Room for Growth

Incorporated self-employment is 37% of total self-employment. In January, for example, there were 14.5 million self-employed workers in the U.S. with 5.2 million incorporated and 9.3 million unincorporated.

- Small Biz Labs

If you are in business or thinking about going into business for yourself, there is good news.  There is still room for you.  With 14.5 million self-employed Americans, there is still room for you.  There is still room for growth.


Why All of the Optimism?

I believe that the average American possesses the ability to start and sustain a small business on his or her own, with the help of family or friends, or in an LLC or partnership.  You can franchise it or start it up from scratch, but you need to get the mindset that you can run a small business.  In fact, in your pursuit of happiness, along with life and liberty, it should be among one of those patriotic things that you list for yourself to do as a contribution to society and your personal bottom line.

The Internet Opportunity

Small business is no longer about hanging out a shingle and calling it a day, awaiting foot traffic and catching the eye of the passerby.  No way, buddy! You have to go where the people are today.  You need to get connected online.  in fact, simply having a website alone can be the equivalent of letting your business go to pot.  You have to engage people online in order to get their attention and get them attracted to what you have to offer.

The brick and mortar business is almost dead unless you have the type of product or service that cannot be mobilized and made virtual with a webinar or a podcast, even an e-commerce storefront.  The real estate bust should tell us how these markets have been consumed by Google, Facebook, iPhones, iPads and the like.  The modern-day consumer has shifted from browsing the shelves to browsing web pages and portals, comparing prices with a click of a mouse.

Start Simple:

• Use eBay or similar sites to shop products to consumers
• Get as much Google in your daily diet as possible... blogs, calendar, docs, YouTube, RSS feeds, Checkout,  apps for business, and you name it (they got it!) And, of course, you need some Gmail
• Get on Twitter and at least see who's tweeting about what that may be of interest or related to you... check out @mashable or @google
• Make a consumer-conscious appeal* with every keystroke

*Your consumer-conscious appeals will reach the average consumer and cause them to at least consider taking some form of action on your site or fan page... sort of like Facebook's "Like This" button or Twitter's retweets and #'s