Anita Campbell has reported that economic conditions look positive for small businesses. Her recent post references the SBA’s Quarterly Indicators Report, as well as the Small Business Economic Trends Quarterly Report from the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Check out her post for links to the PDF reports, as well as her insightful summary.

If you own your own business, these indicators could forecast a strong market that will likely carry well into 2006.

But what will happen if your business owns you? You could spend all of 2006 working day and night and never quite get ahead. Or maybe you’ll get ahead financially, and it’ll cost you your relationship with family or friends. Sorry to sound pessimissic. I’m not. I just think it’s important to keep these risks in perspective.

Knowing how to grow can be a major challenge for many business owners. It’s not enough to measure how much work you have, or how hard your working. Increased activity is not the same as increased profitability.

Sounds simple right? It is. Income needs to exceed expenses in order for you to turn a profit. It doesn’t matter if your income is 5 Million or 500 Million, unless your margins are sufficient to cover your costs. I think we all can agree to this basic business logic.

And if we do, then why should we continue to rely on GDP driven indicators? GDP has been shown to have little relation to our quality of life, and quality of life is ultimately the most important metric for you and your business.

For an interesting point of comparison, consider Redefining Progress’ General Progress Indicator (GPI). Economists and business leaders have been working for over a decade to unravel some of the misleading facts associated with GDP statistics.

Not all types of growth are good for you or your business.

Let’s go forward with the hope that we can all figure out business strategies that make our lives happier and more meaningful. Let’s design business plans that benefit our customers, vendors, employees, shareholders, and community members.

People are out there making it happen. We can too.