Small Business does that.
That's right, small businesses owned by individuals, hiring a few locals and/or family members, providing services and products right in your neighborhood. Mom-and-Pop stores with no corporate backer, paying all the bills themselves, doing their own marketing, adding wrinkles to their faces waiting for the shoe to drop every time some idiot government regulations get passed.
Yes, Small Business is the backbone of any healthy economy. Just like a real spine needs to stay flexible to best support the body, Small Business must also remain flexible. It's hard to do that. Ask your local commercial real estate agent how hard it is to fill their spaces. But are there any government bailouts for them? No. Those are reserved for the boys who know how to whine loudest: Corporate America and Unions.
So, it was with interest I received a survey yesterday from Inc., a magazine that started in 1979 and was geared for small businesses such as sole proprietors. At one point in the survey they asked for my written opinion. Here is what I wrote:
The writing in the magazine itself is fine. Sentences and editing are good. But the writers don't have a clue...or if they do, then the editors are shutting them down.
The problem with Inc. can best be summed up by this survey itself: The questions asked fed into preconceived notions of what the reader wants and/or needs. Several times I looked for the answer I wanted to give, but couldn't find it.
I stopped subscribing for this reason: It got to where nothing in the magazine had any relevance to me as a small business, a sole proprietorship. The articles weren't anything that I couldn't get in Forbes, so why read (and pay for) both? When I first started with Inc., there were real people starting extremely small businesses who had real problems and no connections to money or other resources. Inc. was a joy to read in those days and I learned a lot.
But then the magazine began to feature companies and founders and challenges (let me chuckle at that) with which I could not identify. I did not re-up my subscription.
After some years, Inc. sent a "deal" to "come back" and I thought, "Why not? Maybe they are heading back to their roots." Boy, was I wrong. When yet another issue came with the glowing face of an obvious former corporate-type bemoaning their fate in only getting $X mil in funding instead of $Y gabillions. With glossy inserts to come and please spend your hard-earned money to hear yet another founder with an IPO success story and platitudes of "you can do it if you just work hard" load of crap. That's when I said forget it. Never again.
Look. It is clear Inc. no longer knows that truly small businesses are the backbone of any community. Because if they knew it, they wouldn't be ignoring us.
As examples of some of what I wrote about above, the following will be interesting.
This screen shot of survey shows what Inc.'s idea of "small business" is:
Plants? Subsidiaries? Branches? Sheesh.
In this screen shot please note the section "How I Did It (profile of a significant entrepreneur): What does significant even mean? There is nothing against which to compare it. Significant how? To whom?
This screen shot of survey completely dismisses the small business that has multiple streams of income under one business name.
Then to top it all off, they started asking questions that had nothing to do with my opinion of their magazine. Questions such as how much was I worth in liquid assets, and how often did I travel for fun, and what are my hobbies, to which I lied or answered nunyabidnezz.
That smacked to me of information that would be gathered then sold to marketing partners. Then, to collect my email addy a second time, they offered a $100 gift card — that would be chosen in a drawing. Here's what I think of that:
Prosthetic eyes courtesy of Snapchat. Towel from Target.
[Marketing check from both corporations expected toot-sweet, boys.]
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