As I write this post, I lament the end of a bag of granola I had purchased in Vermont on vacation.   Silly you! You might say.  Why not just order online for them again?  It’s so easy for us to assume that any retailer would have an online store, or at least a website that would tell us how to get the product you want.  That’s not the case here.  I bought this bag at a farmer’s market and the gentleman who sold it to me said that they don’t have a website because “they are afraid that people will buy”.  After a hearty laugh, I realized that his sense for his business is right on.  How much would they have to make if people could buy their product online?  How would their business and their life change?  Did they want that change?

I’ll probably never know the answers to these questions, though I am very glad to have met the seller. He gave me a fresh reminder of how important it is for a business owner to know the limits of their business and the limit to which they are willing to take it.