“We see all these news stories about big companies laying off thousands of employees; if you want some good economic news you call me.” That’s how she wrapped up our conversation. We were talking about how to create new jobs and using social media in the creation of those jobs. I was talking with Nell Merlino, founder of an organization called Count Me In and host of the Make Mine a Million $ Business Race (M3 RACE).
 
She believes the creation and growth of women owned small businesses is a key part of how we are going to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. I first talked with Nell last June and wrote about it in “Do Women in Business Really Matter?". That stirred up some indignant comments from women who either didn't take time to read the entire post or who maybe couldn't understand my dry sense of humor (see Women on Business Blog). I’m all for helping women owned small businesses. And since I’m a guy, I think helping men owned small businesses is a good thing too. So in our latest conversation I was looking for ideas that even guys like me could use. I found some.

Little Changes and New Products Create Lots of Jobs
 
Nell wanted to tell me about the M3 RACE where her organization aims to help tens of thousands of women business owners grow their businesses to the million dollar revenue level and beyond. It’s a great idea; we should do this for everybody trying to grow or start a small business this year.
 
Nell pointed out that small businesses can grow quickly often by making little changes in a timely manner. As an example of this she mentioned a woman owned business in New York that they're working with. It’s a bakery called Tribeca Treats. The owner saw and quickly responded to an opportunity to create a profitable new product for Valentine’s Day. She knew people weren’t going to be giving expensive gifts this year but still wanted to give something unique and personal. Within a few days her company came out with a package of six heart shaped cookies surrounding a chocolate brownie; she priced the package at $5.00 and it has sold very well. The success of this and other products led her to hire two more full time people and three more part timers who started this month. 

She made the point that helping tens of thousands of companies like this add a few new employees might be a better way to go than trying to stimulate a smaller group of big companies to create more jobs. Big companies take so much longer to respond. They have complicated and lengthy decision making processes and can’t capitalize quickly on opportunities the way small businesses can. So because of their slow response times, big companies are focusing more on lowering costs than on introducing new products. And that means lots of layoffs. 

But Nell explained that layoffs create opportunities if you have skills and ideas for how to apply them. “You were good at something [before you got laid off]; now’s your chance to try it in your own business.” She said in this economy you’d better be creative and have ideas that target specific market niches, yet the US economy is going to generate about $13 trillion in GDP this year. So this is your chance to get some of that money if you can work hard and handle the uncertainty

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