How Do We Get Out of This Cage?

Published: Feb. 16, 2021, 10 a.m.

This week, Karen, William, and Laura cover a lot of ground: For one thing, what do you do when the to-do list seems endless, you\u2019re already working 24/7, and you just can\u2019t get ahead? For another, what do you do when employees decide they want to work remotely from random parts of the country? Does that work? Is it a bureaucratic nightmare? Meanwhile, Laura is confronting several big, interrelated issues. Her co-founder and husband, Doug, is ready to step back from the business. That\u2019s a little tricky because the company operates off a 19-year-old platform that Doug built, and only he knows how to make it work. They\u2019ve been trying to hire tech people for Doug to train, but they\u2019ve been through 15 people in 10 years\u2014and they know they\u2019re doing something wrong. Do they need to hire a recruiter? Is it time to junk Doug\u2019s platform and go with Shopify? If they do that, will they forfeit 19 years of SEO value? All of which has left Laura feeling trapped. \u201cThat\u2019s this cage that we\u2019re in,\u201d she tells us. \u201cWhat the hell do you do?\u201d