This issue marks the beginning of our fourth year of publishing Small Business Times. We fondly recall those first few months in business, confident that southeastern Wisconsin would accept a publication such as this, but at the same time, feeling a bit of the anxiety common to any entrepreneurial venture.
The anxieties soon abated as you, our fellow business owners, welcomed each month’s package of small business success stories, advice from business professionals, opportunities listings and other information which we hope helps make your business more profitable.
The formula for Small Business Times proved so successful that as a business, the paper grew rapidly and faced the same growth issues and challenges faced by many of the businesses we feature each month.
One of those challenges has been establishing our place in the market and identifying the audience we serve. We often hear comments from people afraid of the term “small business.” We, on the other hand, embrace the term. To us, small business represents the dynamism of the American economy.
Small business means innovation, job creation, flexibility, determination, vision and an understanding of the power of the individual.
Each day as we go about our business in southeastern Wisconsin, we see those attributes among the 97% of all companies which bear the title “small business.”
We’re glad to be among the legion which is carrying America into the next millennium.
And we feel fortunate to be in southeastern Wisconsin – an area written off back in the ’70s as part of the Rust Belt, but today an area boasting of such a strong economy that there is virtual total employment. It’s also an area with a bright future thanks to such projects as Miller Park, the Midwest Express Center convention center, the Milwaukee War Memorial/Art Museum addition, and revitalized downtowns throughout the area.
The power of small business has been a major factor in making the picture so bright. We at Small Business Times, in this anniversary issue, renew our commitment to bringing you the best information to help your business maintain its momentum into the next millennium.
At this time, we offer a special thanks to our advertisers who have placed their trust in Small Business Times and who have thus made this business viable. And we say “thanks” to the nearly 100,000 people who read the paper each month, and to all the business owners who have allowed us to share their stories with others.
— The publishers of Small Business Times
April 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
