07/14/2026
WARNING: The following post is NOT meant to promote a doomer attitude. It is the culmination of observations for the past several years, the last year more than others. My hope is that you walk away with a slightly more open perspective to the small business culture that is fighting to survive around you.
It's a story we've unfortunately seen way too much recently. That passionate young entrepreneur who you've followed and supported throughout their journey starts to post a little less. You see them less and less, and find you're popping into their shop even less than you used to. Eventually you see them show up on social media again except, it's to announce the soul crushing end of their journey. The posts start with "Despite our best efforts..." or "Well, I did everything I could..." and then over the course of four paragraphs, they eulogize the death of that chapter of their life.
With that, the dream is ended. Maybe it'll have a rebirth in a few years, maybe a lucky break, but for the most part, it's over. The entrepreneur gave it all they could and finally had no more left to give. It shatters my heart to see the glimmering starlight of dreams extinguished by a triumvirate of economic, political and social events that are so far outside of the reach of the average person that they can only read headlines and wait for shockwaves.
Finance is a zero-sum game. A dollar you spend is a dollar you don't have and the consumer decisions you make etch out the avenue of financial transfer in your community. Small business is built upon the most precarious of pillars, with each day of business being a balancing act. The good seasons fuel the growth to survive the bad seasons, but what is left to do when the good seasons grow shorter and the bad seasons loom on almost endlessly?
A cascade failure occurs when a core pillar of infrastructure fails. It could be a major bank, a core transmission line, or cloudflare (for the fifteenth time this year), but when it goes down, it takes an unfathomable amount of things down with it. The transmission line to the water treatment facility is compromised, the quantity of water treated is impacted, water shortages are implemented, the thirsty fields being baked by the summer sun cannot get the water they need, there is a crop shortage...
When a small business fails, there is a cascade of consequences beyond the fact that you have to find somewhere else to get your specific products. There are reverberations in their life, in the lives they support, in the vendors and friends they financially support. Your friend who has to shutter their business doesn't typically wake up and have all of their problems solved. They have merely exhausted a tool in their toolkit, with the problem still raging against them.
What can stop the cascade? It's beyond a simple business owner. It's beyond us. The water is rising whether you want to be honest about it or not, and all we can do is link arms and fight together. The choice to support a small business is a choice to support your neighbor, your community, in the fight against the rising tide.
I highly encourage you to check out Sherman's Moonlight Markets (the second and fourth Friday of each month, 6:00p-9:00p), as well as frequenting the Downtown Denison Farmers Market and Sherman Farmers market. Attend the various festivals. Spend some time downtown. Wander, browse, buy, encourage. There is no reverting the cascade once it's begun, only halting and preventing. Together, we can keep our communities afloat until better days come.
