“Check your blind spots.”

I can still smell the Ben-Gay cream wafting over from my driving instructor, reminding me that I need to have my head on a swivel, seeing as how we’re hurdling onto the freeway at what felt like about a million miles per hour.

Little did 15-1/2 year old me know that he was dropping some serious wisdom about life, love, finance, business, and personal development.

He was right. We have to check our blind spots.

One of my business partners has a fantastic mind for operations. In our business, he set up a Project Management System that pretty much ran our entire business.

System reports gave us valuable insight into what the team was working on, what our pipeline of work looked like, and what the future held for the business.

Gantt charts, pie charts, and other visual data displays helped the management team make important decisions.

The system had a dashboard to immediately diagnose and triage potential problems lying ahead, such as low sales or overloaded fulfillment.

We all need to have visibility into our businesses.

New year, new you – how are you going to gain better visibility into your blind spots in 2026?

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

Simon is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

A healthy business can radically change lives.

A business has the ability to create tremendous leverage that individuals just can’t do alone. The impact can be far reaching – sometimes farther than you can even imagine.

From your customers to your employees, to yourself and your own family – even entire communities have been reclaimed, revived, and redeemed by a strong and thriving business.

Here is one man’s story about reviving a small town in the Deep South from boarded-up and run-down, to not just surviving but thriving:

Your business could have the potential to impact not just your life, but the lives of your employees, customers, suppliers, and your entire community.

Get on a mission of redemptification.

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

Simon is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

Commodity wars are a bloodbath.

Everybody selling the same thing, competing on price, driving margins to just-a-hair-above-zero… it’s a losing battle for all involved. A war of attrition.

If you are in a commodity war, then raising prices might be a death sentence without clearly adding value.

You absolutely have to be aware of what your competition has to offer and how far you can push your customers before they jump ship and go for the cheaper option.

One antidote to a commodity war is a strong brand.

Investing in your brand, and helping people connect with something bigger than just the product itself, is a way to opt out of a commodity war.

A brand is simply a relationship that you can nurture between your audience, and what they perceive your company to be.

Another antidote is an extremely high level of service.

Responsiveness, customer service, friendliness and consistently delivering promises can provide enough value to justify a higher cost for the exact same product. I have experienced this in my own business journey.

I have won business time after time in a commodity market simply by answering the phone and being as helpful as I can, while my competitors screen their calls with voicemail.

Both of these tactics can be boiled down to this: relationship.

Take care of your relationships, and grow your business.

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

Simon is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

It’s 1997. Summer time. Friday night. Where are you going?

I’ll tell you where I would be found: Blockbuster Video.

Blockbuster was deeply a part of American culture in the 1980’s and 90’s. The latest movies lined the walls, along with your favorite classics, video games, even popcorn and candy were all right there at hand for some weekend fun.

Blockbuster had over 9,000 locations in its day.

That’s pretty wild. How did that even happen?

With the invention of the VCR, every town across this land had video rental stores. They were independently owned and operated, started by enthusiastic and adventurous types that were eager to be on the local forefront of technology and entertainment.

Blockbuster accomplished their world take-over by “Rolling Up” mom-and-pop video stores into the Blockbuster brand.

When a household brand name and offers to buy you out, it’s easy to say “yes”. Your store gets better systems and processes, a fresh look, your customers have more options and a better experience – this Roll Up was a win-win all around.

Roll Ups are not uncommon, but Blockbuster took this trail into the stratosphere.

(Before they were left behind by the digital age, that is.)

If you have a strong brand, a Roll Up could be the right strategy to take your business to the next level.

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

This is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

I have been invited behind the curtain of hundreds of small businesses.

At least 400 by last count.

That comes from decades of helping to turning around businesses, especially when it comes to marketing.

Because of this, I have had too many conversations to count with small business owners who don’t know what to do next to save their business, to grow their business, or to save themselves from inevitable burnout or even financial ruin.

Honestly business owners can usually rattle off a few really good ways to grow that they’ve already been thinking about. But if asked to write down a half dozen or more, they often hit a wall.

What if you had a set of trail maps to navigate the wilderness of your future? What if you were empowered to build enough margin in your business to tap back into the passion that got you started in the first place?

That’s why I created Profit Hiker.

