Today is my day off, and I just had a beer, and may have another, and life is good, just for the moment. I broke even in May, June and July, the third, fourth and fifth months my little gallery has been in business, and that’s remarkable. I know the statistics on small business failures, and why they fail, and too little capital is my problem too. But still, in spite of the odds, good news for the moment. 

Life has taken on an equilibrium where everything is going moderately well. Oh, I still think of moving to Vermont for the universal healthcare, or Maryland which is  the closest state with medical mj, or Scotland for men in skirts, or France, to make clothes for Parisians, or anywhere else that the politics are fair and everyone isn’t suffering. But I’m doubting more and more that anywhere else is better than where I’m succeeding at something. 

I happen to love starting small businesses. I had a very successful graphic design business with a partner and 3 employees in the late 80s.  My love affair with my ex began with us creating a magazine together.  That magazine publishing business got shot down in the early 90s recession, likely the beginning of the end of the relationship too, but while it lasted, we made a good team - I was Production and he was Sales. 

I have a notebook of businesses that I think would succeed if I only had the capital to start them. I love the planning, the budgeting, the ideation, the marketing. I am also good at record-keeping, being a database geek, so I keep good reports along the way. I have always wanted to have a business that was more than just me and my hourly skills, and it took a divorce and my guilty ex to get me to do it. 

I really believe that small businesses, micro-businesses in particular, are the best way to deal with the economic implosion. Partly because I think the problems are too big for one president, one Congress, or even one country,  to deal with effectively. Partly because I believe that simply providing something your neighbor needs is the safest way to go. I am learning not to trust anyone, not government officials, not corporations, not advertisers, not NGO’s, not foreign governments, certainly not think tanks, no one that doesn’t live next door. (And sometimes not even then.) 

But making something with your own hands, and then selling it to an individual is remarkably clean, in comparison. It’s also good to have a mission to go by. In our gallery, it’s “Wherever possible, we buy local or US-made materials or tools.” Nevermind that we fail at that mission as often as we succeed. Or that we are frequently selling to people who are actively keeping the country in the dark ages with their votes. (I’m trying to make peace with the idea of selling to rich people, another mission.) But still, you can’t get anymore real than watching someone’s face light up when they discover something wonderful, like lots of things we sell in the gallery. Or teach someone how to do a craft that they never knew they could do. Or just let them handle a wisp of alpaca or cashmere fleece. Can’t get more basic that that. 

There’s a local group, following the Transition Town program, which is supposedly working on solutions to some of the problems we face in this country, mainly environmental issues. While it seems the program they are following involves weaning towns off oil, I have a hard time getting any of them to tell me what they’re working on, what their projects are. All they seem to do is study the manual, and have seminars on permaculture. As good-intentioned as they are, they annoy the shit out of me. I would be ripping my fingernails out with boredom, because I am all about turning it into an action plan. I don’t necessarily want to usurp the group, and mold it to my expectations, I just want to do something tangible, which is what I get out of any endeavor. So I’ve been waiting for them to come to some conclusions, and then I’d feel fine about joining the group. I only realized today that most of them come from an academic background, and what they do is study things. So that’s what they’re seeing as the nail.

I see everything as a small business to start. For instance, South Dakota’s medieval abortion laws requiring a woman to visit a “crisis pregnancy center” before you can get an abortion. Liberals, gather your capital and open them. (I hear that very few centers have registered, even though there are NO requirements for licensing.) For that matter, any state with abortion clinics shutting down could use a small business shuttling women to the next state and back, sort of an Underground Railroad for the new millennium. Maybe it should be a non-profit. Anyway, give me a problem and I’ll create a new business around it. 

The problem of jobs is especially troubling to me, since it’s clear that there is no movement at all in Washington to bring back our outsourced jobs. From either side of the aisle. No, the status quo will stay the same, so we need a new idea. We need to start our own micro-economies. But who’s helping us do that?

Someone came into the gallery and mentioned a program called Jump Start as a good place to get operating capital for small businesses. I thought at first it was a microfinance company but this is something even better - a sort of public radio fund drive for start-ups. People pledge a range of amounts of money in exchange for simple gifts that the company offers. The new company gets an influx of capital without the onus of repayment or other loan requirements.  Unfortunately, the program is only for Northern Ohio businesses, and the national JumpStart organization is not up and running yet. But it’s a great idea, and anyone in Ohio should check it out. 

I still believe that people who are heavily invested in Wall Street should pull out of that scam and reinvest in their communities, providing money for their local economies to get up and running.  But til they realize that they are perpetuating the problem by giving their money to thieves and liars, we'll need to find other resources.

There are non-profit organizations in most cities and towns (here in Asheville, it’s called Mountain Bizworks) that helps local businesses with different services and small loans, but sometimes that’s not enough. Not everyone feels up to the task of starting a small business, but it’s not really that hard to start something small. It can be hard along the way, and yes, I did have start-up capital, but I had to rent a commercial space, something that most businesses don't have to do.  Sometimes what’s needed is moral support, or a mentor. Where are the organizations that do that?

I’d be happy to be a sounding board for anyone on OS wanting to start a small business.  And there is still one government agency, the Small Business Administration, that does a decent job of helping out beginners. They produce workshops and guides , but they also do one-on-one counseling through the SCORE program (Service Corp of Retired Executives ) I got in touch with them last month, when I was trying to figure out how to allocate income to buy new inventory. I’ve never had a business with inventory before, so the bookkeeping and planning is a little confusing for me. They scheduled an appointment for me immediately after I emailed them and I went to the Federal Building in downtown Asheville for my first meeting. Two older guys, both relaxed and attentive, with good suggestions and specific step-by-step instructions to set up a cash flow planning structure. All free of charge. And they will follow up and check out my progress.  There is help out there, for those who ask.

So, in the midst of so much bad news, I am doing pretty well. I am thinking small, thinking local, and trying to focus on the task at hand. Hammering away.