When my wife and I bought 14 acres of land in Coshocton recently, we had considered buying a lawn tractor.  But because it was quite a few acres, I felt like it needed to be a larger lawn tractor.  Many of my friends disagreed.  They told me, over and over, that I would need a tractor with a front loader in order to keep up with the basic maintenance of the property.

I pushed back, thinking it was overkill.  Who am I to drive a tractor anyway?  I didn’t even know exactly what a front loader did!  But over and over, my friends told me I would need it.

My friends were right.

As Amy and I work around the new property, there is a need for the larger tractor and the front loader nearly every day.  My friends knew something I didn’t know.  When it comes to caring for a property that size, you need the proper tools.  Trees fall.  Things happen.  It’s predictable.  And therein lies the business lesson today.

The predictable should be prepared for.

I am a very optimistic guy.  But the reality is, sometimes things go wrong.  Often, they are predictable.  At some point, the roof of your home will need to be replaced.  You know it’s coming.  It’s predictable.  So you need to be prepared for it.

The same is true in our business lives.  There are things that are inevitable.  The economy will go up and down.  We need to be prepared to succeed anyway.  Employees will leave.  You will need to be prepared to onboard new ones.  Customers will leave…and you need to be ready to replace them.

These things are all predictable.  We might avoid thinking about them because they are not fun.

Sometimes, entrepreneurs can be overly optimistic.  We tend to think about the upside.  While it’s great to think it’s always going to be sunny, it’s important to be ready for the rain.

Because someday it’s going to rain.

The predictable should be prepared for.

Want to be more prepared?  Check out Better Business University.  We have a new course on how to succeed in the Promotional Products business.  If you want to onboard new team members (or up your own game), check out the course here.