I very much enjoyed reading this post. It was absolutely right on point. I especially appreciated your observation about the fallacy in the report that Small Business’ access to capital was the #1 most heavily weighted part of the index. As you said, throwing money at a problem is never an effective solution. Ron Reagan proved that.

As an entrepreneur, I started my business out of my back pocket nearly 10 years ago, and put everything that I had into it… all-up/all-in. We now have 100s of successful specialty small business customers who we provide exceptional Internet Marketing Services to. I now employ nearly twenty full time dedicated employees.

I can tell you that getting to this point has been no cake-walk. But, that’s the point, right? If it was a cake-walk everybody would do it. I’ve dealt with malfeasant partners, unscrupulous employees, dishonest customers, and ignorant bankers, to name but a few of the challenges I’ve faced down.

Furthermore, and to your point, necessity is the mother of invention. Just because there’s no money doesn’t mean there’s no solution. Bootstrap baby! That’s the name of the game.

Excellent commentary. Thank you!

@chazatcaz

Thanks so much for your insights and perspective. We posted part of your interview on our Grow Smart Business and Solutions Are Power blogs:
http://growsmartbusiness.com/2009/04/entrepreneur-evan-carmichael-discusses-the-small-business-success-index/

http://blog.networksolutions.com/2009/entrepreneur-evan-carmichael-discusses-the-small-business-success-index/

We look forward to more of your great entrepreneurship writing.

-Steve

A great way I have found to give value is to send your customer monthly newspaper or magazine articles on their niche. The article should be relevant, short and helpful. This simple act will improve your service and show you’re a resource, not a vendor.

Thanks for the article.