Small Business as Survival
A quick note: To my family, friends, and fellow human beings affected by the LA fires and navigating this devastating and terrifying situation, I am sorry. I am thinking of you. I am praying for you.
Journal entry:
To those of us who made it through 2024…
I too grieve the people, businesses, jobs, and innocence lost.
Small business got me through it.
I let go of several things last year. And even when change is good, it’s hard.
In the blank space, I helped my small business friends/mentors/elders with challenges that required unique solutions. This has been the work I get to do – the work that doesn’t feel like work at all.
My office sits in restaurants and taprooms and my meetings are late-night conversations over some of the best food in town. My clients, my fellow small business owners, and my neighborhood shops curated the third spaces and experiences that made space for a lighter contrast to my year.
To the small business owners…
To me, we are the renaissance people of today. We are the oddballs and the artists, the cooks and the makers, and the misfits who couldn’t really do anything else but what we are doing (and many of us have tried).
All the late nights, back of the napkin math, and conversations of accountability to navigate team members, customers, and everything else that comes with running a small business. We juggle it all with doing what we do best everyday all while hustling to make payroll each week. It’s pretty miraculous.
What’s the point?
A few weeks ago, I found myself in a conversation between a restaurateur and director of an organization that supports small businesses. The topic of conversation was “small businesses dropping like flies” because of a lack of resources.
In that same week, a friend shared this Instagram post with me:
In the first weeks of this year, I witnessed some of my favorite small businesses close their doors.
It seems to me our survival is at stake.
In my pursuit of small business survival, I aim to record my reflections, lessons, and solutions with the hope that we don’t place hands on hot stoves. A faster feedback loop and a log of the work to share with those who may benefit.
Footnotes:
Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Marie Brown
Litany of Survival by Audre Lorde
Show Your Work By Austin Kleon
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