Week of 1/21/26

In Great by Choice, Jim Collins talks about “firing bullets before cannonballs.” The idea is simple: start small. Test, experiment, and learn before committing big resources. A “bullet” is a small, low-cost, low-risk effort, something you can try without throwing your whole business off course. Once you know what hits the target, that’s when you fire the cannonball. For small businesses, it’s a reminder that focus and testing matter more than bold, blind leaps. ●

Week of 1/14/26

Maintaining access to your digital assets matters more than most people realize. Your website, Google Business Profile, analytics, domains, and financial tools should always be owned and controlled by you. That means creating the primary account yourself and then adding users with the right permissions, rather than sharing usernames and passwords with vendors or employees.

We’ve seen what happens when this step is skipped. An employee sets up a profile and leaves. A developer controls the website login. Suddenly the business owner can’t make changes to their own properties. Even if you need someone to walk you through setting things up properly, it’s worth the effort. A little structure on the front end prevents a lot of friction later. ●

Week of 1/7/26

There’s a difference between advising from theory and advising from experience. A clean framework or a sharp slide deck can look good on paper, but it doesn’t execute itself. Strategy only matters if it can survive real-world constraints, tradeoffs, and follow-through.

We’re consultants, but we’ve also built, grown, and closed a multimillion-dollar business. We’ve been inside the work, not just adjacent to it. And we still are, whether that’s running digital ads, digging into data, supporting fractional finance, or coaching through real decisions. The value isn’t in the recommendation alone. It’s in knowing what actually works and doing the work when it needs to be done. ●

Week of 12/31/25

As the new year approaches, a lot of people start thinking about what kind of work they actually want to be doing. Not just what they can do, but what will be satisfying and sustainable over time. That kind of clarity rarely comes from setting louder goals. It usually comes from slowing down and taking a more honest look at yourself.

We often come back to three simple questions: Who are you, and how are you naturally wired? What are you genuinely good at? And what kind of work holds your attention without forcing it? When you look for patterns across those three areas, you start to see where your time and energy are best spent. We recently walked through this framework in a YouTube video and put together a practical guide to help work through it step by step for anyone who wants a structured place to start. ●

Week of 12/24/25

Some business owners get emotionally attached to their inventory. Maybe it was supposed to be a hit, or maybe they feel like it just cost too much to let go at a loss. But inventory that doesn’t move is tied-up cash. When you look at what’s on your shelves, don’t just see products; see money sitting still. Even selling at break-even or a small loss frees up cash you can use for better opportunities or to pay the bills. ●

Week of 12/17/25

You don’t have to run off in every direction chasing the latest trend or getting pulled into someone else’s hype. Most micro and small businesses are already doing more with less. That’s the real world. What matters is getting good at the fundamentals, the parts of your business that don’t look glamorous or exciting, but actually move things forward. The steady work. The basics. Ignore the noise. Be brilliant at the basics. ●

Week of 12/3/25

When people hear “eCommerce,” they usually think of online stores shipping boxes like Amazon, Shopify, or Etsy. But that’s only part of the picture. eCommerce isn’t just about selling physical products. It’s about doing business online. Payments, marketing, data, customer interactions...it’s all part of it. ●

Week of 11/12/25

When we first start working with a small business owner, we go after the low-hanging fruit. The easiest, most obvious next step. Not the big, shiny project that eats time and energy. The simple operational action that actually moves the business forward today. Do the first easy thing. Then the next. Momentum doesn’t start with a grand plan, it starts with clearing what’s already within reach. You’ll be surprised how far that gets you. ●