This is National Small Business Week, a week designated to celebrate the resolve and ingenuity of American entrepreneurs. The week is usually observed the first week of May but this year the pandemic changed the date.
While small businesses are still responsible for more than half of this country’s jobs, small businesses appear to be an endangered species.
The cost of complying with government regulations and soaring health care costs have discouraged many small business owners.
Earlier this week, I was present when a junior high school student was asked what he would like to do after completing his education. He didn’t say a thing about being a small businessman but he did say he wanted to have lots of money. While they may, high paying jobs and small businesses do not necessarily go together.
When picking a career, we need to look at more than just money. Money doesn’t buy happiness and satisfaction.
I had a friend who, for several years, was a national company’s number one salesman. He quit that lucrative job and went into business for himself. I once asked him about the change. While the former job paid more money, he said he found self-employment more satisfying. Though he has since died, his ideas spawned at least three businesses which still operate and provide work for several people in this area.
Another example of small business success is the Reinke Manufacturing Company. The founder, Richard Reinke, was a largely self-educated entrepreneur who never gave up. He tried a number of ideas, some worked better than others but be persisted and today his ideas have contributed to rank the Reinke companies among this area’s largest employers.
Friday, I attended a funeral for a 102-year-old uncle. When he moved to a northern Nebraska community, I thought he had chosen a terrible place to live. I wondered why anyone would chose to live there. When he moved there, more than half of the road between here and there was gravel.
But the community proved to be a good choice. While he retired many years ago, a son and now a granddaughter have chosen to follow in his foot steps and maintain and expand the business he started.
While attending his funeral, it was evident he made a difference in the community that was his home for more than 70 years. I now believe he made a good location choice.
When he graduated from high school, he moved to Superior and worked three years for the Bossemeyer Elevator. Before WW II he had married my aunt and moved to western Nebraska where he was a traveling salesman for the Gooch Milling Company. After serving his country in WWII, he used the GI Bill to advance his education. In 1949 he established an optometry practice in a small second story room. When reviewing his life at age 101 for a legacy video, he recalled the 18 steps which led to that office were not good for his patients who left his office wearing bifocal lens for the first time.
The soaring cost of health insurance has caused many small business owners and employees to find jobs which provide health care.
But the big employers who entice employees with the promise of benefits, are often focused on making money and show little interest in their employees or the communities where they operate. When asked to join the local chamber of commerce, a spokesman for a company with locations in many communities replied, “We don’t join chambers of commerce. If we did, it would cost lots of money.”
As a youngster, I was proud of the independence shown by my father and grandfather. Both were small business owners.
The longest Grandfather Blauvelt ever worked for someone was a six-month stint as a Rock Island Railroad brakeman. My father held a few short term jobs but at age 17, he and his father opened a gasoline station. He was associated with that station until his retirement in 1971.
When I started in the newspaper business, most newspapers were independently owned and the owners lived in the community where the newspaper was published. Now that is often not the case.
I considered a number of occupations before I decided to be a weekly newspaper publisher. I would have liked to have followed my father and grandfather in the gasoline business but health issues made it impossible for me to continue the business as they had operated it. I explored various retail, marketing and amusement park ideas. My photography and electronics interests caused me to explore related options. It was the introduction of phototypesetting computers which led to my decision to enter the weekly newspaper field. I was eager for the opportunity to bring electronics to the newspaper industry.
One of those electronic marvels installed in this newspaper plant is now on display at the Nuckolls County Historical Society Museum. While it was part of a group of machines which revolutionized the newspaper industry, it is as big as a refrigerator and lacked the computing power of today’s cell phones. Also on display at the museum is a Linotype used by The Superior Express and the Superior Journal newspapers to produce lead type for approximately 60 years. The museum display also includes cases of handset type which were used prior to the arrival of machines like the Linotype and Ludlow.
Earlier this year, I completed 50 years at The Express. Before deciding to enter the world of small business, I turned down opportunities to enter both the corporate and academic worlds. Some of those jobs offered more money to start and probably would have netted more money over the ensuing years. Had I accepted one of those jobs, I would now be retired. I do not regret the choice I made and want to encourage today’s young adults to consider opportunities offered in the small business world.
Like my late friend, I do not regret the decision to hitch my career star to a small business.
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Have you been listening to the hurricane reports coming out of Texas? Can you explain the difference between a swamp, creek and bayou? Bayou is a French word meaning slow-moving waterway. In Texas and Louisiana a bayou is often a slow-moving, often stagnant creek or river. A swamp is a piece of wet, spongy land, often low ground saturated with water. Swamps may have a growth of trees but are unfit for agricultural purposes. What is the difference between swamps and marshes? Swamps usually have deeper standing water and are wet for longer periods of the year. Marshes have rich waterlogged soils that support plant life.
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