What the Textbooks Don’t Tell You
The textbooks, Karla Trotman writes, presume to know what to do when, say, you lose a big client. But the textbooks don’t know anything about 2025.
Here are today’s highlights:
In a recent survey, nearly a quarter of small businesses said they will have to stop offering health coverage for employees.
Josh Patrick isn’t afraid of death, but he says he is afraid of retirement.
Can employing AI in human resources boost employee retention?
Have you considered buying real estate to house your business? When does it make sense?
MANUFACTURING
Karla Trotman writes about what it’s like to run a manufacturing business in 2025: “Here’s the reality: One major customer can shift your entire year’s trajectory. The textbook answer? Cut costs immediately. Lay people off. Protect the bottom line. But here’s what the textbooks don’t account for: my skilled technicians take 6-18 months to train. They can’t be replaced with a job posting. And more fundamentally—they’re not line items on a spreadsheet. They’re people with families, mortgages, lives built around the stability we promised them. So when revenues dropped this year, we didn’t do layoffs. We reduced hours. We absorbed the pain at the business level to protect the people who ARE the business. Was it the ‘smart’ financial move? My cash flow would say otherwise. But my ability to scale back up when orders return—and my conscience—says yes.”
“Relationships that were once the foundation of business are being replaced by procurement departments focused solely on cost. Customers who used to value reliability now lead with “can you sharpen your pencil on this?”
“Tariffs have created chaos nobody talks about. Customers are pausing orders because raw material costs from overseas suppliers keep shifting. Many of these materials simply cannot be made in the U.S. overnight, no matter how high the tariffs rise.”
“Everyone says specialize, find your niche. But when existing customers are cutting spending, you need to diversify to survive. Which is it?” READ MORE
