If running a big retail store is like captaining a cruise liner, then running your own independent shop is more akin to sailing a tiny boat across an unpredictable ocean. It's easy to overlook just how different these two experiences truly are, especially when we're often judged by the same charts and weather forecasts.

A cruise ship carries thousands of people, moves steadily with the help of multiple engines, radar, and a full professional crew. It can power through rough waters with barely a wobble, and there's always someone on duty in the engine room. But when you're in a small boat, perhaps even alone or with just a couple of crew members, every shift in the wind matters. Every decision is yours to make. Every success or failure rests on your shoulders.

That's the reality of small retail.

While the ocean may be the same for all of us - the economy, trends, seasons, and storms - the way we navigate it is wildly different. Big retail is predictable and systemised. It's impressive, sure, but it isn't personal. Nobody stops to applaud when a cruise ship docks. It has all the infrastructure and resources to ensure it arrives exactly where it planned to. That's the job. That's what it's built for.

But someone setting out in a little boat, determined to sail solo around the world? That's brave. That's extraordinary. And when they make it, we celebrate, not because they were the fastest or the most powerful, but because they dared to go at all. They adapted. They endured. They kept going when no one else could steer for them.

That's what independent shopkeepers do every single day.

Yet, we often compare ourselves to those massive ships and wonder why we can't move the same way. Why we don't have the same reach, or resilience, or resources. Why their formulas don't work for us. But the truth is, we're not trying to be like them. We're doing something completely different. Something smaller, yes - but also something far more remarkable.

We are wayfarers.

And wayfarers can't rely on cruise ship manuals. Corporate codes and big-brand blueprints don't help when you're out there alone in your little boat. Not because you're doing something wrong, but because they were never written for the vessel you're in.

Most of us have built our own boat from scratch - often without even realising it. Every plank of it shaped by our own instincts and ideas, our loves and our flaws. Every strength and weakness is of our own making, and sometimes we don't even know what they are. We don't have a team of engineers to assess the structure or tell us where the leaks are. No head office to delegate to. No specialist to patch things up when something breaks.

We are the captain, the crew, the cook, the repair person, the navigator, and the one who gets up again after every storm.

The captain of the cruise liner didn't have to do it all themselves. They didn't come up with the idea for the ship, they didn't take the measurements, draw up the plans, or weld the rivets (or whatever it is shipbuilders do!). And they didn't get to be captain without years of mentoring, feedback and hand-holding. Only then, did they step onto a fully formed ship, with extensive manuals and detailed instructions and a cast of thousands (likewise trained and supported in their turn) to help them navigate and succeed.

That's not like us.

We built our little boats from found materials and hold it together with hope and determination- no rivets here! We have little experience, little training, no mentor, no clue - but we're giving it a go anyway. We jumped in at the deep end and we’re making it all up as we go along. 

And it's brilliant. And it's brave.

And still, we sail.

Over the coming months, I'll be developing this idea more fully in the Smart Shopkeepers Club book. We'll explore how to read the weather, how to make a map that suits your particular boat, and how to choose your route without following someone else's compass. We'll talk about navigating with your values, your customer community, and your own lived experience - not some ex-corporate consultant’s spreadsheet.

Because just getting out there, staying afloat, and making progress in a boat you built yourself? That is already a victory.

You're not just a shopkeeper. You're a wayfarer.

And you're doing something incredibly hard, every single day. I’m here to cheer you on.