ABSTRACT
A few months ago I was consulting with a small business owner named Mary who owned a handmade stationery shop in Ohio. She was struggling because her clients were increasingly migrating to more convenient, online options for similar products, and she was only just beginning to establish an online presence. In our conversations, I gave her a number of recommendations on how to compete by making her website more visible to people searching for her products. I spent considerably more time with her than I usually did, and while I tried to maintain professional distance, I could not help but truly empathize with her plight. She had spent her whole life building a business, perfecting her craft, only to have the market shift right before her eyes. What made her competitive before—quality products and a local consumer base—is no longer sufficient in the face of online consumerism, and she felt completely displaced. I have found too many small business owners who feel the same way.
