I am not a small business owner. I am merely a small business customer and someone who has written a fair amount about big business. But after the retirement of Mike Benbow, The Herald’s venerable business editor, I will be looking for news that’s relevant to small businesses and entrepreneurs and sharing it with you here. So forgive me if there is at times a certain bent, that of a consumer. You can help keep me on track by letting me know what you’d like to read here and sending things my way that might interest fellow readers. (You can email me at ctaylor@heraldnet.com.)
By way of background, some things I have purchased in the past year from storefronts, brick and virtual: a new car on the last day of the year, a used bike in a summer resort town from a one-man shop, a computer monitor from Best Buy, clothing from a regional discount retailer, wine from a small shop, books from Amazon.com, an iPhone for my dad at a Sprint retail outlet, new glasses from a fashion eyewear boutique, haircuts at a shop run by some immigrants from Iraq, massages by a therapist who works out of her home in my neighborhood, household items from Kmart, a tennis racquet from a local sports store, healthy food from a regional co-op, junk food and lottery tickets from a chain gas station …
You get the idea. We all move in an amazingly diverse world of commerce that ranges from Amazon.com to your neighbor down the street. There are common principles of business that scale very well but there are disparate problems and challenges that are unique, defined by size and locale.
One of the websites I regularly read is Harvard Business Review. It is the showcase for commercial thinking at the nation’s most prestigious university. I have to confess, though, that I read it as much out of astonishment for what passes for wisdom worthy of dissemination to the corner offices as I do for wisdom I can actually apply in my corner of the world. There’s a whole lot of common sense being rehashed, suggesting that some executives might do well to spend a few months as an intern in an Everett storefront, where market research and supply chain management reside in the same room.
But there also are nuggets of wisdom any business person can relate to. (“Who Should You Be Thanking?” “Craft an Attention-Grabbing Message.”) Besides the usual news of small-business metrics and government workshops, we try to share such ideas here.
If you are a proprietor or entrepreneur, where do you get your ideas? What do you read? What’s your biggest challenge? Are you getting the help you need? The answers will guide the direction of this blog. Please comment below or email me.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