My heart is for small business owners like you: supporting your family, your customers, your employees, and your community – against all odds.

It’s really hard to see the forest through the trees when you’re hiking your trail (especially if you’re looking at your boots).

As your trail guide I’m here to help point the way.

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

This is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

Vertical Integration is when you acquire (or become) a supplier or customer of your current business. It is growth via supply chain.

Here are the 3 most common ways for a small business to vertically integrate:

1. Buy a building and become your own landlord.

2. Start a new business that becomes a supplier of your current business.

3. Look for a business to buy that is already a supplier.

The most common way that a small business Vertically Integrates is by buying a building rather than leasing space. Real estate is generally a much safer integration than buying or building another business.

Vertical integration is an immediate win/win. Both businesses benefit right away.

Typically the downstream business (the one closer to the end customer), will get better products, terms or service. Meanwhile the upstream business will get a reliable customer relationship.

Warning: Vertical Integration is an expert-level hike. I call them “Class 3” hikes in my program, and they’re not for everybody.

However, when you bolt together two businesses like this, it opens up a lot of options for growth on both ends of the deal.

Think vertical.

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

This is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

Time to rethink the future of your business.

Imagine this: you can stay in the same industry, even the same niche. Except instead of serving the end customer, you’re leveraging your years of knowledge and expertise to serve people just like you.

This is the “Picks and Axes” approach to your industry.

During the California Gold Rush, thousands upon thousands of prospectors traveled west with every last dime they had, geared up and headed for the hills to strike it rich.

Most failed, and ended up broke and tired after years of work. A few did strike gold, and even out of that bunch very few actually set up successful mining companies that flourished in the following decades.

The real winners of the Gold Rush were the companies that supplied the prospectors.

These people needed to buy picks and axes, shovels, mules, lumber, hardware, clothing, food, tents, and so on.

Levi Strauss & Company was one of the winners of this era, supplying quality workwear to the folks flooding into Northern California who spent all of their money on a hope and a dream.

There are “Picks and Axes” opportunities in every industry.

How can you reinvent the way your business operates and increase the value it’s adding to the world?

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

This is from Trail 9 of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

I was completely turned around.

The last (and final) time I hiked without a trail map was a few years ago on the Cross Timbers Trail on the Texas/Oklahoma border.

The Cross Timbers Trail is a 14 mile long backpack-able trail along the shore of the (regionally) famous Lake Texoma. It’s a beautiful hike any time of the year, weaving you in and out of gullies, over ridges and saddles, down to the shore and back up again into the woods over and over.

Being a very popular trail, I didn’t even look at the map before I went, despite there being an extremely detailed, full color, 5-foot-wide graphical map at the trailhead. It’s an out-and-back hike, it follows the lake, and it’s very well maintained by both the lake authority and a “friends of the trail” volunteer group.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, I had to learn my lesson once again in life, that as Ben Franklin quipped, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

Long story short, I zigged when I should have zagged. Even with brightly colored orange trail blazes tacked to trees, I made a wrong turn on a shortcut and ended up hiking in a circle for about 20 minutes. Twice. (it hurts to admit that part). As I scrambled to update my AllTrails app with low cell signal, I eventually took a leap of faith and went the opposite direction that I thought I should go, and found the trail back to the parking lot.

It really really really… really… helps to know before you go.

That’s why the first step of your hike is to study.

Before you make a move to unlock profit in your business, make sure you know that trail well before you go. Research how other people have hiked that journey, what worked and what didn’t, and make sure you can identify pitfalls (before you fall in).

There are 11 trails in the Profit Hiker program, and here is what I recommend for people who have made it through each trail’s information:

Give each trail one full hour a day, for the next 2 weeks. Commit to 11 full hours of trail studying to change the future of your business forever. Treat each trail like it might be the one to unlock greatness. Create space to explore each idea to its fullest. Get creative.

Knowledge is power.

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

This is from Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

It’s cold out there…

(“Okay campers, rise, and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cold out there…” “it's cold out there every day.” “Of course it’s cold out there, what is this Miami Beach?”

Ok – enough Bill Murray humor, back to the regular scheduled programming)

And now that it’s colder, it’s time to bundle up.

I’m a fan of the cold weather personally… I like layering up and feeling the cold wind on my face. As long as I have the right gear, that is.

