running a small business

Support Fellow Small Business Owners

A man was selling vegetables
in a parking lot.
He had a sign
saying
he needed the money
to pay his bills.

I didn’t need vegetables
but I bought a bunch
of green onions.

Why?

Because he needed help
and also because
he was a fellow
small business owner.

I can’t promote
my products
by saying
they’re produced
by a small business
if I don’t,
myself,
support small businesses.

Customers are savvy
and the internet
is all revealing.
They’ll figure it out.

Plus I will know.
I’ll know
I’m not being genuine
and I don’t believe
the sh*t I’m pitching.

Support fellow
small business owners.

Keeping Weak Products

We all know the phrase
“Feed the strong.”

99% of the time,
it makes financial sense
to pour the majority of our resources
into promoting, selling
and supporting the strongest products/services
we offer.

And it makes financial sense
to starve our weakest products/services.

But does it make sense
to remove those weak products/services?

Usually, it does.

Those weak products/services
add complexity.
They require listings
and customer service
and maintenance
and storage
and other resources.

It only make senses
to keep them
if they serve
the better selling products/services
in some way.

Consider delisting
weak products/services.

Turn Single Use Into Multiple Use

I save all the packing material
I receive from deliveries
– boxes, bubble wrap,
air packets
– to reuse
when I send my own packages.

I haven’t bought
packing material
in decades.

There’s a movement
away from single use items.

This doesn’t mean
we have to eliminate
these items.
We should merely use them
a second or third or more
time.

Anything customer facing
should be safe
and should appear new
(unless you deal with antiques
and similar items).

But we CAN reuse
or repurpose
items
in our businesses.

That can decrease costs
significantly.