Allow Me to Translate

Four business mistakes.

Probably the finest dovetail template to ever grace the workbenches of the best woodworkers on the most uber planet in our here solar system. I reckon.

I have studied small businesses ever since I began selling “jewelry” made from bits of bark and mulch to the kids in the neighborhood when I was 11. That also was the year I started my counterfeiting business (we made $100 bills from scratch), which lasted about a week (no federal charges were filed).

John Economaki, the founder of Bridge City Tools, once told me something true after we’d had a couple of beers: “Nobody else’s business makes a bit of sense. I don’t know how the hell anyone else stays in business.”

I agree. But that doesn’t stop me from studying all the small businesses in my town. And, of course, woodworking and toolmaking businesses. I am fascinated by how they work (or don’t).

After studying businesses and their messaging, I have found a lot of red flags that are consistent from one crappy business to another soon-to-be-s…