Small Business Survival Handbook.

I've already written 7 chapters of this. It's like I've been practicing it for years. I've refined my thinking on each of these topics until I have a running narrative that makes sense to me.

It should be useful to someone, if only because it might make them a little more careful.

I have no illusions. Most people will need to learn these lessons the hard way, but even then confirmation after the fact can be useful.

My friend Brett, who has owned a comic store for 29 years, made the comment that while he often agrees with my observations, he often comes up with different conclusions.

Fair enough. If nothing else, my conclusions will hopefully spark debate. Because the biggest mistake is not thinking about these things at all.

I have loads of material. I'm just riffing on each of the topics right now. I'll want to go back and refine them. I could, if I have time, go through my 30 years of notes and see if there isn't something useful in them that I could add. I'm sure there is, there are probably tons of useful things, but the problem is extracting them from reams of material.

I have notebooks that stack two feet high, and 10 years worth of blog posts. Many of my business posts I never made public. They became my business journal. Notes to myself.

I could write this even faster, but I'm trying to hold back to one chapter per day, one chapter per walk. Then spending some more time refining it.

I'm just laying out my thoughts. If it helps even a few people then it's worth it.