Samuel Dickinson owns a snow removal business, but he'd be happy if not a flake falls for the rest of winter.

So little snow fell in Anchorage this season that Dickinson, owner of Hillside Landscaping and Excavating, laid off eight of his nine employees. If a late winter storm hits, he won't have the workers he needs to clear his clients' driveways.

"If it snows, I don't know what I'm going to do," Dickinson said. "All my seasoned plow guys are gone."

He estimates the snow shortfall cost him about $250,000 in revenue.

For certain businesses, snow drives all sorts of decisions. How many workers to hire? What products to sell? What prices to set? These questions are getting harder to answer as increasingly erratic weather patterns turn what once were informed business decisions into mere guesses.

And this winter, many businesses guessed wrong.

Snow bike purveyor Chain Reaction Cycles ran out of studded tires, while the ski buffs at Alaska Mountaineering and Hiking overstocked on parkas. Play it Again Sports announced a blowout winter sale in March to make way for summer sports equipment.

"We've brought in spring and summer stuff earlier than we ever have," said Play It Again owner Don Bruno. "I've never had bikes in my store as early as February, but they're here. We've called all of our vendors and asked them to move up their time frames."

Nordic skiing, the store's No. 2 sales category, "has fallen flat on its face" and Bruno is "very happy we're not a one-sport store."

Some businesses are already planning adjustments for next season. AMH owner Paul Denkewalter said he'll cut back on orders for heavier women's parkas and alpine ski touring gear.

"We're ordering more conservatively, but you still have to have stuff," Denkewalter said. "It's really hard to judge. You used to be able to count on longer stretches of snow in January and February and now it's rain."

Denkewalter said enthusiasm for ice skates that clip onto ski boots somewhat countered weaker sales in other categories, but "on the whole, it hasn't been great."

Robin Dilley, manager at Chain Reaction Cycles, has already ordered more studded snow bike tires for next season. It's a lesson learned after selling out this year and watching customers buy them instead from shops as far away as New England.

Fat-tire bikes, or snow bikes, do well in icy and low-snow conditions and seemed to serve this winter as a sort of surrogate sport for disgruntled skiers.

"Before this year, a lot of nordic ski people were saying, 'No, I'd rather ski,' but this year we've doubled our sales because they decided to start to snow bike," Dilley said.

For others, it will be business as usual, at least for now. Alaska Power Sports saw snowmachine and winter clothing sales drop while off-road vehicle purchases increased, but it has no plans to alter inventory for next year, said social media specialist Lori Price. The store revamped its showroom display several weeks earlier than usual, replacing snowmachines with boats and outboard motors.

"A lot of us are crossing our fingers and hope this isn't permanent," Price said.

Thinner crowds on the alpine slopes of the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood haven't discouraged management from proceeding with large-scale improvement projects.

"Even though we had a soft season, it's not slowing us down in terms of our future plans," said Eric Fullerton, director of marketing. "Our ownership is very well-capitalized and very committed to making this a ski resort that is going to last forever."

For businesses that were less affected by snow this year, there is, of course, a sense of relief and maybe a touch of schadenfreude.

Tom Smith, owner of Denali Asphalt, said that although snow removal is a service he advertises, he left the business nine years ago "because it was not cost-effective." He focuses today on maintenance of asphalt, driveways and foundations -- services that some snow removal businesses also provide.