrepreneurs" or "steadies." If an entrepreneur is someone who makes money while they sleep, whose goal is to scale and sell an asset, I don't think I know one personally. I know [...]
In his book, Willpower Doesn't Work, Benjamin Hardy argues that creating environment, not the will to succeed, is the way to create new and positive habits. Let's say that you want to write every day, which is, not coincidentally, a goal of mine. In the past I tried to force myself to write. I left [...]
I know it is a little odd, but as a youngster I had a fantasy of being a Gentleman's Gentleman. Of serving and helping a great man, well, be great. Maybe this fantasy wasn't so odd. After all, who wants the burden of being great themselves? Isn't it better, safer and easier to bask in [...]
It is not enough to service your clients, or even to service them well. Whenever possible, go above and beyond. Make suggestions, deliver something extra, spend time, empathise, care. Put the proverbial bow on the box or the cherry on top of the sundae. Someone might be offended, but it is worth the risk. You may [...]
My golf game improved after a friend (and single digit handicapper) advised me to relax my grip. "On a scale of one to ten, one being the club slides out of your hand and ten being a white knuckle death grip," he said, "you should be at a three." Not only has my game improved, [...]
Wow, a lot of people grouse about New Jersey. Constantly. It's too congested. The taxes are too high. Everything is so expensive. All of these statements are true. But there is one distinct advantage to living in New Jersey: we are dead center in the Northeast megalopolis. That giant, connected city that runs from Boston to [...]
I got a call from a gentlemen who owns a vacation home on the Jersey Shore. It seems that an undersized lot adjacent to his home is coming up for sale and he wanted to know what he should offer.* I was his second call. The first call to a residential appraiser who did a [...]
When I regularly post blogs, the traffic on my website goes up. Dramatically. Calls for proposals also go up. Dramatically. The complexity and challenge of the work also goes up. Dramatically. Did the calls come from the same people that came to my website? I don't think so. A desire to encourage, inform or entertain [...]
Give away money. Want to grow? Take a risk. Want to get better? Make a mistake. Want to make art? Risk embarrassment. Want gratitude? Visit a children's hospital.
If you are proposing an out-of-the-ordinary project, trip, event or place and need team buy-in, add these words: "A little adventure." What man, woman or child can resist a little adventure?
How exactly does one market professional services? I mean, we are not creating the iPhone here, some brand new gadget with intriguing design and features. Sometimes professionals feel like they are doing the same, or similar work, day in and day out. We are bound by sets of rules, accepted methods and client expectations. Stifling, right? Not [...]
Here is what you can control: How you spend your time, one day at a time. Your attitude. The rest is out of your control. So don't spend any time thinking about it.
I know a guy who owns a lot of income-producing real estate, and he does everything wrong. All of his properties are in his personal name. Pleas by well-meaning lawyers to create single property LLC's to protect his personal assets have fallen on deaf ears. He leases space based on monthly rent and is not [...]
The days of mass marketing are dead. Ok, maybe not for Proctor and Gamble or Ford, but it is dead for any business whose customer cannot be defined as, "a breathing human being." Which is, if we are honest, most of us. There could be no larger waste of money for a small business with [...]
It simply means that I have done my job. My work (and hopefully the work of my adversary) is well researched, accurate and reasonable. There is little to argue about. Minds meet and everyone has a nice lunch. Trials are often a waste of time. Both sides make their case and the decision ends up [...]
My mom never let us watch television in the morning when we were growing up. At the time it probably had to do more with getting us out the door on time than anything else, but as always, there was wisdom behind my mother's many rules. In the past few months, sucked into politics like [...]
I have never regretted passing on a piece of business. However, I have deeply regretted taking on a piece of business.
When you hear the term Protect the Asset, what do you think? Security systems? Insurance? Wealth Management? Form an LLC? I suggest to you, fellow professional, that it is all in your head. More specifically, your brain. Your brain will make you millions of dollars over the course of your career. It is by far your [...]
One fine day last summer I was listening to Radio Margaritaville on SiriusXM when a song by Paul Thorn called Everybody Looks Good at the Starting Line came on the car radio. It is a fun, bluesy song and I drummed the steering wheel for all I was worth. But as I listened I realized [...]
I am on the Superprimo plan on Audible, so I am always pleasantly surprised that I some credits for "free" audio books waiting for me when I log in. On a lark, I downloaded The Magic Question: How To Get What You Want in Half the Time by Bart A. Baggett. The concept of affirmation has [...]
I recently received an email request for a donation to the Appraiser Prosperity Coalition. I was not familiar with the organization, but I took some time to read up on who they are and what they are trying to accomplish. What I found was a group of well meaning residential mortgage appraisers fighting their latest [...]
Want success and happiness? Do these things: Smile. Say thank you. Be responsive. Be friendly. Take a personal interest in your coworkers and clients. Stick to your knitting. Not all work is right for you. Develop a list of professionals you trust and refer, refer, refer. The client you refer will be impressed with your [...]
As you know, The Ol' Prophet is keen on technology and productivity. Here are some recommendations that may help you get more connected and efficient: ToDoist This little gem of a Task Manager is worth its weight in gold. ToDoist works on all platforms: Apple iOS (there are iPhone and iPad apps), Android, Google Chrome, [...]
Most of the time we are busy, happily buzzing along, getting things done, doing our work, taking care of our families. But let's face it - we don't take enough time off. "Time off! Are you out of your head? The Johnson project is due next week. One kid has a recital and the other [...]
Gagliano & Company is a small business. A boutique firm, if you will. There are only three of us: Miss Sophia, Office Administrator, bookkeeper, preparer of paperwork and utility fielder; Miss Kim, Researcher extraordinaire, datakeeper, spreadsheeter and report ninja; and Yours Truly, the Wearer of the Turban. As a result, our capacity is limited. We [...]
