History – SmallBusiness.com

For 315 Years, This Small Business Has Chiseled American History in Stone

Rex Hammock — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 10:15:00 +0000

(A July 4th tradition, first published on SmallBusiness.com on July 3, 2014)

Founded in 1705, 71 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, The John Stevens Shop in Newport, RI, continues to design and hand-letter one-of-a-kind inscriptions in stone, practicing a craft and using methods and tools that date back to the Romans. Nicholas Waite Benson, 49, has been the owner and creative director of the business since 1993. A MacArthur Fellow (sometimes called, “the genius grant”), Nick began working at the shop at age 15 with his father, John Everett Benson. In turn, John Everett Benson learned stone carving from his father, John Howard Benson, at the age of 15.

How to keep a business running for 309 years

The work of Nick Benson and his staff will be around for centuries. It seems only appropriate that the company creating that work has been around for centuries as well. After John Stevens founded the shop, it was maintained by six generations of Stevenses, until Nick’s grandfather, a printer, artist and stone carver, bought it in the 1920s. It is one of the oldest continuously-operated business in the U.S..

According to Nick, he wasn’t all that interested in the family business during his childhood. “I began carving lettering in 1979, but I didn’t give it much thought until I got to college, and that’s when I realized what an interesting place the shop was,” he said in a 2013 interview with American Spirit magazine. His family’s reputation helps his business secure major jobs like national memorials and famed architectural work. “My grandfather’s Iwo Jima Memorial designs helped my father get involved with the JFK Memorial in Arlington Cemetery, which is how I got involved with the World War II Memorial.”

“If you devote yourself to producing the highest standard of work, the business will follow. Never compromise on standards,” he told SmallBusiness.com.

The work of the John Stevens Shop

Some of the monuments and memorials where you can see the hand- lettering of the craftsmen of the John Stevens Shop:

Iwo Jima Memorial, Arlington, Virginia
The John F. Kennedy Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
The Civil Rights Memorial, Montgomery, Alabama
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Roosevelt Island, New York, New York
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Washington, DC
Gravestones for Tennessee Williams, Lillian Hellman and George Balanchine
The Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Center, Chicago, Illinois

Featured Photo: (L-R) John Benson and his son, Nicholas Benson. Photo via: JohnStevensShop.com)

Memorial Day: Honoring Those Who Made the Final Sacrifice

SmallBusiness.com — Fri, 28 May 2021 17:01:00 +0000

In the U.S., the last Monday in May is Memorial Day, a federal holiday honoring the men and women who died while serving in the country’s armed forces. During this Memorial Day weekend, we encourage you to spend some time remembering the sacrifice these men and women made.

Memorial Day is sometimes confused with Veterans Day, which honors all those who have served in the armed forces. It is appropriate that we honor our veterans these two holidays — and throughout the year.

As a small business, one of the best ways to display that honor is to hire veterans who, as we’ve noted, make great employees.

In the SmallBusiness.com Guide to Resources for Military Veterans, you will find links to resources that will help you find and recruit veterans. Also, in the guide, veterans can find links to resources for veterans who want to start a business.

Here are links the Veterans Administration has provided to various events in Washington, DC. There are also events planned in cities across the country,

Memorial Day Resources

We honor all active-duty members of our armed forces, our military veterans, and especially those who paid the ultimate price in service to their country.

Also on SmallBusiness.com

Photo: GettyPhoto

10 Amazing Facts About George Washington’s 2nd Most Successful Startup

Rex Hammock — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 06:00:02 +0000

(Note: This is an annual feature we run on George Washington’s birthday.) It’s appropriate that we take time to honor George Washington’s role in founding what is among the most successful startups in history, the United States of America. It is also worth noting that when not fathering a country, Washington was an active investor in other startups ranging from canals (a bust) to a distillery (a huge win). To help celebrate this Monday holiday Americans traditionally call President’s Day , here are ten amazing facts surrounding Washington’s role as a founding father of America’s Distilled Spirits industry.

1 | George Washington was the only founding father to start and operate a distillery.

(Photo: MountVernon.org)

Despite many of the nation’s founders being planters and large land owners, Washington was the only one to start a commercial distillery.

2 | George Washington didn’t start his distillery until he was 65 years old.

Washington in 1797, age 65, approximately when the distillery was open. (Portrait: WikiMedia Commons)

At this time in Washington’s life, as his second and final term as President was coming to an end, he was actively trying to simplify his farming operations and reduce his expansive land holdings. Always keen to enterprises that might earn him extra income, Washington was intrigued by the profit potential that a distillery might bring in.

