Why I Wrote This

I’m getting the same question from nearly every client right now: “What should I be doing?”

And it’s not just business owners asking. Employees are asking it too — people who thought their job was secure, who are watching their industry shift, who are hearing about layoffs and AI and wondering what it means for them.

Should I buy property? Should I invest differently? Should I change my business — or my career? Should I hunker down? Should I expand — or just hold on?

Nobody knows. Including me.

But here’s what I do have that most advisers don’t:

Historical evidence of what happened to small businesses during every major disruption of the last 250 years — and what separated the ones who came through from the ones who didn’t.

Twenty-plus years of working with small business owners through every supposed crisis since 2003.

And specifically — the only strategy that actually works when the world is this uncertain. It’s not mine. Sailors of old lived by it. I lived by it when my doctors and specialists told me I’d never get rid of a degenerative arthritic disease (I found a way). It’s called compass over map — navigating by direction when the terrain is shifting underfoot and no map can be trusted. More on that later.

And if you’re a wage earner reading this — don’t switch off because you think you’re not in business. Everything in this guide applies to you too. Part 11 explains why. Stay with me.

So no. I don’t know exactly what to do. But I know what the evidence says. I know what the patterns show. I have a strategy that works when nothing else does. And I trust my own judgement enough to share it — because right now, the people who are supposed to be helping aren’t saying anything useful.

This isn’t optimism. It isn’t pessimism. It’s pattern recognition. And some of those patterns are uncomfortable.

So I’m setting out a series of very helpful things you can think about, do, take action on, and talk with me anytime about these.