Over the years, as we are all aware, our manufacturing has been outsourced to the point where we make very little in our own country. (Read More…)

Over the last five or six years, I have been adding some lathe work to my repertoire. (Read More…)

Over the last eight years, a lot of smaller shops have closed their doors. Now that we are in something of a recovery, a lot of them are thinking about getting back into the game. But start-up capital is not so easy to come by. (Read More…)

Maybe we should think more about buying small or independent instead of thinking so much about buying local. (Read More…)

Much discussion about buying locally lately. And I do, as should be obvious by now, completely support the concept. But when selling? Now that’s a horse of a different color. (Read More…)

The latest economic assessment is one of those good news, bad news things. The good news has to do with the fact that unemployment claims have stabilized. This would indicate that those who have jobs can have a reasonable expectation that they will be able to keep them. (Read More…)

I’ve often talked about how many hats you have to wear  if you run a small business. In the corporate world, everything is specialized, but not in our world. (Read More…)

Thinking about family-owned businesses always makes me think about my wife’s family’s ranch. (Read More…)

It used to be that a business was owned by a family and was considered an asset. There was never any question as to what one would be when one grew up. (Read More…)

It has been estimated that doing business with local businesses generates up to 70 percent more local economic activity than buying from big box stores. (Read More…)