Competence is not the same as experience. Both matter. They are not interchangeable. A capable team can learn what needs to be done inside a transaction. A team that has done it before already knows. That gap does not show up in a credential check or a reference call. It shows up in the first…
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The first 100 days after a transaction closes are not a grace period. They are the window where the real condition of the business becomes visible, where the assumptions in the model get tested against what is actually there, and where small digital problems that nobody flagged in diligence start compounding into larger operational ones.…
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There is a version of every deal where the fees look the same on both sides of the proposal. Same scope. Same timeline. Roughly the same number. And then you close, and you find out the difference. Experience in M&A is not a premium line item. It is built into the same price as inexperience.…
DetailsIf you have not heard of an LLMs.txt file, you are not alone. It is a relatively new addition to the way websites communicate with AI platforms, and most business owners have never been told it exists. Most websites do not have one. That is worth changing. Here is what an LLMs.txt file is, what…
DetailsOn September 15, Cloudflare is changing the default settings for how AI bots access websites protected by its network. If you have never thought about AI bots, or you have never thought about Cloudflare, this affects you anyway. Cloudflare sits in front of millions of small and mid-sized business websites, providing security, performance, and traffic…
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Your customers are asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity questions they used to type into Google. And those tools are answering them, often without ever sending anyone to a website. If your business is not showing up in those answers, you are effectively invisible in a growing share of search behavior. This is what AI brand…
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If your project manager sent you here, you are probably wondering why we are asking for SMTP credentials and what they even are. Short version. Your website cannot reliably send email by itself. It needs a postal service to actually deliver the letters it writes. That postal service is SMTP, and the setup is usually…
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Know Your Digital Assets! Episode Description This week, Diane is joined by Paige Wiese of Tree Ring Digital to discuss the importance of maintaining and keeping track of your digital assets BEFORE you are ready to exit. We cover what you need to know about all the following things: 1. website ownership and…
Details“We already have a privacy policy, so we’re covered.” We hear this often, and it makes sense. You added a privacy policy to your site, maybe years ago, and it has been sitting there ever since. Box checked. But a privacy policy and a cookie consent banner are two different things doing two different jobs,…
DetailsMost business owners think of website privacy compliance the way they think of a contract. Sign it once, file it away, done. Add a cookie banner, drop in a privacy policy, move on. We understand the instinct. It would be a lot simpler if that were true. But privacy compliance is one of the few…
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How to Prevent Digital Disaster: The Checklist Every Leader Needs w/ Paige Wiese Episode Description In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi talks with Paige Wiese, founder and CEO of Tree Ring Digital, about digital continuity: the access, ownership, vendor, and documentation issues that keep a company’s digital systems running when people leave,…
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Is “Digital Hygiene” Killing Your Valuation? Why Your Biggest Exit Risk Isn’t Your P&L with Paige Wiese Looking for a free business evaluation? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business, and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you…
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