The other day I noticed the perfect bundle for bundling at a clothing retailer: A winter hat, gloves, and scarf all in the same package. It stands to reason that if you’re buying one of these items, you’re going to need the others too. And if they come together then they can match and you look more “put together” than a random ensemble of items you found in that one box in the attic hastily labeled “winter”.

This is a classic business tactic that can turn one sale into multiple sales at the same time, while providing tremendous value to your customers. You can package related products or services into a discounted set (and give it a catchy name).

Bundles are a fantastic way to introduce your customers to new products they didn’t even know they needed.

What are you going to turn into a bundle this week?

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

This is from Trail 8 of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

Before YouTube became a household name it was a video dating site.

Yep, 👉️ that kind of video dating.

The awkward, amateur, man-on-a-stool, cheesy backdrop, talking at the camera as though she were the woman of your dreams, trying to convince the world that you are attractive, video dating.

YouTube was that.

People who were looking to get a date were able to post videos of themselves, describing who they are and what they’re looking for in a mate.

The only problem was… nobody used it! The novel technology allowing users to upload and publish their own videos had been built, but the brand didn’t have a good audience.

The founders made the decision to scrap the dating concept and open the platform up. Anybody could now post any video for any reason and share it with the world.

They expanded their demographic from single adults to the general public and sold for over a billion dollars the very next year.

Talk about an epic pivot.

With that in mind, I have just one simple question for you today:

Who would love to buy what you have, but don’t know you even exist?

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

This is from Trail 7 of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

Do you know what it takes to be a hiker?

All you have to do is start hiking! If you are hiking a flat, half-mile trail around a pond, you are a hiker. If you are climbing Mount Everest, you are a hiker.

(And when your hike is finished, aren’t you always glad you did it?)

At Profit Hiker, we use hiking as a metaphor for building your business (the right way), because hiking takes effort AND hiking is worth it. So is your business.

In the Profit Hiker book and program, I lay out the 11 different trails that you can take to make your business more profitable. Not necessarily BIGGER or more noticeable, but specifically more profitable.

Once you have the trail map and know where the trailhead is, it’s up to you to take the journey.

So when should you do it, and how long should it take? That answer depends entirely on your specific situation. The hike, the trail and the hiker will always be different, but the hiking process is always the same.

Here are the steps a hiker needs to take in order to embark on a new journey:

1. Study the trails

2.  Pick a trail

3. Prepare for the hike

4. Find the trailhead

5. Start hiking

You might have some ideas cooking already about a trail you need to take, inspired by the journeys that other businesses have taken (or by my book or program!). If that is you, that’s fantastic – don’t lose this mental momentum. Pick that trail and start planning.

Time to gear up.

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

This is from Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

1990’s Mel Gibson was hard to beat.

As a middle-aged man, I can tell you this because I lived it.

He was absolutely at the top of his game. We were still in the power band of the Lethal Weapon franchise, along with other thrillers like Ransom, the hilarious and epic western Maverick, and of course – one of my top 5 movies of all time – Braveheart (which took home enough hardware in 1996 to open an ACE franchise).

Wrapping up the decade was The Patriot. Admittedly, it had a strong “Braveheart Comes To America” energy to it, but it will still get any red-blooded American’s heart pumping for the sake of liberty (watch it again and prove me wrong).

One of my favorite moments in the movie was when Gibson’s character was teaching his son to shoot, and impressed this saying on his mind:

“Aim small, miss small”.

The idea is that you don’t aim at your target, you aim at a bullet-sized spot on your target. If you miss from that point, you still hit the target.

I’ve found this to be true in hunting.

If you find yourself in a field hunting dove and have a group of 6 or 7 birds come within range together, it’s really easy to get excited and aim at the middle of the group, but that only works if you get lucky (and luck is not a strategy).

Any guide, outfitter, or experienced hunter will tell you that you need to pick one bird at a time, lead the beak, fire your shot, follow through, then pick the next bird. That is how you are successful in bird hunting.

The same is true in your business.

Stay On Target

If your marketing is not well targeted, you can dump a lot of money with little-to-no return. You have to aim small.

Are you reaching the right people?

Who are they? In marketing it’s called your customer “archetype” or “avatar.” Describe their daily life, such as occupation, hobbies, and relationships.

