Rainy Days and SMBs

Hello and welcome back. My apologies for being away for such a period of time, but I am looking forward to getting back into the groove of things. Since I last posted on May 27th so much as changed and so much has stayed the same. Small businesses are still looking for credit, are being impacted by the economy and feeling the pinch by legislation such as the minimum wage increase or the proposal for universal health care. So, if you would have re-read some of my earlier posts, you would not have missed me at all. :-)

Today, there was a great piece in the Wall Street Journal by Sarah Needleman on small business, the economy and the weather. Their is an interesting correlation between poor weather and poor financial results for small businesses. When there is bad weather such as rain, fewer people leave their homes and go shopping. My father who owns and runs an auto upholstery business can tell me his outlook for the week based on the 5-day weather forecast. If there is rain or snow (his business is in the Chicagoland area) he knows there will be fewer walk-in customers. If it is a rainy spring, he could suffer the impact throughout the entire year.

In Sarah's story, small businesses are not only dealing with an economy recession like never before, but also with consistent poor weather conditions across the country. This combination is causing all sorts of issues for small businesses.

I would encourage all marketers to read the piece (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125055005447938393.html?mod=dist_smartbrief) as it can help gain some sensitivity to what small business owners go through on a daily basis.

Brad