Where Are All The Small Businesses?

Where Are All The Small Businesses?

Where Are All The Small Businesses?

As Brick-And-Mortar Wilts, Click-And-Order Thrives

by Michael D. Hume, M.S.

Sure, the economy is tough, and it's hard to run a successful business even when times are good. You have to make a lot of good decisions, minimize your mistakes, delight your customers, motivate your team. In any time or place, it can seem like an uphill climb. But lately, I've been saddened by seeing too many nice little businesses fail.

Near our Colorado home, two of our favorite eating places have gone away in the last few weeks. One was right on the interstate freeway, had other lines of business to fall back on (including a store, a gas station, and a motel), and offered the best pie in the county. But it's gone. The other was downtown, and had been delivering a great tradition of good ol' American fare for more than half a century. Also gone.

Today, I strolled around the mall near our California home. There's almost nothing left there! Two big-box stores are still hanging in there on the outside of the mall, and three small franchise retailers are still open inside. But several of our favorites - stores we'd enjoyed browsing through for years - are no more.

They're just... gone.

Where are the people who used to work there? What are those business' owners doing now? Where is the money being spent which was once spent in those stores?

I breathed a sigh of relief today when I did find one of my old favorites - a great hardware store - which had relocated (actually, they'd moved closer to our place, so I'm happy about that). And some retail centers, such as the one where I found my hardware store, are able to replace the businesses they lose. Still more good news is found in the new retail centers that spring up here and there.

But one thing can't be denied: more and more, people are doing business at home. They've left the brick-and-mortar world and have taken their work (and custom) to the virtual world of internet click-and-order.

They sell things from home. They buy things from home. And the internet makes it all possible.

You have to make investments to run a successful entrepreneurial venture. You have to put in your TEAM: your time, your energy, your attention, and your money. And while "sweat equity" is still (and probably always will be) important, the financial investment required to run a lucrative internet business represents a fraction of what your dad needed to open his auto shop years ago. So when times get tough, the tough entrepreneurs upon whom so much of our economy depends get going to cyberspace, where the barriers to entry are lower and their odds for success are higher.

Don't get left behind. If business is good for you right now, or if your job seems secure, think about those empty stores you see around town. Those folks thought everything was stable, too. Start a business on the side... get smart about the world economy... and protect your wealth for yourself and your family. There's no one else to do it.

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