Give them a real life name. Create a narrative for Dale, or Karina, or Andre, or whatever your customer’s name is. Where did they grow up? How do they celebrate the holiday season? Do they have a spouse and children? What do they do when their calendar is wide open?

Then when you go to buy marketing, make sure that no matter what, every single effort (and dollar) is going in front of Hayden (or Aiden, or Brayden, or… you get the drift).

Aim small, miss small.

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

This is from Trail 6 of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

“Jenny has dysentery.”

Oof. Sucks for Jenny.

On the Oregon Trail (the actual trail, not the amazing two-tone computer game that consumed untold hours of my youth giving my classmates rural diseases), it was easy to follow the road. Particularly because it was several feet deep.

So many thousands of wagons had traveled across the open prairie land that the heavy wagons had cut deep ruts into the topsoil.

Like… three feet deep.

Near the end of the westward migration, the ruts were pretty much too deep to travel on.

Talk about stuck in a rut… (I’m a dad. I have a license to issue that joke.)

But that is what happens when we don’t rethink our trails from time to time, isn’t it? Ruts so deep that they become a hinderance, even though they may have at one point been the path of least resistance.

Here’s the one question to ask yourself today to save you countless hours moving forward in your business:

What repetitive tasks do I find myself doing every day?

It’s easy to find yourself in a rut, but investing in systems yield payoff after payoff. Author Jon Acuff calls a system a “win repeater”. Systems don’t have to be complicated, but they do need to eliminate redundancy.

You’ll feel immediate relief, and enjoy the long-term benefits as well. It can be a fantastic investment into your business.

Think about the relief your team would feel if you built a system that replaced the most repetitive processes or boring tasks. Boosted morale now, both from your team and yourself. Profit in the long run.

Ruts happen.

Find a new road.

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

This is from Trail 5 of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

Have you ever had “that one friend”?

The one who can pick up a new hobby in about 5 minutes, and be better than you after a year of trying really hard?

Sometimes it feels like the game of life comes easier to some than others.

But that’s a lie.

The truth is, nobody is perfect. Not even close. Everybody has shortcomings, just some of us are better at hiding them than others.

Here’s another truth: running a business is not for everyone.

It’s not for the weak, it’s not for the quitters, it’s not for the get-rich-quick schemers. Running a business is hard. Running a profitable business is even harder.

These are the characteristics of a Profit Hiker:

1. Vision: imagination meets wisdom

2. Bravery: courage despite fear

3. Planning: accounting for adversity

4. Commitment: promise made and a promise kept

5. Grit: that “no-quit” attitude

6. Heart: a wellspring of positivity

If you don’t have all of these characteristics naturally, worry not – I don’t think any one person has all of them.

The good news is that you can practice and develop these characteristics. You can exercise any of these muscles. You can work to make your weaknesses stronger.

In my program, I call this “cross-training”, and I have some inspiring stories on how to make that happen in your own life.

Until next time…

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

This is from Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

“She’s just not into you, dude.”

It was right in front of my face the whole time, but my starry-eyed, rose-glassed self just couldn’t see it. Probably… because I didn’t want to.

Sometimes we’re really good at seeing what we want to, and not seeing what we don’t want to see.

Ever felt that way in your business?

You have to learn how to shake that optimism sometimes. It’s a healthy tension. You’re never going to achieve balance in any area of your life, but you’ll experience a lot of tension. Learn to love it and live in it. Feel tension between optimism and pessimism, live in that tension, and don’t get pulled too far to one side or the other.

Especially when you’re trying to make radical changes.

Optimizing your business is no simple matter. Maybe there are some quick wins you can find, but if you’re truly trying to fine-tune your business machine, it’s going to take some serious scrutiny.

Watch your business work as a curious outsider without emotional involvement. Identify friction points at every level of operation, document them well, and address the team with observations. A lot of times, your team can weigh in on areas to improve, or what might be a disastrous change waiting to happen.

Step outside of yourself, and make some radical changes!

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

Simon is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

The $4.99 rotisserie chicken at Costco is legendary.

It is a wildly popular dinner-in-a-box that makes for a quick, hot meal.

The chicken had been a loss leader for years, meaning that Costco lost money on that sale for the opportunity to get a customer in the door. They were fine losing 50 cents a bird just to get foot traffic that they couldn’t get otherwise.

