Every 4 years, I feel like going on a rant concurrent with the presidential election, and even though I know very few people will read this and some may not agree with me, I will take this time to inform my readers that most US politicians regardless of political party have virtually no understanding of small businesses and what it takes to make them grow. They can't be blamed for this. They live in self-imposed vacuums of a sort. They talk about small business and the need to encourage it, but when it comes to an understanding of what our needs are, they haven't a clue.

The Small Business Act states that a small business concern is "one that is independently owned and operated and which is not dominant in its field of operation."

So, in many cases, a "small business" may have many hundreds of employees and businesses as small as my own are lumped in and essentially ignored even though very small businesses are the ones most capable of expansion and most capable of stimulating economic growth.

Engagement in reality through the lens offered by the hands offers a different approach to business definition, not based on size but on structure and potential. Management based business models have a person or organizational structure that stands apart from its productive capacity. In essence, it is based on the model presented by separation between the hand and intellect.

A skills based model, recognizes the integration of head with hand, intellect with productive capacity, and is based on the model of a skilled craftsman. If you enable a skilled craftsman to hire employees without the huge burden imposed by government regulations, and the book keeping burden required to comply with them, you have created a situation in which craftsmen can double their productive capacity, double employment, and impart essential skills to future generations. The incredible potential that skills-based small business expansion offers economic growth is far greater than can be imagined by those currently in government.

This is a model and a view that comes from my observation of the economy through the hands-on perspective of a skilled craftsman. I am interested in receiving feedback on this concept to help me to refine my thoughts. Please feel free to contact me via email through the link at right or add your comments below.

In the coming days, I will offer proposals to enable skills-based small business expansion. Who knows whether anyone will notice. I was reading today that research at Columbia University has confirmed the 6 degrees of separation. That means I'm just 6 people away from either McCain or Obama. If you have enough wisdom in your hands to know what I'm talking about, help me to make some connections.