How Many Small Businesses Does it Take to Change the Economy?

On Wednesday, March 18, Paul Renzi, a social entrepreneur from Hockessin, Delaware, became the 25,000th person to join Biznik. As it turns out, he's building a community "to help the entrepreneurial community connect and find funding, while also participating in shared philanthropic objectives." I share his goals, and I'm going to do everything I can to help him succeed. And I know many of you will, too.

Biznik is a community of entrepreneurs dedicated to helping each other succeed. At the moment Paul joined last night, on the other side of the country in Bellevue, Washington, Steve MacDonald was teaching nearly 100 Biznik members How to Start Using Social Media and Branding to Grow Your Business. We all went home with new ideas that we can begin acting on today.

What the economy needs right now is for YOU to succeed. As Barack Obama said earlier this week, small business is the heart of the economy. There are 27 million businesses in the United States. 21 million of them have fewer than 5 employees. When we succeed, America succeeds.

I believe that as small business owners today, we have an economic responsibility to help each other succeed. The financial industry certainly isn't capable of doing it. Big businesses aren't going to do it. Even government can't do it without our help. The responsibility is our our shoulders. And we can't do it alone.

Who do you know who needs to succeed? Maybe it's someone who's been laid off for so long that they've given up looking for work. Maybe that someone is thinking about starting a business, but doesn't know where to start. Or maybe it's someone like Robert Middleton, a marketing guru who Suzi Elton invited Biznik two weeks ago, who says:

"Unlike most social networking, that emphasizes building huge lists of friends and followers, Biznik is more concerned with building solid business relationships."

It's taken more than 3 years for this community of entrepreneurs to reach 25,000 members. In the current economy, we need to reach more people, faster. And we can. If every Biznik member invited 3 friends today, we'd have 100,000 members tomorrow. Today, I'm asking you to think of 3 people who need a community dedicated to helping them succeed in business, and invite them to Biznik.

Let's not wait for big business, or a government bailout. Let's do what we do best: let's count on each other. Let's change the economy, one small business at a time.

You + 3 = 100,000.

Here's to your success,

Dan