It is brilliantly placed at the back of the store, requiring that you have to walk past a hundred yards of irresistible merchandise to get it. Costco knew that if they could get you in the door, that you would buy more than just the chicken. In fact, shoppers would commonly walk in to buy a chicken and walk out with a cart full of hundreds of dollars of merchandise.

Despite this brilliantly simple loss leader technique, it was time for a change.

A few years ago, they decided to not lose money on the chicken anymore and invested in the chicken supply chain throughout the Midwest. They built and financed untold numbers of gigantic buildings for farmers, developed the meat packing systems, and knocked a whole dollar off of their cost.

This effort resulted in a $90 million bump to the bottom line!

What an incredible way to turn a loss into a win.

What loss leader is hiding in your business, that can become a profit center?

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

Simon is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

If you’ve ever flown in a commercial airliner, you are familiar with the pre-flight safety instructions.

They’re the same for each of the more than 45,000 passenger flights per day in America. Seatbelts, no smoking, floatation devices, exit doorways – you know the drill. What always stands out to me in the routine is the instruction for oxygen masks.

As they say, “In the event of a change in cabin pressure” (or as comedian George Carlin quipped, “when the roof flies off”), an oxygen mask will appear from the compartment above you.

The next instruction is key: put on your own mask before helping others. Why is that such an important instruction? Because we can’t help anyone if we’re suffocating.

Taking care of our own health is what gives us the ability to help others. This is especially true in business.

One thing is for certain: a struggling business doesn’t have that same leverage.

Businesses that are sucking wind are filled with panic, fear, and anxiety. There is a looming sense of inescapable doom that makes thriving nearly impossible.

Sound familiar?

If you take care of yourself, then you’ll be able to take care of everyone around you.

Profit is your oxygen mask.

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

Simon is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

Go mining for profit that might be lying dormant all around you…

Reducing your costs is a reliable trail towards better profit. When taking this trail, you should look at all of your costs, and start with the largest first.

Typically, this will include:

• Building Lease

• Your Team

• Cost of Goods Sold

For many small businesses, these will be the top three cost centers.

You’re not going to slash those expenses out completely, but you might have more wiggle room than you think.

Saving a small percentage of a big expense is worth more than trying to save on a bunch of small expenses – so focus on the primary ones first and foremost.

You don’t need to be a financial expert. Just take a look at your most recent bank statement and question everything.

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

Simon is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

While most small business owners immediately turn to sales and marketing, typically the lowest hanging fruit for profitability is going to be on your operations side.

If your audience knows you, loves you, and trusts you then you can probably raise your prices right now.

This is how you make your business more profitable without growing.

Raising prices is all about expectations and value. If the perceived value that the shopper is expecting from you meets or exceeds the price of the product or service, then they will consider purchasing it.

In the words of Warren Buffet–one of the most successful investors of all time– “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” ⁹

Amidst inflation and higher cost of fuel (not to mention building materials like steel and lumber), everyone has adjusted to prices to raise on everything. If you haven’t raised your prices in a while, your time to do that is right now.

When was the last time you raised prices?

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

Simon is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.

When I merged my service business with another one, my new business partner approached me with a plan to raise prices on my clients to get them up to speed with the rest of the clients.

I had been a self-employed, solo practitioner working out of my spare bedroom and had nearly zero overhead (I even had a milk crate as a desk chair for a while, there).

Now I had an office with employees and everything that comes with that – a legion of computer hardware, desks, printers, on and on and on.

But I also had a new world of services to offer, and much more bandwidth. In other words, I had created a lot of value for my clients overnight.

On paper, it’s an easy choice, but it can be difficult to actually reach out to someone and let them know that I am now expensive.

In this case, I was raising prices by over 50%, and I was really concerned about losing customers, or at least making them upset. I had been their trusted advisor, walking side-by-side with them in their business growth, but I knew it was time.

It was a simple decision, but it turns out it was difficult to actually take that trail.

In the end, I didn’t lose one client with the price raise. 

The strong relationships I had built really helped us kick off our business together. Customer service, providing loads of value all the time, and helping their businesses grow paid off when I needed it.

How are you going to strengthen your customer relationships this week?

Onward and upward, Simon Trask (I’m a small business owner, advisor, and advocate – learn more here)

Simon is author and founder of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.