Lean into fear

Yesterday I swallowed the lump in my throat that had built up over 3 months, and called Sarah (the 1 of 2 employees I’d keep).

I broke the news we’d be dropping our flagship product. It did $100k in profit last year, but hasn’t performed in 2025 ($6k profits from May-Nov).

We’re just another commoditized pet supply company without it.

I expected an, “okay, thanks for letting me know.”

Instead I got a,

“We’re not doing that.”

I gave her all the reasons: ad costs are above LTV, we’re losing money on every purchase, I’m losing motivation to work on a company I haven’t taken a dollar from in 3 years (and can’t yet).

She empathized, then shot back more fire.

“We’re not going down without a fight. I’m gonna think about how to solve it, but this company HAS to exist and won’t without the [flagship]. There’s a market for it, and people need it.”

Mind you, Sarah (not her real name) works 5 hours a month for us. She’d make more money selling girl-scout cookies than continuing with us.

And still I hung up the call, believing it might be true for the first time in 3 months.

This morning - after months of experimenting - I found a very interesting piece of information that might be the root cause of such lackluster performance…

Time will tell.

The Point

Doing the hard thing (calling Sarah) was scary, so I put it off. But the negative consequence never came.

She did not leave the company taking the other employee with her (they’re like sisters) and leaving me with work that I’m neither qualified to do nor have time for.

She’s more determined than I was now to solve the issue, which feels like a fire in a cold, dark cavern. I found out she’s a much more valuable asset than I’ve given her credit for.

I wish I’d made the call 3 months ago when I first felt the fear the company would fall apart if I did.

Short today, and can likely be combined with the Habits section below:

Ask yourself what you’re most afraid of happening in your business. That’s probably the thing you need to address. Right now.

See above.

God speed,

Mike

Today’s inspiration: The Chronicles of an Idiot Business Owner (me)