About

Most businesses in America and San Diego are small businesses.  If you look at the statistics above, the average business in San Diego County has 15 employees. Many have less, a few have more. There are roughly 5,000 businesses in San Diego County. So there are alot of small business owners.

Over the past 15 years as a small business owner and advisor to many businesses, I have had the opportunity to speak with and work with hundreds of small businesses. I am astonished by the cleverness of many businesses and owners but also amazed by the ignorance.

I'm Craig Jacobson of Open Spaces Consulting. This Education Series was born in collaboration with Brian Cain of Cain Law Group and Small Business Package. We were having lunch discussing the life of entrepreneurs and their needs. It occurred to us that it would be nice to have a place to learn from other business owners where you can influence the discussions and come away with practical actions to start doing the next morning. I guess it's in the DNA of an entrepreneur to want to do this yourself if you think you can do it better than you have seen before.

Let me tell you about my experience as a small business owner. After MBA at a top 10 business school and a successful corporate career, I co-founded a small medical device manufacturer in 1993. Currently I advise small businesses on sales and marketing. 

Life as a small business owner is very different from large company corporate life. I am struck by three main differences:

- Tight budgets and big dreams
- Few good advisors to continue to learn from or bounce ideas off
- Execution over theory

I was most surprised by the loneliness of being the boss (the second point). My decisions were executed by our team of employees, but in forming the plans you are alone. What do we do next?

I personally loved working in big companies with many talented collegues who you could talk with about an idea and polish it up. As a small business owner, lunch with my network of friends who own small businesses was my only time to learn and polish ideas.

I valued connecting with many business owners who had faced various challenges before I faced them and learning from them. I will let Brian Cain discuss his motivations to invest time into the San Diego Small Business series but it is very similar to mine.

Personally speaking, I want to develop a local San Diego group of small business owners who want to
learn about a variety of disparate topics from an expert and from each other. 

You should be an important part of the San Diego Small Business Success Series. You should be prepared to both learn and share what you have learned with the group. Our goal is to have you walk away with actionable insights which you apply immediately to enhance your business.