A weekly dispatch on the three things every small business has to get right: Operations. Marketing. People. Real stories about the structural breakdowns that keep good businesses stuck — and what it looks like when you finally fix them.
she said she couldn't help me. three times.
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Hello Reader, "We're so busy and I'm all by myself and I can't help you now." That's what the woman at the grocery store told me on Saturday. I'd come in to rent a carpet cleaner, with a storm on the way and the whole town of Pacific Beach stocking up. I said I'd wait. (Cue me settling in by the registers like I lived there.) She came back three more times to tell me she still couldn't help. Meanwhile I could see stock people and a couple of cashiers with nobody in their lines. Then the shift changed. The new woman walked over, waved one of the guys out of the back, and sent him for the machine. She rang me up while he was gone. Five minutes later I was out the door. Shell yes. The first woman thought she was the only one who could get that carpet cleaner. It's just like this in our business. Maybe you're the one who writes every welcome email, or the only person who knows which folder the contract lives in. Then a client emails at 9pm with a question you've answered fifty times, and of course you answer that too. That same weekend, two posts in my feed were selling AI as an "employee" that can replace your team. I'm a huge believer in AI, and I still don't buy it. AI can find the through lines in a pile of information faster than I ever could. It can't cry with you, or celebrate your win with a hug and a happy dance in the kitchen. Humans need humans. What AI can do is take some of the busywork, so you and your people get back to what you're great at. Start by writing the job down. That's a playbook: the steps for a job you do over and over, plus how you make the calls along the way. (Mine plans our family dinners.) Not sure which job to start with? I put four questions on one page to help you pick. Grab "Pick Your First Playbook" ← the PDF, no opt in The longer version, with the AI mistake that had me talking to my screen and the membership client whose welcome notes now go out every week, is here: Who's Getting the Carpet Cleaner? So what's your carpet cleaner? Hit reply and tell me. I read every one. Shell, Yes! Here's to your success, _______________________________________________________________________ “It’s Just Like This in Our Business”A weekly dispatch on the three things every small business has to get right: Operations. Marketing. People. Real stories about the structural breakdowns that keep good businesses stuck and what it looks like when you finally fix them. |
“It’s Just Like This in Our Business”
A weekly dispatch on the three things every small business has to get right: Operations. Marketing. People. Real stories about the structural breakdowns that keep good businesses stuck — and what it looks like when you finally fix them.
Hello Reader, An hour after I told myself "just a few laps around the block," I was still walking. Yesterday I hit the 4pm wall. Hubby usually walks with me, but he was away at a conference, so I made myself a little deal. Some steps are better than none. Then I opened the front door. It was sunny and in the low 70s with a soft breeze, one of those early fall days that feels brand new. One lap turned into a longer loop down a street I haven't walked in a while. I didn't put on a podcast or...
Hello Reader, By Saturday night, there were twelve apple pies cooling on my stove. Every fall, we go apple picking. We've done it for as long as hubby and I have been together, and even before that. When he was a little boy, his family built a cute cabin in the Shenandoah Mountains with apple trees right on the property. My mother-in-law even wrote an apple recipe book. These days I bake at least a dozen pies every year, and a few of them are gluten-free. Pie day starts with bowls. I line up...
Hello Reader, Hubby and I were talking this week about lasts. We think a lot about firsts. We barely think about lasts at all. There was a last time somebody carried you up to bed. You have no idea when it was. Same with the last tree you climbed, and the last night you stayed outside playing until the streetlights came on. Nobody stops you on the way out the door and says, well, that's the last one. He brought it up because of his parents, and the last time you drive a car. We're getting...