Vince Perri

09/11/2026

Every year on this day I stop and think about what actually matters.

Not the deals. Not the calendar. The people who are still here with you.

If you have built something you are proud of, that is worth being grateful for today. If work has been coming first for too long, today is a good day to change that.

Never forget what this country lost. Never forget what your time is actually worth.

🇺🇸 Never Forget. 9/11/01.

09/10/2026

AI should buy back your time. It's not here to replace your people.

Here's the framework: Reframe (stop asking how AI replaces an employee, start asking how it replaces a repetitive task). Repair (clean up the process before you automate it). Rescue (answer missed calls after hours, call new leads back before they go cold). Reserve (keep clients automatically updated so the relationship stays warm).

Full breakdown is in the new episode.

09/10/2026

Jake Alexander sees this constantly. A business doing $5 million in revenue, and all of it sits under one generic line: "fee for income services."

No breakdown of what's recurring, what's a one-time transaction, what came from social media versus referrals. Just one big number that tells you nothing about where to actually focus.

Getting a real bookkeeper was one of the best moves I ever made in my own business. Not just for clean books. For actually being able to see what's working.

09/09/2026

A missed call after hours doesn't have to just be missed.

AI doesn't need to solve the caller's problem. It just needs to answer, so the call actually gets dispatched somewhere instead of going to voicemail and dying there.

Same thing with new leads. Every minute one sits without a follow-up, it gets colder. AI can call that lead back immediately while it's still hot, before it ever reaches your desk.

09/09/2026

No one is going to come and save me or clean up my mess.

That's Jake Alexander talking about running his own business, and it's honestly the whole job in one sentence. Not "the market will fix it." Not "my team will handle it eventually." You made the mess, you're the one who cleans it up.

Most people want what ownership gives you without wanting the part where nobody's coming to bail you out.

09/08/2026

Jake Alexander had it all mapped out. Do the acquisitions, bundle it up, sell, retire on a beach, find the next adventure.

That's not what happened.

Instead he almost lost the whole thing. That's where he actually learned about adversity, confidence, leadership, how to dive in and fix something when it's falling apart instead of just riding something that already works.

The plan rarely survives contact with the business. The lessons show up anyway.

09/08/2026

You can always hire more people. Always find more clients. Always chase more revenue.

None of that matters unless you actually know what you want out of this.

Talked about this with Jake Alexander on the podcast. If you want exponential growth, go hire and make the moves. But there's nothing wrong with staying small and working for yourself either. The only mistake is not being honest about which one you're actually building toward.

09/07/2026

3 acquisitions in 3 years. It almost ended the business.

New episode is up, watch it here.

Jake Alexander didn't set out to be an accountant. He did a few tax...

09/06/2026

3 sectors investors are actively avoiding right now, according to Inc.'s January 2026 report on the worst businesses to start this year.

VR and AR applications: the funding dried up before the market actually matured. Restaurants: always brutal, and margins keep shrinking instead of improving. Consumer electronics and physical products: supply chain costs and tariffs eat the margin before you've even launched.

None of this means don't start a business. It means know exactly what you're walking into before you do.

09/05/2026

32% of small business owners right now have open positions they can't fill. Unemployment is only 4.1%.

The problem usually isn't the market. It's the hiring process. Here's the framework: clarify the seat, compel with the offer, confirm with proof, commit to week one. Miss any one of these and you'll keep cycling through people who quit in six weeks.

Full breakdown is in the new episode.