As an MMBA business owner for the past 17 year my efforts are most recently focused on growing my 24 hour 365 day/year Answering Service, which serves other small business local and nationwide. There are 6-11 employees working in the office. There was a time when I was able to provide Health Insurance for my staff members, that benefit was decreased to a 50-50 split of the expense, and now it is an unaffordable benefit. The level of training required for an operator to be proficient enough is at 3-4 weeks before one can sit the calls without a mentor - usually my job. Our customers always compliment our services and attitudes, they seem sincere in their appreciation of our work. They pay promptly. The business expenses include a voice and data 24 channels each of digital T1 service and 200 Direct Inward Dial Numbers to identify each client's calls and toll free numbers for our nationwide clients to forward their calls to. When the staff is in good order, I'm in the office a full 40 hours/week, when staffing is muddled or training is in progress I can put in 16 hour days. I am proud of what we do, and I enjoy the work, even cleaning the relatively small office rather than having it done. My current 3 biggest challenges are (one) increasing the customer base much more quickly with little time to make sales calls, join community organizations and participate in events, and little budget for advertising, in addition to indecision about which advertising venue is the best bet for my dollars. (two) No budget for improving telecommunications equipment, PCs Monitors, and I need a fax server. (three) improving the pay and benefits for hardworking valued employees. It seems that with the power of numbers, and grouping our efforts, some or our needs may be met, or help can be applied for within the affiliation of MMBA. So bravo to the idea. Keep me up on developments, count on me to help with what I can. Betty The Communications Manager

Thanks for the comment Elizabeth Ann. My apologies for the delayed response. I was not properly notified of your comment, not to mention somewhat distracted by working to fund this project. We expect to be pushing the project much more in the coming months and I promise to keep you up on what's happening. Thanks for the story and the passion. I hope that as others come together we'll be able to collectively find solutions to the kinds of problems you highlight.