Everyday on my way to work I pass dozens of small (lower case s) businesses. The Bread Basket Deli. Motel McGuire's. Joe's Country Oven Restaurant. The Hot Spot (not what you might think--sign says they offer coffee and company). Mel's Grill. La Bella Salon. Dawn Donuts (which offered ice cream and lotto--some definite outside the box thinking for a doughnut shop). Uncle Ed's Oil Shoppe. And the tiny restaurant mentioned in the title--The Omega Grub Station.
The one thing that always amazes me (other than the fact that they've all survived the Great Recession, lest, sadly, Dawn Donuts which closed in the past couple of weeks) is the gumption it must take to start your own business. I pass auto shops, electrical shops, and plumbing shops on my way to work, too, and while I imagine it takes a certain gumption for them as well, they're selling a skill that most of us lack (just ask us--we've tackled two minor plumbing problems since we bought our house in the fall and thoroughly botched both). But what nerve it must take to think to yourself "I can make coffee good enough and provide a pleasant enough atmostphere that I can make enough money to pay not only the rent on the building that houses my business, but one for a roof over my head as well." Or to think you can make a breakfast good enough (as The Omega Grub Station's sign proclaims), that enough people will want to buy, so that the fears of failure and bankruptcy and unemployment don't overwhelm your confidence in your abilities. Or to think you can make doughnuts so good that they will overcome the name recognition and powerful ad budgets of Dunkin' Donuts or Krispy Kreme. What about health insurance costs? The safety of working for a large corporation? Like I said: lots of gumption.
And it's a good thing, too. Surprisingly, 99% of American businesses employ less than 500 people--and 52% of Americans work for those companies. (There's that 1% again!) Small business provides more opportunities for women and minorities in entry level positions. And frankly, as I drive past these little businesses everyday I think they are the future of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
William Deresiewicz ran a piece in The New York Times a couple months back that has stayed with me concerning the millenials, those born from the late 1970s through the 1990s. He calls them Generation Sell, but sees in their desire to run and create businesses that offer real value and transformative products a starting point for the 99%. In the end, despite conservative misreading of the Occupy movement (and what a surprise that was), isn't that what the fuss was all about? Businesses that are about people--both customers and employees--as much as profits? Businesses that bring about all of our better selves?
From Isaiah 11:6: "Wolves will live with lambs. Leopards will lie down with goats. Calves, young lions, and year-old lambs will be together, and little children will lead them."
The future is in the rearview mirror and gaining on us...and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Happy 2012!
Peace,
emaycee
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