3 | Before launching his distillery, Washington had no personal experience distilling.

While he had no background in distilling, Washington was always open to innovative and creative farming practices of the day. He decided to invest in a distillery at the urging of his Scottish farm manager, James Anderson, who had experience distilling grain in Scotland and Virginia. In what we’d call today a “startup pitch,” Anderson convinced Washington that Mount Vernon’s crops, combined with its large commercial gristmill and the abundant water supply, would make the distillery a profitable venture.

4 | Within a year, Washington’s distillery became one of largest in the country.

The Mount Vernon Distillery and Gristmill as it would have appeared in 1799. (via: MountVernon.org)

In 1799, two years after he launched it, Washington’s distillery produced almost 11,000 gallons of whiskey. By comparison, the average Virginia distillery produced 650 gallons of whiskey per year. While there were thousands of distilleries at the time Washington started his distillery, the great majority of these were in small out-buildings about 800-square feet in size, with one still that produced a few hundred gallons of spirits during one month of operation. By comparison, Washington’s distillery measured 75 x 30 feet (2,250 square feet) operated five copper pot stills for 12 months a year.

5 | Like most successful startups, timing played a key role in the success of Washington’s distillery.

Until the 1790s, rum was the American drink of choice. Starting in the 1790s, tastes began to shift to whiskey, prompting a boom in distilling.

6 | His distillery was part of a larger plan by Washington that included the freeing of his slaves.

Washington, a slave-holder until his death, nevertheless was the only major planter among the seven founding fathers to emancipate his slaves. The distillery was part of his effort to diversify his operations and create non-farming revenue streams. By moving away from labor-intensive activities, Washington hoped to clear the path to freeing the more than 300 slaves who worked on his widespread land. While his will designated their emancipation upon the death of his wife, Martha, she freed them sooner, 12 months after his death.

7 | Washington’s whiskey was very different from today’s whiskey.

(Photo: David Barrett via Flickr)

Unlike the requirements of the distillation process of whiskey today, Washington was able to streamline production and distribution of his product because it was not bottled, branded, or aged. It was sold by the barrel to merchants and nearby planters.

8 | As President, George Washington signed into law a federal tax (and led a military campaign to enforce its collection) that would make him one of the nation’s most-taxed business owners.

George Washington and his troops near Fort Cumberland, Maryland, before their march to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. (via: WikiMedia Commons)

Not only did Washington sign the tax into law, he led a militia of 12,000 into western Pennsylvania to put down an insurrection now known as the Whiskey Rebellion and, in doing, established the right of the federal government to tax its population.

9 | Washington’s distillery lacked the succession planning necessary to keep it operational.

George Washington’s death in 1799 halted the brief success of the distillery. Sold soon after his death by an heir, within a decade, the building fell into disrepair and many of the stones were taken away to use in local construction projects.

10 | Mount Vernon has reconstructed a working distillery on the spot where it originally existed.

While the distillery building burned in 1814, knowledge of the operation was preserved in Washington’s writings. The land on which the building stood is owned today by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The organization that manages Washington’s home and plantation, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, entered an agreement with the state to restore and manage the park in 1995. The site of the Distillery was excavated by Mount Vernon’s archaeologists between 1999 and 2006 and reconstruction began in 2005 and was completed in 2007. Learn more about tours of Mt. Vernon and the distillery on MountVernon.org. The association even sells limited batches of whiskey each year.

(Information for this post came from three sources: The book, Founding Spirits: George Washington and the Beginnings of the American Whiskey Industry, by Dr. Dennis Pogue, a historian and archaeologist who worked on the excavation and reconstruction of Washington’s Mount Vernon distillery; the paper, “A Pretty Considerable Distillery: Excavating George Washington’s Whiskey Distillery” by Eleanor Breen, assistant archaeologist and Esther C. White, director of archaeology at Mount Vernon; and the informative website of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, the non-profit organization that preserves and maintains Mount Vernon.)

(Originally published on SmallBusiness.com on February 15, 2014)

The 150-Year History of the Term ‘Small Business’

Rex Hammock — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 08:00:34 +0000

(Update: May 12, 2019)

In doing some fact-checking about presidents who started and ran small businesses, I was reminded how the term “small business” is not useful as a search term when looking for primary source material before the 20th century. To demonstrate what I mean, the trendline chart above tracks the appearance of the term “small business” in books published between 1880 and 2000.

