December 2025
Volume No. 27, Issue No. 1

News of the day - 
27 years of newsletters & 
There is no magic in drive-thru, online, or mobile shopping

Let's start with a quick happy birthday to us. December 1999 was the first issue of our monthly newsletter. Originally, it was called the e-retailer because it was an email in a time when many still had print newsletters. However, as email became the norm, there was confusion that the newsletter was only for online businesses. Hence, the current name of Small Business News. This is the 313th issue, and to the friend who visited with me at SEMA in early November, "No, I am not going to stop writing to you each month".

Last month's newsletter had a tongue-in-cheek comment about people in the future wondering if the river in South America was named after the online business named Amazon.

Another friend, Perry Grobe in Ontario, wrote to discuss online shopping. Closely related is mobile ordering and drive-thrus. I have thought about the changes at Starbucks with their renewed effort to make their store the "third place" in people's lives. Yet, as I visit their stores, their Christmas decorations and holiday-oriented merchandise are paltry.

In my hometown, there is a pizza restaurant that has been our favorite because it is where my grandmother always wanted to go. Personal choice is that I would never want to order takeout, but as I visit the restaurant, there are very few customers at the tables. Yet, the pizza boxes are stacked high near their ovens, indicating they do a sizable take-out business.

That may be fine to a point, but there is no selling going on with drive-thru or online selling. Most online and drive-thru "selling" is simply order taking with minimal human interaction. Whether your business is product or service oriented, what would there be to your business if there were no human interaction?

Perry's business is a nursery and garden center. He asks about the lack of contact/selling that people experience with online shopping. The same is true with drive-thru. In a presentation to a group in October, I cited the surgeon general who expressed concern about social isolation.

Other than someone isolating themselves with video games or their cell phones, surely online and drive-thru are two key factors in isolation. Do I think we are going to see an effort to tell people that their health is endangered by these factors? Not at all.

Perry, I think the answer has to be what we do as independent small businesses to invite interaction. Whether our businesses have products, services, or both, the answer is going to be in our creativity.

Let me share two suggestions to stoke your creativity. My first suggestion is that you read the book, The Experience Economy, by Pine and Gilmore. Read every page closely as it is a great book that can grow your business.

The second suggestion is to read an article on our website titled, Is there magic in what you do?. It is a story of a chimney sweep I met many years ago. As you read the details of how he did his work, you can see what made him unique. Who would want to look online to find another chimney sweep and ask about their price, after you had experienced Lucky Dale the chimney sweep? Here is a link to that article: Is there magic in what you do?

Article of the Month - 
You say you give great customer service

As I have for years, I will state that we may disagree on many components of small business management and ownership. There are, however, two components that are non-negotiable as there is only one correct answer. Understanding financial information and staff education are the two items. The focus of this month's article is your having a staff education program in your business. I am not wrong on this point.

Article of the Month

Book of the month - 
EOS by Gino Wickman

When you begin your search for this book, you are going to find it is more than just one book. EOS stands for Entrepreneur's Operating System. Within this series of tools is a previously recommended book titled Rocket Fuel. Which book do I recommend?

All of them. Actually, all 291 books we have listed on our website. As I have said many times, "The average small business owner does not read books. Perhaps, that is why they are average".

Book of the Month

Internet Tool for Your Business -
Multi-year analysis calculator

This month's tool was developed several years ago in response to an ongoing conversation with a reader of this column. The owner of a small business called on a January day to brag about how profitable their business had been the previous year. They had made more money that last year than ever before!

As I had been working with this person and had several years of their financial statements, I asked to review the year-end totals. Creating the calculator you can now use, I compared the last four years. Paying attention to the percentages, instead of the dollar amounts, I could see how well this business did with improving margins as well as controlling costs.

When we next visited, I could share in their joy, but also had to explain that the most recent year did not have their best margin, nor did it represent their best year in controlling expenses as a percentage. The bottom line of the conversation was that the business would have made twice as much profit if the owner had more closely monitored and managed their business!

That is why this calculator was created. As owners of small businesses, we need to be doing more than the daily tasks. And this exercise is something your accountant is not likely to perform on your behalf.

Each month, we highlight one of the 47 free tools on the Profits Plus website; we call them "calculators". While some provide analysis by numbers and ratios, some are assessments, and others are self-examination questions. Many are downloadable, while others, because of the complexity of the calculations going on behind the scenes, are a part of the website and allow you to print your answers. None of them requires you to give any personal information, nor are there any "cookies" tracking you or your information.

Internet Tool for Your Business

Staff Incentive for Your Business - Taking credit for nothing

I have found that taking credit for nothing is a great way to engage people you work with. The example is a nonprofit organization that I head. Over the past year, we have changed from group discussions to having individuals be in charge of the many events and activities we have. Because one individual now owns that event or activity, we have seen more participation and results that exceeded our goals.

The key factor is that when recognition is given, it most frequently comes to me as the president. I have found it important to push all the recognition to the individual who is in charge of the event or activity. As we enter the second year of this process, we are seeing an increase in pride and effort with those within our organization.

We want to recognize A Carrot A Day by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, whose book provides the basis for each month's incentive idea.