90% of it won’t happen

In business and in life I spend a lot of time looking ahead and projecting. Will big box retail hurt my sales? Will my staff perform above average, or just average? Will I remember to order playmat tubes if I leave myself a 5th reminder message?

Whatever it is I’m dithering over, 90% of the time it won’t happen

Part of this is planning. When we expect a downturn, we aggressively plan to prevent it. But part of it is just that in small business you consistently expect things to be worse than they are. When things are bad, they are catastrophic in my head.

What if minimum wage goes up? Well, some stores will have to lay off staff. Medium sized stores may have to close, or renegotiate a lease and move. But by and large, bigger industry shifts are what should concern a small business owner, not paying a few dollars more to staff. That’s the 10% that will happen, that you should pay attention to. The rest is little stuff that will be a blip on the radar in 3 months whether you plan for it or not. So don’t sweat it, get some sleep, and get back to work.