Today I listened to a founder pitch a solution to help small digital retailers execute order fulfillment logistics. The concept is that many small retailers don’t have enough business to justify the expense of warehouse space or fulfillment staff. And they could benefit from being in a workspace that’s a community of similar businesses. Aggregating all those retailers into a large space that includes warehouses and offices and providing the staffing to assist them could solve this pain point.

This solution resonated with me. At my start-up, we struggled in a gray area for years. We couldn’t justify a warehouse but needed something. We also didn’t have a community of other digital retailers, so we learned everything the hard way. We ultimately settled on a traditional office space and prayed nothing got shipped back to us. If this founder’s solution had existed when we were scaling, it would have been a savior.

I’ve shared my views on SMBs needing help navigating rapid change. I think this solution falls squarely within that idea. I think there is a large unmet need to help small and medium-sized digital retailers navigate order fulfillment. A solution like this would allow those founders to focus on the parts of their businesses that matter most, rather than fulfillment. I think this founder is on to something and that he will build a massive business!

The current labor market is a challenging one. It’s preventing many companies from meeting customer demand. I shared my views on this a few months back: I view it as an entrepreneurial opportunity.

The shortage of skilled workers is a problem now—and it’s projected to triple by 2030. Today I connected with a founder looking to address this problem. He has a background that uniquely qualifies him to understand and solve it in an innovative way. His solutions will include training, technology, and partnerships with governments and communities.

The labor shortage is a real problem that calls for innovative solutions. It’s a massive market that likely has room for more than one winner. I like this founder’s approach and hope he’ll be successful!

A few months ago, I wrote about a space ripe for disruption, specialty transport. Today I met with a founder who’s tackling this exact problem. As I complained about my experience (which I still haven’t resolved), he laughed because he’s heard it so many times. We continued to chat, and he shared his insights with me.

The space is antiquated, which I already knew, and it’s not sexy. Based on consumer trends, though, he sees this market exploding in the future. We discussed how big the opportunity could be, and he thinks it could reach $10 billion or more. Everyone’s going after an enormous adjacent market, so this market has minimal competition.

I think this founder is in a great position. If he and his team can execute, they could benefit from a convergence of factors and grab a good share of this market before others even realize it exists. I’ve agreed to be an early customer and can’t wait to be along for this journey.

I was watching a video today about decision-making. The presenter said that being asked good questions leads to making better decisions. I thought about this and reflected on my own experiences.

As a founder, I was part of a peer group of founders. One of the things I enjoyed was getting the perspective of the other founders on particular situations. Inevitably they would ask a series of questions to help them understand the situation better before they expressed any opinions or gave any advice. Their questions were sometimes invaluable. And they often forced me to think about things I hadn’t before or perspectives I hadn’t considered. I credit some questions from that group with leading to some of my better decisions.

I agree with today’s video, with a caveat: good questions from credible people lead to better decisions.

A friend shared a video with me today. They didn’t say what it was about but assured me I’d like it. They were right. It went deep on unconscious bias. This is something I’ve thought a lot about but frankly haven’t taken the time to study. The video did a great job of filling in lots of gaps. It shared a framework that can be used to mitigate unconscious bias. Here’s how it works:

• P – Pay attention and notice your reactions and assumptions. We all react to situations and people. Being on the lookout for how you do it is important.  
• A – Acknowledge your assumptions. Assumptions affect how we relate to people and situations. And they lead to your brain making decisions on your behalf without your conscious permission. Be aware of your assumptions to be aware of what’s affecting how you relate to people and make decisions.
• U – Understand your perspective. In other words, be self-aware. How is your history affecting how you perceive a situation or person? Different life experiences lead to different perspectives. Your perspective might not be the only way to see things.
• S – Seek different perspectives. This helps you understand that your point of view is just that, a point of view. Not the objective truth. Hearing other perspectives can help you understand whether your assumptions are valid. Making a habit of hearing and understanding (not necessarily agreeing with) other perspectives also helps build empathy. Building human connections with people who are different from you can lead to more positive impressions of entire groups of people.
• E – Examine your options. After disrupting bias with the above-mentioned steps, you probably have more options. Use them to make an objective decision.

