$700 billion, and none of it for me

like most of you, i am shocked and awed by the greed, corruption and irresponsibility i see in america's big business today. aig and others, who can squander more money in a weekend than my business will see in the next 5 years, make those of us struggling to keep ourselves afloat completely nauseous.

i'm angry and frustrated that these giants should be allowed to continue with irresponsible spending while no one seems to be helping my small buisiness with it's day to day struggles. they use my tax dollars to pay for pedicures, while i struggle to pay for one new computer. it's disgusting.

i am reminded of a story from perry marshall, a well known marketer, who quotes a family member who is a nebraska farmer. he equates the bailout with someone stealing his cow and then asking him to buy the feed for the cow. while he is resentful of the request, he doesn't want to see his cow die of starvation, so he will reluctantly help. i think that's where most of us small businesses are. we don't want to see those big guys (some of whom make it harder for us to do business) take our entire economy down in a landslide. and yet, who helps us pay our mortgage? who provides our employees with health care and child care? we struggle daily. and it's not fair.

so who is here to help the small business in this time of economic struggle and crisis?

we are.

we need to hold each other up.

we know that the government, despite its recognition of the importance of small business to american economy, cannot afford to help us while simultaneously bailing out wall street. we are low on their priority list.

we also know that banks and lending institutions are going to be wary of working with us, especially if our personal credit is less than spectacular. just manage to acquire an illness that requires hospitalization or expensive tests (say with pregnancy?) and all of a sudden your credit score will drop faster than a wall street CEO with a golden parachute.

but something we can do, that helps all of us, is work together. keep working with small businesses whenever you can. of course, be fiscally responsible in your business decisions, but try to support your local small business owner whenever you can:

- shop local for things like office supplies and printing
- use local help whenever possible and stop outsourcing out of the united states for jobs that can keep americans employed
- use freelancers and small consulting companies instead of big companies with massive overhead and foreign investment behind them
- partner with other small companies to save money on purchases, products and shipping that can be done in bulk
- work with, not against, customers who might have a hard time paying their bills. remember they have employees and families too
- pay your own bills as timely as you can, and open dialogue with any vendor that you can't pay on time so that they can try to work with you

we need to help each other. we need to work together. i truly believe that the power of small business is great enough that we can help each other through this, and we will be OK. but it takes working together, depending on each other and communicating well.

we are stronger than the sum of our parts. in fact, together, we are unbeatable.