Contrarian small business advice.

If I wasn't so lazy, I'd rewrite my small business book, "Small Business Survivalist Handbook: A Contrarian's Guide for Mom and Pops."  I wrote it on the fly, posted it on Amazon, and haven't looked at it since. I think I've maybe I've sold two copies.

I've learned a whole lot in the last fifteen years. I could make the book so much more insightful and useful.

For one thing, I've put a lot of my theories to the test. When Covid hit and we had to close down for awhile, I had two months to reboot the store. I took the opportunity to institute all the policies and practices that had been hit or miss in the previous thirty or so years. I stuck to my guns and waited to see what happened.

What's happened is that sales nearly tripled and we've earned more money in the last six years than we earned in the previous twenty-five years. More importantly, our profits quadrupled. 

When I wrote "Small Business Survivalist Handbook," I wrote it from the standpoint of, well, being a survivor, of being a scrappy underdog, but I didn't exactly claim success beyond that. I figured there were other people like me who weren't after a big score but simply wanted to be their own boss.  

I feel confident now that my advice would be good, that the average person who wanted to start a small business would learn from my failures and my successes. 

I recently wrote a blog (which I didn't post) that encapsulated the most important lessons I've learned: Seven Things Most Bookstores Do that I Don't do." I'd be willing to bet that there are very few stores that don't do at least five of the things I listed.  

If nothing else I should polish this up and insert it as either the prologue or epilogue of the book as it exists. It wouldn't hurt to go through and polish the rest of the book as well, though that could turn into a slog. 

But certainly, writing up my short essay and adding it would probably be immensely helpful.