I read an article recently that gave 3 reasons for businesses closing when the owner wants to retire:

• internet competition,
• lack of loyalty among younger customers,
• and owners not being able to find a buyer. 

All of these reasons come back to one uncomfortable truth:

The average business owner has been watching the internet come roaring down the track for years and has made little to no effort to figure out how they could use the web to:

• improve their business operations and efficiency,
• increase customer loyalty,
• improve communications with customers,
• reach target markets they could have never dreamed of before, 
• and adapt their business to survive.

With all the talk of the $13.7 billion cash deal for Amazon to buy Whole Foods, most people are just talking about it in relation to the retail industry and what it will mean for its future. I think small business owners should be looking at it to see what they might be able to learn from the deal that can be applied to their own businesses, though.

Having been in the internet industry for 21+ years, I know that everyday business owners can come up with great ideas that transform their businesses and their lifestyles. I've worked with many of them, and have friends who've used the internet to build wildly successful businesses that let them live life on their own terms.

You have to keep your mind open and, more importantly, dare to dream about what you really want out of your business. Here are 4 of the many lessons you can take from the Amazon - Whole Foods deal:

You didn't start your business with dreams of working all the time doing stuff you hate and answering to a ton of bosses, better known as clients, who don't understand what you do but want to tell you how to do it anyway. (whew – run-on sentence!)

Unfortunately, most people who start a business end up in exactly that position, especially if it's a service business. I'll bet you have, too. It's just so easy to get stuck in a rut that it's hard to take a step back and think things through.

Nobody else has the knowledge and experience that you do, though. They may have similar, but they'll never have exactly the same. That's what makes you so valuable to the clients who are the best fit for you to work with and not valuable to those who aren't. And that's great! You only want to work with the ones who fit, right? Unless you're a masochist, I already know the answer is yes.

I just realized this is the second post in a row that uses a rodent as the cover image ;) I promise I'm not like Michael Jackson in the movie Ben! And no animals were hurt in the making of this photo.

If you're like most people, you started out that new website project feeling excited and optimistic.

You couldn't wait to see your shiny new site! Sadly, that feeling often starts to wear off and you're left feeling somewhere on the spectrum between feeling ripped off by the designer you hired and wishing you had known how much work was involved on your side.