Why I Told a Business Owner Not to Hire Us

Last year, I had a call with a potential client that perfectly illustrates why the logistics partner you choose matters more than you might think.

He sells outdoor leisure equipment manufactured in China — like most of his competitors. He was already distributing from the West Coast and was exploring opening an East Coast fulfillment center with us when the tariff crisis hit.

Now he's facing an impossible choice.

It costs significantly more per unit to get goods into the country. He's thinking very carefully about how much inventory to bring in, caught between two options that are both bad:

Option 1: Commit to bringing in several containers now. Risk: if tariffs drop right after, he's burned precious cash for no reason.

Option 2: Wait and see what happens. Risk: competitors who keep importing will capture his market share while he sits on the sidelines.

Here's the harsh reality I shared with him.

He can't protect both margin AND market share. He has to choose.

If he holds out, he'll protect margin — but he'll lose market share to competitors who keep bringing goods in. And as any experienced entrepreneur knows, it's a lot easier to lose market share than win it back.

If he pulls the trigger and brings in more inventory, he'll sacrifice margin. He may even take a small loss when all is said and done. But if he has the cash reserves to see it through, and his competitors are more cautious, he could come out of this with significantly more market share than he went in with.

In that scenario, the small loss becomes very, very cheap marketing.

My advice to him? Hold off on the East Coast expansion and use that capital to build up West Coast inventory more aggressively instead. Seize market share while the competition hesitates.

Yes, this means we won't be doing business together for a while.

But when we are ready to have that conversation, his business will be so much more prosperous for it — and we all end up winning more in the end.

These decisions aren't easy. And they highlight why it matters to be surrounded by partners who think about your long-term prosperity, rather than vendors who are only thinking about their next invoice.

S.