When the first issue of Small Business Times rolled off the presses 10 years ago this month, we began with a clear mission: To serve the owners and managers of privately held companies in southeastern Wisconsin.
Ten years later, I am thrilled to report that SBT has evolved and has grown to become a vital resource for our readers and our advertisers.
Along the way, we have refined our editorial mission to provide exclusive news and information that is of interest to our readers and offers operational insights.
Our readers and advertisers are our customers. In many ways, SBT is a living, breathing reflection of the customers we serve. We are an independent, closely held small business. We are the only locally owned business news publication in southeastern Wisconsin.
Like many of you, SBT is growing as a company because we are innovating.
In the past two years alone, we have added many new editorial features that provide value to our readers, including Just A Minute (a conversation with a local CEO); the Commercial Real Estate Spotlight; the Technology Spotlight; and new columnists.
We started the SBT Golf League, and we invite you to join us this year.
SBT also has become a multi-media company. Last year, we launched the BizTimes Daily, a free daily e-mail bulletin of Wisconsin business news that has grown to nearly 7,000 subscribers (www.biztimes.com/daily).
As part of the BizTimes Daily, we formed the BizTimes Stock Index, a daily Dow Jones-like gauge that measures the cumulative value of the stocks of companies based in our circulation area, which includes Milwaukee, Waukesha, Walworth, Kenosha, Racine, Ozaukee, Washington and Sheboygan counties.
We have broken dozens of major local business news stories on our Web site, www.biztimes.com. We have formed multimedia business news partnerships, so you’re seeing, hearing and reading our editorial content on television, the radio and the Internet.
SBT also has evolved by presenting exclusive events that shed light on the local economy and the business executives who are innovating and growing their companies. Our annual programs include the Northern Trust Economic Trends Breakfast, the Health Care Hero Awards, the SBT Commercial Real Estate Conference, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) Future 50 program and the Waukesha County Chamber of Commerce Top 10 Small Businesses of the Year Awards.
All of this, atop our editorial calendar that provides special reports about every key industry category in the region throughout the year.
However, we continue to innovate. This year, SBT will present the first Wisconsin Business & Technology Expo at State Fair Park, April 20-21. We have sold out all 180 exhibit booths for the Expo. We will present two days of operational seminars and the first Bravo! Entrepreneurs Awards and IQ (Innovation Quotient) Awards to worthy executives and companies that are growing through innovations and risk taking.
The Expo also will include the largest Business-After-Hours reception southeastern Wisconsin has ever seen. We’ll have a brief ceremony to mark SBT’s 10-year anniversary at the reception.
None of these exciting innovations would take place without the support of advertisers, sponsors and the dedicated SBT staff, whose names appear in the masthead on this page. Their hard work helps SBT facilitate commerce in southeastern Wisconsin.
I’d also like to thank the countless business partners who have supported SBT along the way. Ten years. Trust me, we’re just getting started!
Dan Meyer is founder and publisher of Small Business Times. You can reach him at (414) 277-8181, ext. 114, or at dan.meyer@biztimes.com.
April 1, 2005, Small Business Times, Milwaukee, WI