Snow day! A cry of joy for children everywhere. Not so with the self employed. I sit at my home "office" (a thrice recycled desk and chair) stewing about my lot. I can't be stuck home again. I have too much to do. With all this time on my hands, I started thinking. What can [...]
I was fussing and fuming. Things weren't going my way. I was even having stress dreams. Frustrated, I was ready to declare myself a loser. With a capital L. But then I sat back and thought about it. I don't have control over this thing. There isn't a single concrete action I could take to [...]
Since the banking crisis reared its ugly head at the end of 2007, a raft of new legislation and regulation has been approved to prevent the darn thing from ever happening again. Among these efforts was, yet again, a crackdown on real estate appraisers. First an attempt was made to weed out the bad actors, [...]
There are times in every business when the ol' backlog gets a little, um, thin. Many business people at this juncture do one of two things: (a) panic or (b) slow down. Both responses are perfectly natural. Panic is simply our fight or flight response at work. Our ancestors would panic when they saw a [...]
...but are you damn good? Are you a trusted adviser? Do you give your clients what they ask for, or better yet, what they need? Do you deliver good work, on time? Of course you do. So don't apologize for your fees, or your payment terms. This is your business. Your family and your employees [...]
"The optimist is right. The pessimist is right. The one differs from the other as the light from the dark. Yet both are right. Each is right from his own particular point of view, and this point of view is a determining actor in the life of each. It determines as to whether it is [...]
[ˈhīdˌbound / adjective - unwilling or unable to change because of tradition or convention] My industry is hidebound. Stuck. Full of rules. 50% to 70% of my reports are standard boilerplate that has to be there. That's a lot of senseless murder of trees. After the real estate crash in the early 1990s, the Federal Government decided [...]
There are four stages to learning any skill and ultimately becoming a master: Unconscious Incompetence Sometimes called "beginner's luck", at this stage the person doesn't know how little they know. The stimulus to go on depends on the person's perceived value of the skill. Conscious Incompetence In this stage, the person becomes aware of how [...]
Mr. Smarty Pants had it all figured out. Two data backups. One onsite, one in the Cloud. What could go wrong? Well, it turns out that I was saving the data just fine, but I neglected to think through the recovery part. The Old Way - Onsite Our onsite backup was to an external hard [...]
Most of my worst professional mistakes have been the result of one of two bad habits: haste, or wanting to please the client. By pleasing the client I don't mean simply doing good work in a timely manner with a pleasant disposition, I mean the ugly side of this coin, people pleasing. My business can [...]
Hey Guys, I hope is well. Everybody had it tough during the Recession, but you guys had it tougher than most. Nobody was growing their business, so there weren't many new buyers or renters. People who needed to sell didn't want to sell at a loss. Or were just too stubborn to admit they made [...]
There was a boatload of wisdom in Wilson Hall Monday night, words from three true leaders in New Jersey Real Estate at the Monmouth University Kislak School of Real Estate's Stephen B. Siegel Lecture Series. The featured speakers included: Ara K. Hovnanian, CEO and Chairman of Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., a national homebuilder; Ronald S. Ladell, [...]
They spent billions building the place. They bought huge tracts of land and hired artisans from all over the world to make fantasy come alive. They took two dimensional images from comic books and moving pictures and breathed life into them. They spend a fortune marketing, selling, booking, maintaining, and staffing the place. Not counting [...]
For the record, I am no Pollyanna. Every day I post news items on LinkedIn and Twitter that I think are important. I am objective in my choice of articles. Cross my heart. But I can't ignore the cold, hard facts: Sign of Spring on Pay: Real Wage Growth Spring Thaw Has Companies Hiring Again [...]
Nicholas Harary is a Chef, Sommelier, Restaurateur and Entrepreneur. His Restaurant Nicholas, located in Red Bank, is one of top eateries in the state, if not the country. Restaurant Nicholas is truly a fine dining experience, with a kitchen that has been described as a "laboratory," it has been our go-to special occasion restaurant for [...]
You have probably heard that the Panama Canal is being expanded. What you may not know is what that means to New Jersey. The Panama Canal now handles Panamax ships, meaning ships equal to the maximum capacity of the existing Panama Canal. After the expansion, the Canal will be able to handle Post Panamax ships [...]
Last fall I received an email from my Alma mater, Vanderbilt University, asking if I would be interested in interviewing prospective students from the area. Vandy had never asked me to do anything before, so I agreed. Nothing happened for months. Then, in the middle of January, the emails came fast and furious. In all, [...]
It is interesting that one definition of human being includes the notion that we are of prone to error. We say, “I’m only human,” meaning, “I am make mistakes, therefore I am human.” But why do we have this fallibility? Why is it baked into our nature? What would be its purpose? Is it because [...]
I recently took up two new hobbies: golf and sport shooting (i.e., Skeet and Trap shooting). On a metaphysical note, both the golf hole and the clay pigeon are about four inches in diameter. Hmmm. A real Freud beard scratcher. Best I can tell, I have no natural talent for either sport. Yet I keep [...]
“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God how you learn.” - C.S. Lewis. Older practitioners often have a calm, self-assured air. One can only wonder, how did they get there? The answer is simple: by making mistakes, screwing up, losing sleep. And later realizing that making a mistake is not the [...]
Writing is hard. It requires work. And discipline. And a freakin’ idea. But writing it is the best thing I can do with my time. Here’s why: “Thinking is the hardest and most exhausting of all labor; and hence many people shrink from it….Thinking is growth; you cannot think without growing. Every thought engenders another [...]
