Small Businesses, they all start that way you know, but it's up to you to make them grow. Read this article on a small business for inspiration.

Who doesn't dream of owning their very own business? My cousin John is a successful small business owner, making a tidy profit off of ownership of a chain of restaurants in Chicago. He is living the American dream, you might say, but getting to that point was like a nightmare.

I used to work for him when he opened his first restaurant. It's been a tradition in my family to own small businesses – or at least to try, for that reason we are always on the look out for a good small business opportunity and information on businesses in general. My dad ran a small construction company, my uncle ran a furniture store, but times were so lean that neither of them had any work for me. I was in high school, and there wasn't much for me to do but follow the mind-numbing American tradition of flipping burgers that summer – that is, until John called me.

At the time, he showed off, pretending he had charmed the money to start the business out of a bunch of wealthy investors. Now I know that he probably just got a small business license, or some small business grants and loans from the government, but I was so taken by his finesse growing up, that I believed him, it was after all an exiting small business opportunity. The first month of work was just getting the shack he rented up to health code so that we could acquire for small business health insurance. There were birds nesting in the walls and rats in the floor, but finally it was sparkling clean and ready for business.

The first week, nothing worked out. Opening day was deserted, the people that were acquiring our small business health insurance mixed-up our insurance with somebody elses, we had a visit from a tax man informing us that we had broken some small business laws (we later found out that he was mistaken) and as if all that wasn’t enough the power went out once for six hours! It seemed our small business had a small run. All summer we spent just trying to get the place on its feet. Finally, I had to go back to school.

So what worked for John? Plain old persistence. He worked day and night, flyered the town, acquire small business web hosting and put up a nice web site, sent out circulars, and made connections everywhere he went. He never stopped searching for small business advice from more experienced small business owners and he read every bit of information on businesses he could get his hands on. There was never a “big break”, but rather, a series of little ones which added up to success. He was featured once in the entertainment section of the local newspaper. He sponsored a little league team, and found his place soon patronized not only by them, but by several of their rivals every week after practice. Soon he was opening up a second restaurant on the other side of town, and then a third. It took him years of hard work, and twice he almost went under. But he's always told me that hard work just made the success that much sweeter.

 Editors Comment: 

I hope you found this article about starting a small business helpful. I think it just goes to show what the power of persistence can do¡ if you are thinking of starting your own small business you should seriously checkout the small business grants and loans that are available and if you’re a women small business loans exist especially for you. You should make sure you look over the small business laws first just too be on the safe side thou.