I had a long conversation with half of a two-person business today. He was hoping to refinance his house, but the banks wouldn't touch him because he has only been working for himself for the last year or so, and they wanted two years of tax receipts. Now, understand he's still paying for the house (at the higher interest rate) in the meantime. Moreover, that people with that kind of millstone hanging on their monthly budget typically do not go solo unless they think it's a pretty sure thing. Considerations which make the rational person want to beat her head against a wall for the sheer therapeutic value of accupercussion. Which should give you a solid idea of why I've never had much stomach for the so-called "science" of business.
But on the heels of the mortgage anecdote he said, "It's a great time to be a small business," and theorized that pinched purses enforce a certain "transparency." I took that to mean that customers insist on value for their dollar, rather than the cachet of doing business with a brand-name company. And without the overhead of the empire-builders and other parasites that are inevitable in a smallish company--not to mention the spendy real estate they take up--I can completely see his point.
Granted, one entrepreneur does not an economy make. But I wonder whether whether we're seeing a sea-change in the attitude of the people who normally woulthatd normally gravitate toward large companies as place to work, places to buy from or sell to. If that's the case, it should be considerably less work to earn the trust of customers and vendors than it would be during boom times. If you can somehow scrape by without a private jet, million-dollar office refurbishments, three- and four-figure lunches, toadies by the platoon, and an au pair and driver for each of your children, well, I think we can fairly say that you have an edge on the clowns who tried driving the economy off a cliff. Who knows? Maybe some of them will be working for you someday. I hope you never let them forget it. ;-)
