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Small business owners heading into 2026 face a paradox: It has never been easier to launch a venture — and never harder to keep one thriving.
Higher borrowing costs, persistent inflation, volatile consumer demand, and rapid advances in AI and e‑commerce are raising the bar on what it takes to compete. Yet a diverse group of founders — from a Hudson Valley vegetable farmer and a kimchi entrepreneur, to a dividend‑data publisher, a secret‑door manufacturer, and a padel‑club operator — are showing how focus, discipline, and purpose can turn uncertainty into an advantage.
Their companies look nothing alike on the surface. Blue Star Farm grows specialty greens in the Hudson Valley, while Serenity Forge designs narrative‑rich video games in Colorado, and MustardHub builds software to help frontline employers retain workers. Some sell jars of fermented cabbage in grocery aisles; others sell digital subscriptions to retirees or court bookings for a racket sport many Americans still can’t pronounce.
But across sectors, these founders are converging on a playbook for durable success: pick a clear mission, serve a narrowly defined customer better than anyone else, and build operations that can withstand shocks.
What follows are 10 crucial insights for small business owners in 2026 — and beyond — illustrated by how these entrepreneurs actually make money and run their companies day to day.
1. Build a business around meaning, not just margins
Serenity Forge is a Colorado‑based game development studio and publisher that creates narrative‑driven titles across PC and consoles, with a focus on emotionally resonant themes like illness, grief, and relationships. Founder Zhenghua “Z” Yang, whose near‑fatal illness at 18 changed his outlook, built the company around the idea of making “meaningful and emotionally impactful experiences that challenge the way you think,” even when that means passing on more conventional, higher‑earning projects that do not fit the studio’s mission.
Blue Star Farm, in Stuyvesant, New York, is a Certified Naturally Grown vegetable and herb operation that sells more than 130 varieties of produce through a year‑round farmers’ market presence and a network of about 20 wholesale accounts, including restaurants and local stores. Co‑founder Sue Decker left marketing after realizing that work like designing custom paper clips “was not putting good things back into the world,” and rebuilt her career around soil health, winter farming, and a “flavor first” philosophy that guides everything from seed selection to greenhouse investment.
2. Obsess over a specific, underserved customer
Dividend Watch is a dividend‑data and research platform aimed primarily at retirees and income‑focused investors who want to understand, plan, and track cash flows from their portfolios. Under owner Nathan Hamilton, the business generates subscription revenue by offering tools like a dividend calendar that maps payouts against expected living expenses, deliberately targeting a niche that “big brands don’t compete” for because it is too small for them but large enough for a focused SaaS business.
Mother‑in‑Law’s is a premium kimchi and Korean condiments brand that sells through about 9,000 U.S. retail locations, from natural‑food chains to mainstream supermarkets, as well as food‑service accounts. Founder Lauryn Chun built the company around her family’s small‑batch recipes, catering to shoppers who want traditional flavors, cleaner ingredients, and a mix of refrigerated and shelf‑stable formats. She constantly refines product sizes, price points, and packaging to fit those customers rather than chasing the broadest mass‑market shopper.
3. Let your life story guide your niche
Serenity Forge’s catalog—featuring games that borrow from Yang’s experiences in hospitals and with long‑term illness—illustrates how personal history can define a product category and differentiate it from blockbuster franchises focused purely on entertainment. The studio has carved out a recognizable position in indie gaming by treating games as vehicles for reflection and empathy, not only escapism.
Mother‑in‑Law’s grew directly out of Chun’s childhood memories of her mother’s restaurant kimchi in California and years of carrying jars back from visits as personal “care packages.” When she lost a corporate job, she saw that history as “my ticket to freedom,” turning a deeply personal food tradition into a national CPG brand that now spans multiple SKUs and flavor profiles.
4. Make deliberate, not impulsive, growth decisions
Padel United Sports Club is building padel clubs in suburban, affluent markets, starting with the New York metro area, and aims to make the racket sport a lifestyle membership product anchored in high‑end facilities, food, and social spaces. Serial founder Jon Krieger is holding back expansion until each site is profitable and operational systems—from staffing to programming—are codified, insisting on a “perfect playbook” before signing the next lease despite intense pressure to move quickly in a hot category.
Murphy Door manufactures and sells custom doors that conceal storage behind bookcases, mirrors, and other façade designs, distributing them directly to consumers online and through retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s. CEO Jeremy Barker kept working as a full‑time firefighter until annual revenue reached around $5 million and processes like one‑piece‑flow manufacturing were firmly in place, a deliberate choice to stabilize the business model before fully scaling headcount and product lines.
