Publisher column: There’s no magic bullet in running a small business

As we close in on our 10-year anniversary in the magazine business (more on that in May), I’m still struck by the most impactful piece of business advice we’ve ever gotten.

We were sitting in our office a couple of years ago, chatting with our friend Eric Brownlee. Shanna had the great idea to pick his brain for some pearls of wisdom.

“So, at what point do you get it all figured out,” she

asked. It was a perfect question, and one that I often pondered as we struggled to transition from a small company to a slightly larger one.

Without missing a beat, he broke our hearts.

“You don’t,” he said. He followed that with the idea that you’re constantly evolving as a business, and indeed as a business owner, and you meet challenges as they rise up in front of you.

But the idea of figuring things out is, and always was, an illusion. There’s no magic bullet. If there was, I would be working on my novel on the lanai, watching cruise ships come into port in Great Bay down in Saint Martin, instead of sharing business ownership tips in this column.

If I have learned anything, and some days I wonder, it’s that you need to try to plan for the place you want to be, rather for the place that you are.

That’s why, as I listen to the rain fall in Smithfield for what must be the 20th day in a row, I’m thinking about the Caribbean.