Failure is…Iron insanity…
Failure is…An option
Whenever we consider a taking a big step it’s both natural and frankly prudent to have some trepidations. Take that decision you made to initially go into the business as an owner. You probably fretted over it because you knew that many, or even most, new business ventures end in failure. And the truth is there’s a lot of data that corroborates that belief.
What that data doesn’t show however, are the number of those failed attempts that are the result of two very common problems. The first is that the startup is the brainchild of a person with little or no experience in that particular business.
Think of the budding restaurateur whose primary foodservice experience is eating in restaurants. Or the person who’s somewhat knowledgeable about the business they want to start but lack any practical knowledge about actually running a business. In a lot of those failures it’s often both of those weaknesses operating at the same time!
Given the percentage of startups that fall in those two problem areas it’s little wonder then that so many fail. But in your situation, you knew the business and understood at least the basics of running a business- ergo your success. So as you consider that new idea … like getting into low temp rentals or adding a new line or service to your portfolio, go ahead and fret a little. But unless you have one of the big weaknesses, you’ll probably be just fine.
Iron insanity…And avoiding it
The presence of dissolved iron in the water we use to wash dishes and linens can be a particular pain in the neck. That includes the sometimes-tricky issue of dealing with it after diagnosing it.
Once we’ve confirmed its presence, we have to adapt to it versus fighting it. The operative word here really is adapt, because we need to avoid taking steps that can aggravate the tendency for that dissolved elemental ion (chemical symbol FE) to precipitate and cause even more mayhem.
The worst of those errors is to use chlorine. It only takes a smidge of it to make iron drop out of the water like the proverbial rock. So that chlorinated solid detergent we rely on every day to deliver sparkling tableware and stain free coffee cups is exactly what we don’t want to use. Likewise in the laundry, chlorine – our old and pretty low use cost stain remover, is an equally bad idea.
Indeed the library of old soaper tales is replete with stories about the guy who chased a coffee cup stain problem with repeated attempts to remove those “stains” with gallons of bleach – only to see it get even worse.
Next up: A better solution.