It’s the month of love, and we will forever love Small Business! Let Me Count the Ways!

For the past 31 years, we have had the privilege of serving the small business community. According to the SBA, only 1 out of 10 startups ever reach their 10th Anniversary. This terrible statistic is the main reason we have made it our mission to help our customers overcome at least a few of the small business obstacles.

The struggle is real, but it is a good fight. Despite the daily battle scars, we remain dyed-in-the-wool capitalists.

We will forever love entrepreneurship. Here are ten reasons why:

1. I have rarely seen a better catalyst for personal growth than small business. It is a personal growth eureka! The better we entrepreneurs know ourselves, the better we can lead a small enterprise. But even though entrepreneurs are more or less self-aware, we seldom know ourselves as well as we think we do!  Until you run a small business, you may never know how genuinely courageous you are. You may think you are a risk-taker, and find out you are risk-averse after all. You may never know what you really can and cannot do until your small business throws you the ball. Oh, the revelations and the skill sets that lie dormant! Want to know your strengths and weaknesses like no other? Start a small business.

2. Small business is truly an equal opportunity employer.  Given the right chutzpah, any person, any age (be they 8 to 80), any gender of any race can start a small business. Capitalism could not care less if you are black, brown, white, or pink with purple polka-dots.

3. Small business teaches you many skills you could not learn any other way. Entrepreneurship will show you the finer points of money management, time management, people skills, and communication skills, to name a few.  You may think you already possess these skills. (Granted, it would be best if you had these skills before you start business, but in all reality, none of us is a genius at them all.) Small business will bring them to finesse.

4. Instant gratification. Nothing like it. In a large corporation, an employee might work in the third row of cubicles on a minute part of the overall workflow. They may never get to see the delight of the end-user. One of the most rewarding things about small business is instant feedback for a job well done. The entrepreneur may do some or all of the work. But then, they get to see the customers smile as a reward for work well done.

5. There is nothing more important than knowing the customer––what they want, what they like, and what they hate. If the most significant system of any business is marketing, the biggest blessing in small business is a direct line to your customers. The big data of big business is often misinterpreted and misunderstood, creating a correlation where no causation exists, and ends up garbled and mistranslated on the receiving end. No such disconnect occurs with small business. You don’t have to wait for the higher-ups in the big office to translate the data to tell you what the customer likes and doesn’t like. The customer is standing right in front of you. You can ask them. And no better place to ask them than the front line, because that is where relationships and trust are built.

6. You aren’t guaranteed a thing. I know you are thinking, “How can that be a good thing?”  To which I answer, “How many times has a cubicle inspired anything?” The consistent bi-weekly paycheck has killed more ideas than stupidity. The entrepreneur lies awake at night, thinking about how to continually improve, innovate, and make their product better than ever before. The unsecured and unpredictable paycheck of the Small Business Owner means we must bring our best selves to our work every day. We have to stay on our toes to stay viable. How many other jobs have you had where this was true?

7. Without small business, there would be no US Economy.I’m not telling you anything you didn’t already know when I tell you that small business anywhere boosts the US Economy everywhere.  JP Morgan Chase says that 88% of US firms have less than 20 employees. Small business in your community is the anchor of your community. Supporting your local small business in your home town is a front line defense for a strong economy.

8. Small business is one of the best ways to help your fellow humankind. The new definition of a Corporation (as defined by The Business roundtable last year), has shifted from one of profit-seeking to “conscious capitalism”. Many small businesses realize that Profit means more than the bottom line, and work to expand their horizons. Many successful entrepreneurs understand their job is to make the world a better place for everyone ––not just for themselves. To serve the customer, care for your employees, to take care of the environment, and give back to the communities you serve ––hey, that sounds like a lot of love to me!

9. Yes, capitalism has always had its problems. But it also has great potential and spawns great innovation. Small business, done well, is one of the best ways to love your neighbor. This is especially true when the customers you serve ARE your neighbors, and essential to your success. Fortunately, loving your fellow humans, and making a profit are not opposites, but are inextricably bound together in a successful business.

10. If you want to know what you are really made of, want to know what you really can do? Do you want to test your real potential? I can think of nothing better than starting your own small business!