718 Outdoors (Dominos vs Pizza Hut)

(as posted to Substack)

It’s no secret that I have migrated from “big” to “small” in terms of my business these last 17 years. I use the mantra “Growing Smaller”. I worked on getting rid of the things that I didn’t enjoy doing or that didn’t make me any $$ (and there were a lot of “things”) was my deal.

I find myself on the cusp of 2026 with no employees, no physical location, no real connection to the bike industry, or any real quantity of inventory (selling it off here!)…just me, my bike and gear, my imagination and my perseverance.

I recently watched a video about how Dominos has overtaken Pizza Hut in the Pizza Sector (I just wanted to write “Pizza Sector”). Pizza Hut had a decades-long history as a dine-in experience, that tried to diversify with delivery, mascots, new menu items, etc. As the world moved online and life seemed to move quicker in the internet age, Dominos was able to use their nimble business model of just delivering pizzas to take market share from Pizza Hut, who was trapped in a 1980’s/1990’s idea of what people wanted. They were trapped with physical spaces and leases, huge staffs and bloated menus. How Dominos was able to react to Covid sealed the deal.

Dominos mission was/is just a simple one…making ordering and delivering pizzas as seamless as possible.

That’s how I have grown to view 718…getting more and more focused on taking people Bike Camping. Many years ago, I read a book called “Now Discover Your Strengths” This book decried the time and effort we spend trying to get good at the things we think we need to get good at, and championed taking that same finite amount of time to pursue your true passion and become great at it. I used this philosophy when I was an architect, and have continued to use it all these years.

Note: For better or worse, I do not use AI to create my posts. This is all me, with my misspelling, poor grammar and tangential thoughts. I didn't get into this line of work to hand over my thoughts, expertise and experience to AI to spit out blog posts.