Most often, our businesses do not exist in a perfect environment of our choosing. They operate as part of the market that is subject to dynamic influences and often, the chaos of the real world. Often those influences, those dynamic forces, don’t follow the confines of logical arguments; often they make no sense. But the agile entrepreneur accepts the chaos, aligns his resources, makes the course corrections and learns from the experience.

No one likes to see a price hike, whether at the grocery store, at the movie theater, at one’s favorite restaurant or even at the barber shop. But as educated shoppers of products and services, most consumers realize that the rise in energy costs or a breakout of avian flu or an unanticipated shortage of shipping containers, can have a deleterious effect on those providing the products and services being consumed.