Small Business Simplified

Most small business owners worry about emailing their list too much during the holidays, and the research says most of us are barely emailing at all.

In this episode, Karin Velez walks you through what goes into a holiday email sequence that drips out over the whole quarter, from the first warm up email in October to the thank you that closes out the year. You'll learn the four phases of a holiday email drip and what to send in each one, a week by week rhythm for how many emails to send as the season builds, and how many to send during the Black Friday through Giving Tuesday sales push.

Then Karin shares the real numbers on unsubscribes, spam complaints, and what shoppers say they want, plus four simple ways to stay welcome in the inbox.

Let's get into it.

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References and Resources:

1. Validity, Holiday 2026 Consumer Survey (reported by MediaPost, September 30, 2026)

Validity's survey of 1,000 consumers is the most current look at how shoppers feel about holiday email.

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/418411/holiday-glut-shoppers-are-overwhelmed-with-commer.html

2. MailerLite, Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry and Region for 2026

Drawn from 3.6 million campaigns, MailerLite's benchmark report provides the 0.22 percent median unsubscribe rate for 2025 and documents how Gmail's one click unsubscribe change raised the rate from 0.08 percent the year before.

https://www.mailerlite.com/blog/email-marketing-benchmarks

3. SmartrMail, Email Frequency Statistics From Small and Medium Merchants

SmartrMail's analysis of its own merchant base, mostly small and medium businesses, shows most merchants send one to four campaigns a month while the best open results come from four to eight a month.

https://www.smartrmail.com/blog/?p=4526

4. Practical Ecommerce, How to Determine Email Frequency for Maximum Revenue (Return Path study)

This article summarizes Return Path's study of 600,000 inboxes, which found subscribers receiving three emails a week instead of two opened 43 percent more emails in aggregate with a similar lift in revenue. It also recommends tracking unsubscribe rate as frequency increases.

https://www.practicalecommerce.com/How-to-Determine-Email-Frequency-for-Maximum-Revenue

5. Attentive, Frequency. Data Backed Guidelines for BFCM

Attentive's holiday sending guide recommends ramping email volume up gradually ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, noting that sudden spikes in email carry more consequences than other channels, and that varied content justifies higher frequency.

https://www.attentive.com/guides/frequency-data-backed-guidelines-for-bfcm

6. Klaviyo, Little Sleepies BFCM Case Study

Klaviyo's case study documents how Little Sleepies sent email daily during its Black Friday sale, sent a second campaign on the first and last day only to engaged non-buyers, and grew BFCM email revenue 138.2 percent year over year.

https://www.klaviyo.com/customers/case-studies/little-sleepies-bfcm

7. Omnisend, Black Friday and Cyber Monday Email Results

Omnisend's BFCM report on its merchants found that automated emails such as welcome series and abandoned cart flows made up about 3 percent of November sends but accounted for 30 percent of email orders.

https://www.omnisend.com/blog/early-bfcm-sales/

8. Sender, New Google and Yahoo Rules for Bulk Email Senders

This overview explains the Gmail and Yahoo sender requirements in effect since February 2024, including keeping spam complaint rates below 0.3 percent with 0.1 percent as the healthy target.

https://www.sender.net/blog/new-google-rules-for-bulk-email-senders/

You probably have fewer working days left in 2026 than you think. When I counted mine, three months turned into thirty-eight days. In this episode, I walk you through a Real-Days Plan, a simple way to plan a short Q4 without overcommitting.

You’ll learn how to count your real working days, pick the one number that matters most between now and the end of the year, choose two projects you can finish by December 18, and park everything else on a Not Until January list.

Along the way, I share the research on why we underestimate our time and why writing down a plan helps our brains let go of unfinished goals. You’ll leave with a one-page plan that fits your real calendar and lets you rest over the holidays without the guilt.

Pull up a seat and let’s get into it.

