Owner study, 2026
How are owners adapting to changing market factors and technology?
We're running a study on how changing market factors and technology are affecting businesses like yours: how owners see those challenges, and how they're adapting.
Everyone who takes part gets their own findings, and the full report by the end of November, a straight read on what peers are actually doing.
Book a study conversationWhy this study
Costs, staffing, customers and technology are all shifting.
Most owners we talk to are caught up working in their business, not on it. The signs of where performance is leaking sit buried in records no one spares the time to dig through.
This study sets out to understand how these pressures are impacting businesses, how owners view these challenges, and how they are adapting their approach and applying best practices.
What owners are telling us so far
Early themes from the first conversations.
So far, owners are telling us how they are adapting and innovating to factors including:
- rising product and shipping costs
- competition with online retailers
- scarcity of quality employees, rising wage costs and challenges with retention
- integrating point of sale, accounting and AI software
- rising software subscription costs and limited support from software providers
- time and cashflow constraints
These are early themes, not findings. The findings come from the full set of conversations.
As a community, sharing this information is genuinely useful, which is why we're conducting this study.
What taking part involves
One conversation, 30 to 45 minutes.
- Book a time. At your business, by phone or by video call, at whatever time suits you, even after hours.
- We talk. How you run the business, what weighs on you, and how you're handling cash flow and stock, margin and technology. Nothing to prepare.
- Your findings. Where your business fits in what we found.
- The full report. At the end of November.
What you get
Your own findings first, then the full report.
A real read on how other independent businesses are handling cash flow and dead stock, inventory turn, margin, and technology, with your own findings back to you first. Most owners never see how their peers actually operate.
FAQ
Common questions.
Is this a sales pitch?
No. Our study is seeking to understand owner perspectives, best practices, and how technology is being employed in the current market. For taking part, we'll provide you with the overall report as well as where you fit in what we found. If you're interested in a deeper dive further down the line, that's a separate conversation.
Who is running it?
Justin Terwiel, founder of Treeline Consulting, a Kamloops strategy practice that helps independent retail and service owners pinpoint the constraints and opportunities that will move their business most. He brings fourteen years of operator experience to the conversation.
Who can take part?
Owners of independent retail and service businesses.
Will my business be named?
No. We ask before we record, and the report shows what owners said, never who said it. Your business is named only if you give separate permission.
Take part
Add your voice to the study.
Book a 30 to 45 minute conversation, or email study@treelineconsulting.ca.
Book a study conversationTreeline Consulting is a strategy consulting practice based in Kamloops, British Columbia, working with independent retail and service owners across BC and the Alberta Rockies. Founded by Justin Terwiel, it pairs AI-powered analysis of an anonymized set of a business's own records with fourteen years of operator experience, reading the numbers alongside the floor across four areas of performance: cashflow, inventory turn, margin, and technology. The owner gets a ranked plan, built and executed together, not a report. In one two-season engagement, a Kamloops-area retailer grew gross-profit dollars 18.1% over six months; Treeline freed $27,925 of trapped cash and repriced its best sellers for lasting margin along the way.