ENTREPRENEUR: Small Investment, Big Return

As a struggling owner of a new business, am I pleased that Entrepreneur magazine has just joined the MagSampler.com catalogue? Would a guy clinging to a splintered deck chair in the empty mid-Pacific not be overjoyed to find a shrink-wrapped catalogue of the latest in life preserver gear float by? (Now don't get logical on me; have you seen the plot holes in Hollywood movies lately?) I've been looking through a copy of the November issue of Entrepreneur, and am pleasantly surprised at what I find. When a magazine aims at supplying useful editorial material to the massive universe of small business people, it's gunning for a very wide range of people with just as great a diversity of products and services―and problems. You can't be too general, or the info isn't useful to anyone. You can't be too specific, or the 1% of people who you've made happy by solving all their problems are outweighed by the 99% who could care less about making widgets for golf carts. Entrepreneur, published in Irvine, CA, addresses this question by offering many short articles on a wide variety of topics, and some will invariably hit home to just about anyone reading an issue. A thread running through the magazine is its advocacy role for small businesses. Editorial director Rieva Lesonsky complains in an editorial that Congress has been balking at increasing support for Small Business Development Centers, which give advice to business people. The magazine also attacks recent Congressional legislation that largely eliminates small businesses from consideration in the awarding of contracts for Gulf Coast reconstruction. There are, of course, dozens of profiles of successful entrepreneurs, and you'll also find sections on tech gadgets, money concerns (such as finding investors, insurance and cutting taxes), and sales techniques. The back of the magazine is devoted to franchising opportunities and concerns. Between the covers you'll find advice on such topics as Web site design, decorating your office, buying a new computer flat screen and motivating your employees (and yourself) to act like owners. An annual subscription (12 issues) to Entrepreneur is an amazing $11.97; you can get a sample copy from us for $2.59.