Sep 29, 2025
Playa Caracol,
Panamá
“What’s that ahead on the beach? Looks like a dolphin!”
(Can’t read the full email – click here for the online version.)
We like to walk the beach when the tide is out. Here, that means a tidal flat of hard sand that can extend 50 meters into the ocean. It makes for excellent walking as there are miles of this beach in either direction from our community.
Most of the time the sands are devoid of debris safe the odd shells. Other times it is littered with branches, driftwood, long piles of bark-like detritus. Sometimes you will see
numerous pumice stones of all sizes, the odd box-jellyfish and the occasional corpse of small stingrays.
This time the large black object, which could be mistaken as a thick limb from a tree turned out to be a dead dolphin. Two vultures were hovering nearby, waiting patiently for us to move on. We wondered if the presence of the animal was due to old age or if perhaps it had been chased onto the shallows by a larger predator,
then got trapped by the ebbing tide.
Back at the condo I caught up on other news from “Middle Earth”. Here are a few headlines:
- Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro’s Visa has been Revoked by the United States
- Illegal shipment Intercepted in Chiriquí: The Sniffer Dogs are Confused. We Think It’s Onions!!
- Woman Arrested at Tocumen, Hiding Drugs in Her Private Parts
- Panama Black Weekend 2025 Expects $75 Million in Sales
This last headline piqued my interest. I recall when Canadian businesses began to promote “Black Friday”.
A discount event begun in the U.S. at the end of November to kick off their Thanksgiving weekend. That Canadians would use the same event and date as the Americans, even though our Thanksgiving is during the second weekend of October is no surprise to those of us raised north of the 49th parallel.
I found it interesting and a little surprising that the idea had been exported to Panama. They are not waiting until
November, however, to begin this promotion. Instead, it is happening next weekend, Oct 3-5. With discounts of up to 70%, officials expect a 25% increase in foot traffic with $75 million uptick in sales.
This promotion is strategically being coordinated among the 16 large shopping malls across the country. Even hoteliers in the city (Panama) are in on the act, offering room discounts to attract international shoppers, primarily
from Columbia, to spend time and money during a typically slow season.
As any long-time reader of this missive will know, I am not a fan of discounting. Without any strategy, this tactic only erodes profit margins and makes a business poorer not richer. (Learn more from our Financial
Training here) However, if a business uses such a promotion and sales to gain a customer, ideally for life; and/or there are strategies in place to up-sell and cross-sell – then such a tactic can be very successful and profitable.
This is the kind of training and assistance we provide for our clients, whether they are VIP, one-on-one clients or they are members of our Do-It-Yourself Business Academy.
Regardless of where you are or what level of mastery you have, you can find out how to improve any aspect of your business, be it your marketing or your financials by grabbing my free training here.
Until next week,
Stay healthy and focus on profit!
- Hugh
The “Profit Accelerator” Expert
P.S: Tiny, consistent wins—1–2% changes—can compound into 50–100% more profit in a year. Our team built a tool to
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