Don't Despise the Day of Small Businesses

Heat Treat Today publishes twelve print magazines annually and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter is from the December 2025 Annual Medical & Energy Heat Treat print edition.

Feel free to contact Doug at doug@heattreattoday.com if you have a question or comment.

I believe the accurate saying is, “Don’t despise the day of small beginnings,” but I would like to modify it a bit and talk business.

The Origin of That Saying

First off, the origin of that saying is from a rather obscure Bible verse in the book of Zechariah 4, verse 10, which says, “For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel — these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the earth” (NASB 1995). This verse and another like it in Luke 16, verse 10, which says, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much,” remind me of the importance of small beginnings.

Sharpening the Saw

In his famous book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey lists “sharpening your saw” as one of the seven habits. To put it simply, this means taking regular time to rest from the day-to-day grind and make sure your systems, tools, and being are sharp and ready to perform.

To sharpen my publishing skills, I recently spent two days with a publishing industry colleague and consultant to talk about Heat Treat Today and how I, as the publisher, could be a better leader. It was a very refreshing and enjoyable time that will hopefully bear fruit in the future in the form of better content for our readers and better services for our advertisers.

Did you know…?

I learned a lot during those two days, but there were several statistics that my publisher friend mentioned which captured my attention. Did you know:

Roughly 90% of all businesses in the United States have fewer than 20 employees.
Roughly 75% of all businesses in the United States have fewer than 10 employees.

Talk about small things! I was quite surprised by these numbers. And if you go to the source (Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council 2025), you’ll see that these percentages jump even higher if you include non-employer businesses, meaning companies with only ONE person:

Only 9% of small businesses in the United States have revenues exceeding $1 million (Entrepreneurs HQ 2025).
Only about 2% of all the individuals that start a business, the founders, even make it to the point where their revenues exceed $10 million (Vetter 2019).

Start Small

If you’re one of those individuals who has entertained the idea of starting your own company but have not yet pulled the trigger, let me encourage you to get started. The publication you are reading was started in the evening hours during the fall/winter of 2015 and launched publicly in the beginning of June 2016. To say the least, it was a SMALL business. I remember being so excited when I brought the mail home and showed my wife that my good friends at Dry Coolers (and others) had sent me a $500 check for an ad that they had placed on our newly launched website. It was a thrill and very satisfying.

Get out there and start. Don’t despise the day of small beginnings. Start small and work hard.

References

Covey, Stephen R. 1989. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York: Free Press.

Entrepreneurs HQ. 2025. “Small Business Statistics.” October 22, 2025. https://entrepreneurshq.com/smallbusiness-statistics/.

Lockman Foundation. 1995. New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. 2025. “Facts & Data on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.” https://www.sbecouncil.org/about-us/facts-and-data/.

Vetter, Moira. 2019. “3 Resolutions on the Way to $10 Million in Revenue.” Forbes, December 31. https://www.forbes.com/sites/moiravetter/2020/12/31/3-resolutions-on-the-way-to-10-million-in-revenue/.