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References and Resources:

1. Buehler, Griffin, and Ross (1994), Exploring the Planning Fallacy, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

This foundational study found that people consistently underestimate how long their own tasks will take, even when they remember similar tasks running late.

https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.3.366

2. Locke and Latham (2002), Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation, American Psychologist

This summary of 35 years of goal-setting research shows that specific, challenging goals lead to better performance than vague goals.

https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705

3. C. Northcote Parkinson (1955), Parkinson’s Law, The Economist

Parkinson’s original essay introduced the idea that work expands to fill the time available for it.

https://www.economist.com/news/1955/11/19/parkinsons-law

4. Masicampo and Baumeister (2011), Consider It Done! Plan Making Can Eliminate the Cognitive Effects of Unfulfilled Goals, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

This series of experiments showed that unfinished goals create intrusive thoughts, and that making a specific plan for them reduces that mental pull.

https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024192

5. Dai, Milkman, and Riis (2014), The Fresh Start Effect, Management Science

This research shows that people are more motivated to pursue goals after temporal landmarks like the start of a new year.

https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1901

6. Peter Gollwitzer (1999), Implementation Intentions, American Psychologist

Gollwitzer’s work shows that deciding in advance how you will respond to a specific situation greatly increases follow-through.

https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493

The first thirty seconds a new customer spends with your business carries more weight than the months of marketing that got them to call, click or walk in. The time and money you spent on your website, your social posts, your reviews, your referrals, all of it builds up to this very first moment, and this one moment decides whether any of it pays off.

In this episode:

• Understand why the first 30 seconds of a new customer's first contact decides whether they keep going

• Recognize the three rapid judgments every new customer makes without realizing it

• See why those judgments are emotional before they're rational

• Learn how to run a 10-minute First Impression Test on your own business this week

• Leave with real fixes for the breakdown points that cost you customers before they've even become customers

Let's get into it.

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You don’t need a nonstop content machine to market your small business. In this episode, learn why naming your marketing goal and choosing your platform on purpose comes before any tactic, then walk through four low cost and free strategies, from QR codes on printed materials to answering questions in the communities your customers already visit.

You don’t need to operate your own version of a content studio for your business. You need a clear goal, one or two platforms you can show up on consistently, whether that’s online or in person, and a handful of tactics that fit into the pockets of time you already have.

Let's get into it!

Need more? Head to https://GrowthTableSBC.com for all the ways to reach me and to sign up for my twice-monthly newsletter, From the Table.

Do you know what your customers want, or do you just think you do?

In this episode, Karin Velez breaks down a simple, low-cost process for getting direct customer feedback, and why it might be the fastest way to grow a tiny business. You'll learn why your loudest customers and your best customers are rarely the same people, a ten-minute method for finding your true best customers in your own sales data, and the three questions that turn a ten-minute phone call into real marketing, product, and pricing insight.

Karin also shares the story of a small business that discovered its actual customer base looked nothing like what the founder assumed, and what changed once she found out.

Pull up a seat at the table and let's get into it.

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References and Resources:

1. Richelle DeVoe, Entrepreneur, "Looking For A Million-Dollar Idea? This 3-Step Process Will Help You Find One"

The primary source for the three-question customer interview process discussed in this episode, including the compression sock company example.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/how-to-survey-your-customers-to-understand-what-they-really/430260

2. Graham Kenny, Harvard Business Review, "Customer Surveys Are No Substitute for Actually Talking to Customers"

Establishes why open-ended, in-depth customer interviews outperform multiple choice surveys for genuine insight, and why a small number of real conversations often reveals more than large-scale survey data.

https://hbr.org/2019/01/customers-surveys-are-no-substitute-for-actually-talking-to-customers

If you have a client list, a rate sheet, and you still feel like everything depends on you showing up every single day, this episode explains why. Karin Velez draws the real line between freelancing and running a one-person business, walks you through a three-question self-audit to find out which one you're actually operating right now, and hands you the three systems worth building first to make a change.

Pull up a seat at the table and let's get into it.

Resource:

Get on the email list: GrowthTableSBC.com

Freedom Online, The Operator's Guide to a One Person Business

This 2026 guide lays out the core distinction this episode is built around, that freelancing trades time for money without leverage while a one-person business builds systems that deliver outcomes and prices those outcomes instead of the hours behind them. It's the blog I referenced in the episode.

https://findfreedomonline.com/blog/one-person-business

Anthropic Academy

Anthropic's free lessons on working with Claude are a practical starting point for solopreneurs who want to use AI to build real systems. Claude is the tool I use for behind-the-scenes systems in my businesses.

https://www.anthropic.com/learn

Working from home is a genuine advantage for your output and your budget, and this episode makes the research case for both. But that same freedom is exactly what makes consistent hours so easy to skip, and skipping them steadily feeds the burnout and decision fatigue we covered in the last two episodes of this series. Karin Velez walks through why consistent hours protect your productivity, your work-life balance, and your client relationships, even when your hours look nothing like a traditional 8 to 5. You'll hear the science behind chronotypes and why fighting your natural rhythm backfires. Pull up a seat at the table and let's get into it.

