February 2026
Volume No. 27, Issue No. 3

If you can't use the fancy software right, do not buy it!

What was planned for the February news lead is going to show up next month. That is because of observations I have made in my interaction with small businesses over the past two months. I am experiencing small businesses that have decided they need to be like bigger businesses and use "fancy software", including artificial intelligence.

Let me share a few experiences of what I see as technology setting up a small business for embarrassment.

A store in Texas has a niche of light bulbs. They sell several I cannot find elsewhere. Someone decided they needed software that reaches out to customers. The text I received asked about my needing to plan my expense budget for 2026. Bryce would like to call and talk to me about this. I responded with a comment that I am not a business and buy these bulbs as I need them. I received four more texts over the next three weeks from "Bryce" asking when we could talk.

The local pharmacy sends a text stating it is time for a prescription refill. Unfortunately, their text does not share enough information to know which prescription they are referring to. When you call the pharmacy, they ask which prescription I am talking about and with my answer, have to go search for an answer. With the last refill, when they identified the prescription, I remarked that their timing was off by three weeks. Their system should be reset.

This situation has happened several times. Their answer has always been that they will have to tell the pharmacist who is also the owner. I wonder if this pharmacist ever thinks about how much this is an interruption to his day. You mean his employees don't know how to use the software?

A third business has soaps I like to buy. I found this store on a trip to the west coast. Their website used to be very easy to use. I went through the process of selecting what I wanted to order, and only at the point after I had given my debit card information, is there a message that says that two of the three soaps I want to order are sold out.

Deciding I will wait until they restock everything, I leave their website only to get five emails over the next few weeks suggesting I left something in the online cart and I should come back to buy. With the first email I did go back and as previously detailed, I found that they were still out. The next four emails were deleted.

The last example is a local pest control company that sends a text telling me the day and time they are coming to my home. "Reply with YES to confirm" is the last part of the message. I reply with a NO, and sure enough, the technician drives the 10 miles to my home on the mountain to do the treatment. He calls and says he is at my home waiting to get in. I am out of town.

All of these can be frustrating and time consuming for the customer. They can also be a source of embarrasment for the business. It reminds me of an exchange between two people in which one asks if the other one is trying to make them look bad.

The answer was, "No. You are doing a fine job all by yourself".

Nothing, especially any AI or software, is going to replace what we can do as a small business by showing a genuine interest in our customers. Take that budget for this fancy software and invest it instead in a staff that genuinely is interested in your customer.

Article of the Month - 
Churchill's Marketing

"Gentlemen, we have run out of money. Now we have to start thinking", is credited to Winston Churchill. Appropriate insight when looking at your small business and considering how much and where you are spending money to retain your existing customers, and introduce yourself to new potential customers.

We add two thoughts. The first is to spend to retain customers before you spend to obtain new customers. The second thought is that while you may know what the average customer spends with your business, the average person in your trade area spends nothing with your business. Retention is everything.

Article of the Month

Book of the month -
The Hard Things About Hard Things

The title is intriguing, but it is the subtitle that draws you into the book. Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers tells me I want to read this book by Ben Horowitz.

There are tough decisions, like firing an employee or perhaps worse, firing a family member. Perhaps a decision needs to be made by reducing costs or having to raise prices. There are all kinds of decisions that are tough to make. This book provides insight.

And we want to add a bit of advice from our experiences in making decisions. Not to decide is to decide. Think about that, especially in a partnership when there are two people involved. Whoever votes, "no", wins.

Book of the Month

Internet Tool for Your Business -
Operating Expenses as a Percentage

Many people with small businesses struggle to understand components of information that contains numbers. Especially numbers when they relate to financial concerns.

When a business owner is concentrating on controlling expenses, as they should, a graphic of explanation, followed by using numbers from your business, can help.

Envision the revenue/income/sales of your business represented by a pie. (Your choice of flavors.) You begin to cut slices from the pie, first to take care of your "cost of goods sold", or "cost of doing business". Then you cut additional slices for the various operating expenses, which include payroll for everyone.

You expect that there will be a healthy-sized slice left, which represents your net profit. Anticipating this graphic makes sense to you, follow the link below to one of our online calculators that will allow you to input numbers from your business to see how your pie is being sliced.

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 - 
Have someone else speak

Here is a 2-for-1 staff incentive; something for you and something for your staff. It seems with small business that, customers make a point to seek out the individual(s) who own the business. It is something about an expectation that the owner knows more than anyone else. Or, that the owner is the one who will make a deal for the customer on the transaction. Both of these can consume your day.

What if you were to design your business so that your staff is seen as the most knowledgeable in your business? I can tell you from personal experience that the best way for staff to feel valuable and engaged occurs when the owner is not at the forefront of everything.

After all, when you hired that individual, you did so because you thought they could think and act. Give them plenty of opportunities to do so.

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.