Using Google’s Ngram Viewer, a tool that pulls such information from the Google Books‘ database of digitized books and publications, it’s easy to see that the phrase “small business” didn’t come into general use until the latter part of the 19th century. Usage of the term grew rapidly in two distinct time periods: (1) From 1920–1940 and (2) From 1970 until the present.

While neither a linguist nor historian, I’m familiar with (and even professionally attached to) enough American history and the term “small business” to suggest the journey of the term’s popularity.

1. Before the industrial revolution, all business was small business.

The American Civil War and the innovations of the second half of the 19th century ushered in the beginnings of a form of market-driven big business we’d recognize today. (Big business existed earlier, but forced labor and ownership by kings is not exactly the business paradigm to which I’m referring.) The notion of there being such a thing as a “small” business wasn’t necessary until there emerged the notion of a “big” business.

2. The cultural changes of the Roaring ’20s and Great Depression.

The notion of business as “big” and “small” fits into cultural and social shifts of the 1920s and 1930s, a period that saw a pendulum swing from economic boom to bust back to boom. The emergence of the middle class, organized labor and the golden age of Main Street commerce raised the country’s collective awareness that businesses came in two sizes, big and small. While the Great Depression wasn’t good for big business, it did wonders for big government.

3. The Post-war “Pejorative Era” of the term “Small Business.”

After World War II (won in America’s big and small factories, as well as on the battlefield, sky and sea), several social and cultural trends, economic events and the emergence of TV as the dominant medium combined to give many Americans a near religious-like belief in all things big: big government, big business, big media, even big hair. Is it a coincidence that this period of America’s emergence as the world’s dominant economic power would see a 20-year flatline in the growth of the usage of the term “small business”?

While it may be merely a coincidence of history, here’s some anecdotal (and today, quite ironic) evidence of the temporary dip in popularity of the term “small business”: In 1943, C. Wilson Harder created the National Federation of Small Business. In 1949, the organization changed its name to the National Federation of Independent Business. In hindsight, the name change seems impossible to imagine–unless understood in the context of that era’s connotation of “small business.” Today, the organization primarily uses its initials, NFIB, as its brand (in part, to avoid having to explain what “independent” means) and describes itself as “America’s leading small-business advocacy association.”

4. The era of the rugged individual who drives the engine of America’s economic growth.

Today, the term “small business” captures the essence of an American dream that evokes personal independence, risk and reward, and doing well by doing good. Supported by billions of dollars in advertising in which giant corporations have used the term “small business” in a celebratory way (the pinnacle of which is American Express’ Small Business Saturday promotion), it is no surprise that a Pew Research study shows Americans trust small businesses as much as they love Mom and apple pie, while they trust Congress just a little less than they trust corporations, which is not at all.

Disclosure:

Obviously, I’m biased. The name of this site is SmallBusiness.com.

Based on the history displayed in the chart above and my personal preference, I like the term “small business” and celebrate what it stands for every way I can. But I am in no way anti-big business. Hammock Inc. (the one that operates SmallBusiness.com, along with many other things) works extensively with clients who are very large corporations, so I’m clearly not anti-big.

Even if the name of this site wasn’t SmallBusiness.com, I’d still encourage marketers who want to reach an audience of owners and managers of companies that aren’t “big” (pick any number of employees less than 500) to be aware of the upward trending history of the term “small business.”

Realize you’re sailing into gale-force winds if you forget that terms like “middle-sized business” or “micro-business” (the acronym that only marketers understand — SMB — are ok for inside-the-company strategy sessions, but they are terms that have little or no awareness among the audience you are trying to reach.

The term “small business” isn’t broken. Try to rebrand it and you’re up against 150 years of history.

(The featured graphic includes a photo by Trey Ratcliff via Flickr)

The ‘Founding Garages’ of Four Famous Small Businesses That Grew into Giant Companies

SmallBusiness.com — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 15:12:32 +0000

The biggest companies in the world have to start somewhere. Sometimes, especially in Silicon Valley, that starting place is a car garage. To understand how incredible the journey of these garage startups have been, the on-demand home services company HomeAdvisor created these clever models of where four legendary garage startups began.

Apple | 1976 | Steve Jobs’ parents’ garage | Los Altos, California

Steve Jobs’ parent’s garage is the mythological birthplace of Apple. Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne worked on their early designs and marketing plans in the legendary garage. As with many “founding myths” of successful startups, the Apple story has competing accounts, but the home is still owned by Jobs’ step-mother and is a popular tourist spot for Apple fans.