Resources

Newsletter sign up: https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1469082/175343432367081028/share

Growth Table Small Business Collective: https://growthtablesbc.com

References

1. Nicholas Bloom, Stanford University - Remote Work Productivity Research

Bloom's ongoing research on remote and hybrid work, tracked since 2012, has found that fully remote employees complete individual tasks with fewer interruptions and greater environmental control than in-office counterparts.

https://siepr.stanford.edu

2. Global Workplace Analytics - Remote Work Cost Savings Research

Global Workplace Analytics has published widely cited estimates on the overhead savings available to businesses and individuals through remote work, including reduced commuting, food, and clothing costs, and the availability of home office tax deductions for the self-employed.

https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com

3. James Clear - Willpower, Decision Fatigue, and Atomic Habits

Clear's writing on decision fatigue, drawing on research into willpower as a depleting resource, informs the connection this episode draws between inconsistent hours and the daily accumulation of small, tiring decisions.

https://jamesclear.com/willpower-decision-fatigue

4. American Psychological Association (APA) - Burnout and Recovery Research

The APA's ongoing research on burnout among self-employed workers documents the cognitive and emotional costs of work without clear boundaries.

https://www.apa.org/topics/healthy-workplaces/work-stress

5. Robin Waite - The Psychology of Client Trust in Professional Services

This research-grounded piece on client trust in professional services establishes that credibility earns the first engagement, but consistency, including response times and dependable delivery, is what sustains client relationships over time.

https://www.robinwaite.com/blog/the-psychology-of-client-trust-in-professional-services

6. UCLA Health - Chronotype and Circadian Rhythm Research

UCLA Health's overview of chronotype research explains that a person's natural sleep and wake preference is tied to their circadian rhythm and determines their peak time for concentration and performance.

https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/early-bird-or-night-owl-how-your-chronotype-affects-your

7. Chronotype and Workplace Performance Research (Rolling Out)

Reporting on chronotype research shows that night owls permitted to work during their natural peak hours perform as well as, or better than, their forced-early-schedule counterparts, and that forcing an early schedule onto a night owl chronotype is linked to worse health outcomes.

https://rollingout.com/2025/12/26/night-owls-chronotypes/

8. Ahead App - Chronotype and Productivity Research

This piece summarizes research finding that a meaningful share of our productivity tendencies, roughly 40 percent, can be attributed to chronotype rather than discipline or motivation.

https://ahead-app.com/blog/procrastination/night-owls-vs-early-birds-how-procrastination-and-sleep-patterns-connect

AI can hand a solopreneur back hours every week, but much of the advice out there for tiny businesses is still stuck on writing captions. In this episode, Karin walks through five real AI systems worth your setup time, including a monthly money review, a process audit that produces actual documentation, a client onboarding engine, a campaign build and post-campaign analysis, and a decision brief that cuts your research time to twenty minutes.

Then she gets into the guardrails you need with AI as a tiny business owner: why you need a working idea of what good output looks like before you ask AI to produce it, and how to build that standard for yourself in about twenty minutes using the same tool.

Let’s get into it!

Resources:

Wisprflow for easy and accurate voice note transcriptions: https://wisprflow.ai/r?KARIN347

The Growth Table Small Business Collective: https://growthtablesbc.com

References:

1. Bainbridge, L. (1983). Ironies of automation. Automatica, 19(6), 775 to 779. The foundational paper on why automating a task leaves humans responsible for catching failures in work they no longer practice.

2. Parasuraman, R., and Riley, V. (1997). Humans and automation, use, misuse, disuse, abuse. Human Factors, 39(2), 230 to 253. The core review of how people over-trust and under-trust automated systems.

3. Skitka, L. J., Mosier, K. L., and Burdick, M. (1999). Does automation bias decision-making? International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 51(5), 991 to 1006. Experimental evidence that people stop checking for errors when a system provides an answer.

4. Kruger, J., and Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it, how difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1121 to 1134. Relevant to why low baseline knowledge makes it hard to spot weak output.