I have bias, and so does everyone else. Today I learned that bias is natural and necessary for human survival and decision-making. It’s based on assumptions and helps us in many instances by reducing the amount of thought required to make a decision. Being aware of bias and not making critical or complex decisions decision based on bias is the key.

Today marks the end of my eighty-ninth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week eighty-nine:

• Connecting the dots – I spent a few weeks thinking about a problem and collecting insights from others. This week, I was able to connect some dots. I still have lots to figure out, but it felt good to make some progress. Not sure where this will go exactly, but I feel good about the direction.  
• New project – I hit an unexpected snag. I’m frustrated, but I’m reminding myself that part of the reason I’m doing this is to learn. I still want to get this wrapped up before Christmas, so I’ll keep pushing next week.  

Week eighty-nine was busy. Still have lots to get done before December 25.

When I look at products being sold to SMBs, I think back to my early days with my company. I looked at tools as adding to either my revenue or my fixed expenses. Any tool that contributed to revenue was an easy sell. For example, we started off keeping track of our product catalog in Excel spreadsheets. We could have offered hundreds of products to customers, but we couldn’t keep track of the product details or inventory levels in Excel. So, we limited the products that we offered to customers, which limited our revenue growth.

The problem became so painful that I sought a solution. The software I found was expensive, but I knew it would increase revenue, so I quickly pulled the trigger. Revenue did increase, and we were a customer for years. We replaced it only when we absolutely had to.

Tools that didn’t increase revenue I scrutinized harder and took more time to decide about. We still added plenty of these tools, but I made sure that each one more than justified increasing the company’s expense structure.

If you’re considering selling into SMBs (or any company for that matter), understand whether your product increases your customers’ revenue or their expenses, and adjust your sales strategy accordingly.

Today I listened to a founder describe his first start-up failure. His key takeaway: what matters most is what customers think, not what he thinks. He had a hypothesis, and he built a product around it without much input from customers. When the product launched, customers wouldn’t pay for it. He shuttered the company.

The founder started another company. He’s staying close to the customer this time—focusing, laser-like, on building what they want. Feedback from early customers uncovered key insights he didn’t anticipate. They led to changes that accelerated the company’s early traction and have become a core part of its strategy.

Companies exist to solve problems for their customers. The only way to know if you’re doing that is to talk to customers. They may not always tell you want you want to hear, but if you listen hard enough, they’ll tell you what they want you to build.

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Today a founder shared with me his vision for helping people communicate more effectively. He’s starting out by building software that helps people understand how effective—or ineffective—their pitch is in communicating their message. He has studied effective communication and has experience working in the space, and he believes he can improve outcomes by helping people communicate more effectively.

I think he’s on to something. Listening to him today reminded me of a meeting I had. I was sharing an idea with a group of founder friends. When I finished talking, I asked them to tell me what they’d heard and what I’d left out that they wanted to hear. Their answers were eye-opening. Everyone heard something slightly different! I walked away realizing that I needed to improve how I communicated the idea and fine-tune it with my audience in mind.

Effective communication is important. Many people could use help improving their skills in this area (myself included). If you’re an early-stage founder trying to communicate an idea, take time to consider how you’re doing it and who your audience is.

An entrepreneurial friend told me about some early challenges at his company. The team wasn’t being efficient or consistent about completing work. This created at least two problems. First, the longer it took to complete the work, the less satisfied the customers were (and the less likely they were to refer other people to the company). Second, the longer each job took, the more it cost because employees were paid by the hour. After months of talking to his team, he found the solution.

He changed the compensation structure. He began compensating his team for completed jobs. The fewer jobs they completed, the less money they made. The more jobs they completed, the more they made. My friend noticed an immediate impact. His team’s productivity went through the roof. Over time, his team made more money and his business saw increased revenue and profit. Customer satisfaction increased too.

Keeping a team aligned is difficult. Everyone moving in different directions or moving at different speeds is stressful for the founders and could even sink the business. If everyone is moving in sync and in the same direction, the employees can have more autonomy and the business can reach new heights.