Disney | 1923 | The garage of Walt and Roy Disney’s Uncle Robert | Los Angeles

When Walt Disney moved to Hollywood to join his older brother Roy, the two set up in their Uncle Robert’s garage where they would start what would one day grow into the world’s biggest animation studio. Saved from demolition in 1998, the garage was moved to the Stanley Ranch Museum in Garden Grove, where small groups can visit and see Disney memorabilia.

Hewlett-Packard | 1939 | Dave and Lucile Packard’s garage | Palo Alto, California

Bill Hewlett‎ and ‎David Packard became Hewlett-Packard when the two co-founders started working from a garage outside the house Packard and his wife were renting in Palo Alto. Hewlett lived in a shack on the property also.

Google | 1998 | Susan Wojcicki’s garage in Menlo Park, California

Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin rented Susan Wojcicki’s garage between September 1998 and February 1999 to begin work on Google. The eight-employee then moved to an office in Palo Alto. Today the house is owned by Google and was used to commemorate the company’s 15th anniversary.

For more about the Google garage, google it.

Sources

Martin, J. (2015) On the set of Steve Jobs film cnet.com
Haire, C. (2015) A piece of Disney history in Garden Grove ocregister.com
Eventually Made. (2018) Garage Tales eventuallymade.com
Johnson Mandell, L. (2017) The HP Garage – The Birthplace of Silicon Valley hpmuseum.org
Eventually Made. (2018) Garage Tales eventuallymade.com
Parmar, N. (2014) Wanted from the Middle East: the next Apple or Microsoft thenational.ae
Wagner, K. (2013) In the Garage Where Google Was Born mashable.com
Bohn, D. (2013) Garage brand: Google taps its founding myth in search of a new beginning theverge.com

Models from HomeAdvisor. Used with permission.

Also on SmallBusiness.com

How to Know it’s Time to Move Your Business Out of the Garage and Into an Office

It’s Presidents Day: What’s Open? What’s Closed? And it’s Officially Called Washington’s Birthday

SmallBusiness.com — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 05:02:47 +0000

We cannot tell a lie. The national holiday observed in the U.S. on the third Monday of February is not officially called Presidents Day. Officially, it is Washington’s Birthday (although some states refer to it as Presidents Day).

If you are old enough, you may recall that until 1978, Americans celebrated Washington’s Birthday by eating a cherry pie on February 22 each year. Of course, the cherry pie was a reference to the Father of our Nation’s inability to tell a lie, therefore confessing to his father that he did, indeed, chop down the cherry tree. (Okay, it is a myth, but we still like the pie.)

The usage of the name “Presidents Day” started slowly in 1978 with the start of the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act.” The Act moved Washington’s Birthday (February 22), Memorial Day (May 30), and Veterans Day (November 11) from fixed dates to designated Mondays, and established as a federal holiday Columbus Day—which had previously been celebrated in some states on October 12—to a designated Monday.

The Act was designed to increase the number of three-day weekends for federal employees, a favorite goal of the travel industry. (In 1978, Veterans Day was removed from the list of “always-on-Monday” holidays when Congress moved it back to its traditional date of November 11.)

The Act did not officially (or even unofficially) establish “Presidents Day”, nor did it combine the observance of Lincoln’s Birthday with Washington’s Birthday. That misperception stems from the act’s shift of Washington’s “birthday” to the week of February 15 to 21. Since that week always falls between Lincoln’s birthday (February 12) and Washington’s (February 22) but never includes either date, the term “Presidents Day” has slowly become the norm.

And over time, what were once Washington’s Birthday Sales have become President’s Day Sales.

No matter what you call it, it’s still a national holiday. What’s opened and closed on February 19, 2018?

Mailing and Shipping

The United States Postal Service will not deliver mail on Presidents Day, but UPS and FedEx will operate as usual.

Banks

Most banks will be closed, including Federal Reserve Banks.

Schools

Most public schools will be closed to observe the federal holiday, and many private schools will do the same. Some schools might be in session to make up for weather-related cancellations.

Stock markets

The New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and bond markets will be closed.

Garbage

Trash pickup will vary from town-to-town. Check with your local provider.

Courts

Courts will not be in session.

Retail stores and shops

Most department stores and retail shops will be open, many offering Presidents Day sales. Most restaurants will also remain open.

Grocery stores

Most grocery stores will be open.

