Small businesses are the engine that drives our nation's economy. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that small businesses represent 99.7% of all employer firms. All firms! Those businesses employ more than 1/2 of all private-sector employees and pay 44% of the total private payroll in the United States.
Why are small businesses the engine? During the past 15 years, according to the SBA, those small businesses have generated 64% of the net new jobs created. They create more than 1/2 of the non-farm private gross domestic product and hire about 40% of high-tech workers such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers.
A whopping 52% of those small businesses are home-based and 2% are franchise operations. Do those businesses remain home-based? In some cases, yes. In other cases, they grow and expand to become large and succesful.
Ron Weyers and Wally Hilliard started their insurance business in the basement of Ron's home. I wrote (p. 176) in Masters of Success (http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Success-Techniques-Achieving-Business/dp/1932156798) about how they grew that fledgling business into one they sold to a larger firm. They used that capital to start American Medical Security in Green Bay and by 1994 when the Wisconsin firm had more than 2,000 employees, Inc. magazine dubbed it the 21st fastest growing company in the United States.
Stories such as Ron's and Wally's abound in virtually every community. Patrick Deprey started Skyline Technologies (http://www.skylinetechnologies.com/Pages/Default.aspx) in his home on Skyline Boulevard in Green Bay.
As Andrea Kay pointed out in her column in the October 11th edition of the Green Bay Press-Gazette (http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20101011/GPG0703/10110474/1247/GPG03/Andrea-Kay-column--There-s-work-where-needs-need-filling), "maybe it's time to do what you've always talked about: Start your own business."
Fluidity can help you navigate the swirling waters of launching that venture.
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