In 1989 my father, John P Scherer, started Computer Helper. (www.ComputerHelperGA.com) Since that time every meal my family has eaten has been paid for by a small local business. I love small business.
Here are a few things I love about small businesses:
- Small business creates jobs. It’s simple. Start a business, grow it, hire employees. Whether or not these are good jobs, horrible jobs or great live-changing jobs is up to you.
- It has no ceiling. There is a ceiling to every career. No matter how good you get at a traditional job there is a max that someone will be willing to pay you as a salary before they replace you with someone “good enough” who is also willing to work much cheaper that you are. When you start a small business the possibilities are endless – it is all about what you make of it.
- You get to create your own work environment. Are you a loner, thrive on being with people? It’s up to you.
- You have an amazing opportunity to mentor. I’ve watched my dad over the years give so many young people a chance. Some of them have wasted it. Some of them have learned skills that enabled them to have a great career and some of them have been influenced in such a way that it caused them to grow and truly change the course of their lives. Repaired relationships, saved marriages and new attitudes towards life are just a few things I’ve watched Computer Helper provide over the years.
- Builds a local community. “FAME, I wanna live forever!” We hear it all the time around time. My kids are convinced that everyone in our little pond knows us. Famous? Not really but working locally had allowed me to get to know some of the top leaders in our community. That’s a great benefit.
- Teaches your kids about business. They can’t help it. You live, breath and talk business all the time, right? Hearing my kids dream about a shop somewhere then start factoring in rent, utilities, paying employees… I love it!
- It makes you well-rounded. Not really. I guess it could. However, to be success full you get to learn lots of fun skills like how to move furniture, do accounting, fix stuff, deal with angry customers, sell stuff, make stuff, banking, finance, fix computer systems… quite the resume builder.
I could go on and on but the fact is there’s nothing like starting from scratch and building something of significance!
