Small Business Edge Newsletter

1) Are You Comfortable Taking Risks?

2) A Healthy, Growing Baby

3) Podcast Wisdom

Hello Friends and Fellow Business Owners,

Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first. – Frederick B. Wilcox.

My word for this week is risk. Jackie Robinson, one of the greatest baseball players (and base stealers to ever play the game, broke the color barrier 77 years ago yesterday. He was a man who took calculated risks on and off the field. Wilcox, who died long before Robinson’s historical day on April 15, 1947, would have enjoyed watching him play.

Like baseball, in the world of business, risk is a constant companion. It’s tempting to view it as a threat, but risk is also a source of opportunity. Every choice that involves risk also opens a door to potential growth and innovation.

I think of risk not as an obstacle standing in front of my company but as potential yet to be realized. Yes, stepping out of my comfort zone and into the unknown can be daunting, but history shows us that the most enduring business owners are those who adapt and grow. They are the ones who look at the horizon not as a limit but as an invitation.

Every risk you take is a step towards learning something vital about your market, your team, and yourself. These lessons strengthen your resilience and prepare your business to manage future challenges more effectively.

When it comes to risk—assess it, understand it, but don’t shy away from it. Use risk as a tool to sharpen your decision-making and to help get you to where you want to go. When in doubt, remember this excerpt from a poem by Erin Hanson:

“There is freedom waiting for you,

On the breezes of the sky,

And you ask, "What if I fall?"Oh, but my darling, what if you fly??

Enjoy Today!

Brian

P.S. The next Bricks or Sticks 4-week workshop for business owners starts on Monday, April 1st! If you are serious about achieving your 2024 goals, click on the link below to learn more about what we do. If you have any questions, send me an email. Few things make me happier than helping business owners realize their dreams.

Click?HERE ?for more information and to register.

Brian Moran & Jocelyn Ring

1. Are You Comfortable Taking Risks?

If you’re already in business, the answer is obviously “yes.” But not all business owners have the same level of comfort, which can impact growth.

If you’re still thinking about starting a business, your chances of actually launching may depend on how comfortable you are with risk.

In an article in Forbes, the Young Entrepreneur Council discusses how “risk-averse entrepreneurs can get more comfortable taking risks and why doing so is important to their long-term success.”

Read more about getting more comfortable taking risks .

More on Risk

• Reduce the risk of startup .
• Are you risking a cyberattack?
• Managing the risk of generative AI .
• The risk of attending industry events .

2. A Healthy, Growing Baby

It’s the quintessential entrepreneurial success story. A consumer is looking for a product or service to fill a personal need and can’t find it. So they create it.

That’s what happened to Natalie Gordon, a software engineer who struggled to find the products she wanted to buy online on existing baby registry sites when she was pregnant with her first child.

Frustrated, she solved her problem by starting a free online baby registry—Babylist . Fast-forward 13 years, and according to Fast Company, her company “made more than $400 million in revenue, with gross merchandise value surpassing $1 billion.”

Gordon is still expanding, adding new products and services.

Read more about her inspiring story .

3. Podcast Wisdom

Click?HERE ?to listen to the podcast