5. Brynjolfsson, E., Li, D., and Raymond, L. (2025). Generative AI at work. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 140(2). Field evidence on productivity effects across a large workforce, with the largest gains among less experienced workers.

6. National Institute of Standards and Technology (2023). Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework, AI RMF 1.0. NIST AI 100-1. A vetted practitioner standard covering validity, reliability, and the role of human review in AI-assisted work.

That foggy, fried feeling by 3pm isn't just exhaustion, it's decision fatigue, and if you're running a business on your own, you're hitting it harder than almost anyone.

Karin Velez walks you through what the research shows about tired decision-making, from the Israeli parole judges whose rulings shifted based on how close they were to a break, to the honest debate still playing out in psychology about why this happens.

You'll learn why solopreneurs are especially exposed since every decision, big and small, runs through one person with nobody sorting the load, and you'll leave with a practical three-tier decision hierarchy plus five ways to protect your sharpest thinking for the choices that matter most.

Pull up a seat at the table and let's get into it.

References

1. Shai Danziger, Jonathan Levav, and Liora Avnaim-Pesso, Extraneous Factors in Judicial Decisions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011.

This study of more than a thousand Israeli parole board rulings found that the rate of favorable decisions dropped sharply across each session and reset after a food break, offering some of the most cited real-world evidence for decision fatigue outside a lab.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1018033108

2. Roy F. Baumeister, Ellen Bratslavsky, Mark Muraven, and Dianne M. Tice, Ego Depletion, Is the Active Self a Limited Resource?, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1998.

The original paper proposing that self-control and decision-making draw from a shared, limited mental resource, forming the theoretical foundation for most later decision fatigue research.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9599441/

3. Jonathan Levav, Mark Heitmann, Andreas Herrmann, and Sheena Iyengar, Order in Product Customization Decisions, Journal of Political Economy, 2010.

This research on customers customizing cars and suits found that people increasingly defaulted to pre-set options as a sequence of choices wore on, showing decision fatigue in a real consumer setting.

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/653485

4. Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice, Why More Is Less.

Schwartz's research distinguishes satisficers, who choose something good enough and move on, from maximizers, who exhaust themselves searching for the best possible option.

https://www.barry-schwartz.com

6. American Psychological Association, Research on Burnout, Recovery, and Decision Quality Among Self-Employed Workers.

The APA's ongoing body of research on burnout in self-employed and small business populations documents measurable declines in decision-making quality tied to inadequate recovery, supporting the case for protecting mental energy as a business practice.

https://www.apa.org/topics/healthy-workplaces/work-stress

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If you've caught yourself saying "I'm just so tired of this" about your own business, this episode is for you. Karin Velez walks through what burnout actually looks like for solopreneurs and small-team business owners, why the first two to three years are the hardest stretch on the typical growth curve (and often the stretch right before things turn really good) and how the sunk cost fallacy sneaks into your decision-making right when you need clarity most. You'll leave with a short set of honest questions to help you tell the difference between "I need rest and better systems" and "it's time to close this chapter." Pull up a seat and let's get into it.

References:

"Entrepreneurial Burnout: A Systematic Review and Research Map" — International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business (2021)

A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative research on burnout specifically in entrepreneurship.

https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJESB.2021.115883

Christina Maslach — Three-Dimension Model of Burnout

Maslach's original tri-dimensional framing of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism/depersonalization, reduced sense of accomplishment) remains the standard clinical reference point for burnout research today.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280939428_A_Multidimensional_Theory_of_Burnout

Arkes and Blumer — The Psychology of Sunk Cost (1985)

The classic behavioral economics research establishing the sunk cost fallacy as a measurable, predictable bias in decision-making.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0749597885900494

Howard Love — "The Start-Up J Curve"

Love's framing of the predictable dip-then-climb pattern in new business growth is the source for the J-curve concept discussed in this episode and supports the argument that the hardest financial and emotional stretch often precedes the turn toward profitability.

https://amzn.to/4btpu3e

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Business Employment Dynamics, Small Business Survival Data

BLS survival rate data showing that roughly half of new businesses are still operating at the five-year mark, with meaningfully better odds for those that make it past that window.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/1-year-survival-rates-for-new-business-establishments-by-year-and-location.htm

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If you want a place to talk this through with people who get it, solopreneurs and small-team business owners doing this same hard, honest work, come join us in The Growth Table Small Business Collective. https://growthtablesbc.com