Restaurants

Call or check online.

istock

10 Amazing Facts About George Washington’s 2nd Most Successful Startup

When the Time for Action Arrives Stop Thinking and Go In | Andrew Jackson | #Motivation

Rex Hammock — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 12:34:12 +0000

“Take time to deliberate but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.”

Andrew Jackson

Source: “A maxim of Gen. Jackson’s” published in the archive of the Hartford Courant, Vol. XXII No. 25, Hartford, Conn., Saturday, December 12, 1857

Andrew Jackson was born 250 years ago today, on March 15, 1767

He was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837 and was the founder of the Democratic Party. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson served in Congress and gained fame as a general in the United States Army, most notably as “the hero of New Orleans” during the War of 1812. As president, Jackson sought to advance the rights of the “common man” against what he saw as a “corrupt aristocracy” and to preserve the Union.

There are 50+ cities and counties in the U.S. named after Jackson.

Celebrating Red, White and Blue on SmallBusiness.com

SmallBusiness.com — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 23:46:44 +0000

Because July 4 falls on a Monday this year (2016), those of us who live in the U.S. have a three-day weekend to celebrate Independence Day. Here are some yankee doodle dandy articles that have appeared on SmallBusiness.com during the past two years.

10 Amazing Facts About George Washington’s 2nd Most Successful Startup

For 309 Years, This Small Business Has Chiseled American History in Stone

This Sixth-Generation Family Business Lights Up the 4th of July Sky

How Ben Franklin Used a 21st Century Approach to Create His 18th Century Business Success

8 U.S. Presidents Who Started and Ran Businesses

This American Small Business Celebrates Flag Day All Year

This Sixth-Generation Family Business Lights Up the 4th of July Sky

SmallBusiness.com — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 14:47:12 +0000

During the next few days, millions of families in the U.S. will be taking part in an annual tradition: celebrating Independence Day by viewing a fireworks show. Some shows will be small (and dangerous) events put on by families in the neighborhood while others will be gigantic extravaganzas staged by one of four multigenerational family businesses like Fireworks by Grucci.

Grucci is a sixth-generation, family-owned and operated company. Known as “America’s First Family of Fireworks,” the Gruccis have transformed the night skies to the delight of millions across the globe since 1850. As with any family business that has survived so long, there have been challenges and set-backs along with the successes and accolades. Most tragic was an explosion that leveled the company’s factory in 1983, killing two family members. Rising from the ashes with help from other companies, the family persevered so that today, it still excites and inspires millions of families who see their shows each year at events around the world.

A few of the historic events which have featured Fireworks by Grucci

Seven consecutive U.S. Presidential inaugurations
Olympic Games Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Lake Placid
Centennial of the Statue of Liberty
Centennial of the Brooklyn Bridge
200th Anniversary of the National Anthem

See a Grucci Fireworks show | Upcoming shows

Other multi-generational fireworks families

In addition to Grucci, there are three other family businesses going back five generations that stage major fireworks shows. Each one is over a century old and, like Grucci, were started by Italian or Portuguese immigrants. The photo above was taken during a July 4th Zambelli Fireworks display in Nashville, Tenn..

Also on SmallBusiness.com

For 309 Years, This Small Business Has Chiseled American History in Stone

This American Small Business Celebrates Flag Day All Year

(Photo: Paul Polichronakis via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

This American Small Business Celebrates Flag Day All Year

SmallBusiness.com — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 13:08:51 +0000

In the U.S., June 14 is designated as Flag Day. The American flag was less than fifty years old when Alexander Annin began making U.S. flags for the merchant ships in his sail-making shop on the New York City waterfront in the 1820’s.

In 1847, his sons started Annin Flagmakers. Today, it is America’s oldest and largest flag company and is still family owned and operated.

The story of Annin is interwoven with the story of America itself:

It was an Annin flag that flew at the inauguration of President Zachary Taylor, starting an inaugural tradition.
An Annin flag draped the coffin of President Abraham Lincoln on its journey from Washington D.C. to Springfield, Illinois.
The U.S. Marines raised an American flag made by Annin atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima in 1945
NASA selected an American flag made by Annin to participate in Apollo 11’s mission to the moon in 1969.

Annin is one of the founders of the Flag Manufacturers Association of America (FMAA), a not-for-profit trade association, representing United States flag manufacturers and suppliers dedicated to educating and promoting the quality, variety and proper use of flags manufactured in the United States.

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This American Small Business Celebrates Flag Day All Year

Photo: NASA