5. Treat cash discipline as a survival skill
Murphy Door’s model minimizes working capital risk by using just‑in‑time production: the company doesn’t cut lumber or assemble a door until the customer has ordered and paid, which means nearly every sale turns into immediate cash rather than tying up funds in inventory. Barker’s earlier experience with bankruptcy in other ventures led him to embrace higher margins and strict pricing instead of using discounts or underpricing to chase volume, a lesson he credits with keeping the company healthy through market swings.
Mother‑in‑Law’s maintains detailed visibility into product costs from cabbage and spices to caps and freight, and Chun’s mantra—“Always know your margins… and you’ll never make a bad deal”—guides negotiations with co‑packers, buyers, and distributors. That discipline is what allowed her to survive input‑cost shocks during the pandemic and eventually expand into club stores, e‑commerce, and food‑service channels without overextending.
6. Use constraints to stay ruthlessly focused
Dividend Watch has deliberately avoided the traditional growth playbook of launching email newsletters, sprawling content sites, or paid acquisition campaigns across social media. Instead, Hamilton concentrates on a narrow set of distribution levers—search, referrals from investor communities, and product‑led growth—so the company can invest engineering time into better screens, calculators, and portfolio tools for its core users rather than spreading resources across multiple half‑built initiatives.
Serenity Forge applies the same philosophy to its publishing slate, turning down game pitches that are likely to be hits financially but do not serve its vision of meaningful storytelling. That self‑imposed constraint forces the team to deepen their craft in a specific lane—narrative, emotionally rich titles—rather than chasing every trend in the broader gaming market.
7. Invest ahead in systems, tools, and infrastructure
Blue Star Farm operates across multiple properties in New York’s Hudson Valley, combining its home base with leased land that offers some of the state’s best vegetable soil, and relies on a network of 11 greenhouses to grow greens and other produce through the winter. The Deckers chose to buy larger, higher‑quality greenhouse structures when the opportunity arose and experimented with specialized pre‑mixed lettuce varieties like Salanova, which increased yields and allowed them to sell premium salad mixes at higher prices while keeping their crew employed year‑round.
Murphy Door’s one‑piece‑flow manufacturing system is supported by detailed digital design tools and standardized components that let the company mass‑customize doors without ballooning complexity. The firm also invested in domestic supply chains and in‑house capabilities instead of relying heavily on imports, which reduced exposure to logistics disruptions and tariffs that have hurt many home‑improvement brands.
8. Turn shocks into strategic pivots
When restaurant sales disappeared early in the pandemic, Blue Star Farm reoriented almost overnight toward its Saturday Hudson Farmers’ Market stall and direct retail customers, who were suddenly cooking more at home. Retail revenue surged by about 35% even as wholesale collapsed, effectively resetting the business at a higher baseline and cementing its status as one of the market’s anchor farms.
Mother‑in‑Law’s faced tripling costs on metal jar caps at the same time that supply‑chain bottlenecks made glass and packaging unpredictable, prompting Chun to switch SKUs to plastic closures and build a mix of refrigerated and shelf‑stable kimchi. That pivot not only eased cost pressure but also gave the brand flexibility to work with a wider range of retailers—some with cold storage, some without—reducing dependence on any single channel.
9. Build teams and cultures that match your values
Blue Star Farm employs three full‑time workers and 10 to 11 seasonal staff, treating them as core partners in a demanding, skill‑intensive business rather than interchangeable labor. The Deckers prioritize training, year‑round work via winter growing, and a culture built around quality and flavor, which has helped them retain employees in an industry notorious for burnout and turnover.
Murphy Door, by contrast, draws heavily from law enforcement and firefighting communities, hiring people who are comfortable with responsibility, teamwork, and high‑stakes environments. Barker shares daily financial numbers with the workforce and looks less at formal credentials than at whether candidates present themselves honestly and can admit what they do and don’t know, building a culture of transparency and continuous learning.
10. Embrace failure and iteration as the real edge
In gaming, Yang points to studios that only hit a blockbuster after dozens of attempts, arguing that the path to a Serenity Forge‑style breakout lies in “failing often—and doing it quickly,” then feeding those lessons back into the next prototype or partnership. The studio’s willingness to experiment with new genres, platforms, and publishing collaborations while staying grounded in its mission shows how iteration and focus can coexist.
On the physical‑world side, Krieger expects any new padel club to require at least 12 to 18 months of tweaks to pricing, programming, and amenities before it settles into a stable operating rhythm. He openly admits that the times he has ignored his own principles—to stay humble, avoid impulsive moves, and be ready to pivot—are when he has “gotten pretty beat up,” a reminder that the competitive edge in 2026 is not perfection but the capacity to learn faster than everyone else.
Written by Ashley Lutz for Fortune as “10 crucial insights for small business owners to succeed in 2026—and beyond” and republished with permission.
