Every year since 1963, the President of the United States has issued a proclamation announcing National Small Business Week. This recognizes the great importance of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners, and commits to helping them get ahead. In honor of this 50th anniversary, here’s a diverse list of 50 small business items. Enjoy!

1. President Obama continues the tradition of proclaiming June 17-21 to be National Small Business Week here on the White House blog.
2. Bloomberg Businessweek explains National Small Business Week.
3. Where to even begin?! Small Business Administration (SBA.gov) offers more knowledge than a 4-year college degree.
4. SBA’s definition of a small business.
5. Make smarter business decisions: 4 easy tips.
6. Top 10 ideas for your own small business, according to omgtoplists.com.
7. How to get a loan for your small business: watch this livestream, Wednesday, 3 p.m. central.
8. Crowdfunding 101, an alternative to business loans.
9. SCORE: No better advise than that of the experienced.
10. Hanging your shingle? Here’s handy advice from the FreelanceSwitch community.
11. A state-by-state listing of Small Business Persons of the Year.
12. What makes a cool office?
13. Hot desking?
14. I need this in my office.
15. Why you should run your small business from a coffee shop…
16. …or a coworking space.
17. A sort-of-easier-to-understand explanation of how the Affordable Health Care Act will affect small businesses.
18. The truth about small business retirement planning.
19. Eat local, support small businesses.
20. In honor of June Dairy Month, here’s Kraemer Cheese: Local and family-owned for 80 years!
21. Mobile technology makes it easy for customers to pay small businesses.
22. All you need to know about small business and self-employed taxes.
23. Sustainability out? Resiliency in?
24. A business plan is a must. Here’s a comprehensive outline.
25. Whoa! A 2-hour YouTube seminar on writing a business plan. Let me know if it’s good.
26. A marketing plan is not a business plan, but it’s equally as important.
27. How do you want to grow? I’ve used a personalized form of this plan for the last three years—it’s a concise way to set annual goals, by Ilise Benun.
28. The Politics of Small Business: a survey released by the National Small Business Association (NSBA) on the opinions of small-business owners.
29. The Gig Economy is the new American work style. Gigs often evolve into small businesses.
30. Freelancers are small businesses too. Freelancers Union tackles the concerns of independent workers.
31. I’m proud to be a charter member of the Wisconsin Business Alliance.
32. Always a touchy subject: Is the church a business?
33. Should your small business be non-profit or for-profit?
34. Do you have the right personality to be a small business owner?
35. The Daily Muse: 5 business books you should read.
36. Business Insider: 8 more books you should read.
37. Smallbizsurvival.com is a rural and small town business resource.
38. “Good design is good business,” as Thomas Watson famously said.
39. Likewise, good writing is good business (you didn’t think I’d leave words and design out of the equation, did you?!).
40. The new rules of branding a business.
41. Myths of social media marketing.
42. Customer reviews are the social game changer when it comes to online marketing.
43. 10 inspiring stories of small business success.
44. Quit bashing millennials! Really, they have a lot to offer your small business (or their business may just put you out of your business).
45. Women-owned small business are growing 50% faster than the total number of small businesses.
46. Helpful resources for women business owners.
47. They call it their encore. Baby boomers are leading the way in entrepreneurship.
48. There’s even a Baby Boomer Entrepreneur blog.
49. Small business doesn’t mean out of touch. Neither does solo-entrepreneurship. Everyone can stay connected with online resources.
50. Want your small business to look awesomely good? Call Adunate!

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Last month, while in Philadelphia for our son’s college graduation, we realized we wouldn’t be visiting again in the near future. We’ve grown fond of this town so it was with a taste of bittersweet that we enjoyed its charm and I captured these murals. I found this swirly mural on 47th and Upland Streets in West Philadelphia.

I mentioned Philly’s charm, right?

Mapping Courage

Aren’t the two above beautiful? Actually they’re two shots of the same mural, painted by Carl Willis Humphrey in 2008. It’s located at 6th and South Streets on the wall of the Engine #11, a historical African-Amer-can firehouse.

Theater of Life

According to artist Meg Saligman, Theater of Life, which is located on 507 S. Broad St, explores the many roles we play in our lives that make up who we are. Couldn’t we say the tacky food chains along side this beautiful historic building are also roles in our lives? They’re all fabrics of urban American life.

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Here on our little farm, we have a cultivated asparagus patch that’s mighty fine as well. In fact, tonight we just pickled and canned our second jar. And so the garden harvest officially begins!

What a glorious time of year!

• If I had a lot of money I’d buy this basket for harvesting (oh, excuse me, it’s called a trug)
• Or maybe these herb markers
• Houzz is as addicting as Pinterest. These gardening shots are green thumb wanna-be makers, for sure!
• Here’s an herb farm I want to visit
• Ongoing organic farming classes at the Environemental Institute, especially for women—too bad the locale is too far away for me

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Yesterday, I found this robin egg sitting in my driveway all by its lonesome. It was so tiny and pretty, I had to get a picture.

Then I found this interesting poster about work. Actually, it’s an advertisement for Citrix. I’m not necessarily endorsing Citrix (I’m not not endorsing it either); I just don’t know much about the company other than I like how the second “i” is upside down in its logo. That said, the poster is super and I have to re-post it as an item of inspiration. It’s attention-getting and eye-pleasing. It offers a ton of information— instead of an infomercial, we have a postermercial! And most importantly for the company, it successfully communicates that more and more people are working globally (with Citrix helping them do it).

Anyway, the creative challenge I assigned myself for today was to tie these two seemingly unrelated images together in a single blog post. Actually, it wasn’t that hard.

Working globally, either as an employee or an entrepreneur, usually means working solo. I admit I sometimes feel like a lone egg sitting in the driveway. Or on a fence post. Or in a home office. But that’s not too often. Nowadays there are so many online resources to keep global workers connected to whatever, wherever, whenever.

My favorite tools these days are podcasts and webinars— one of my favorite podcast series is by Ilise Benun, of Marketing Mentor. Granted both are produced with underlying self-promotion motives, but in turn they are hugely educational and, best of all, free! (Oops, I guess I do know a little about Citrix since the webinars I watch often use their oh-so-easy GoToMeeting.)

So check out this cool poster. And share with us the online tools your organization is using—c’mon, leave a comment!

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So what’s your take on this? Last week the Chicago Sun-Times caused an uproar when it laid off its 28 full-time, award-winning photojournalists. According to this Forbes article, the newspaper “plans to get by with freelance photographers, and rely on reporters to snap photographs with smart phones.”

My first thought: Really? Reporters covering the news with a snap of a phone? Obviously, journalism is going the route of every other industry, where staff is expected to be a jack-of-all trades.

My college degree is in journalism. I’ve never gone into newspaper work but I conduct interviews and shoot photography for the copywriting I do. Let’s just say it gets rather klutzy trying to manage it all. But who am I to be talking—copywriting and news journalism are completely different genres, and while my photography is good, I certainly don’t advertise myself as a professional. Knowing this, I can’t help wondering if someone with an iPhone can visually communicate a story the same way a professional photojournalist does?

Here’s an interesting article written not even two years ago about the craft of photojournalism. Coincidentally, it’s put out by the Sun-Times‘ leading rival, the Chicago Tribune (while the Sun-Times has a longer ongoing history, the Tribune is considered the city’s most widely read paper). Author Alex Garcia, a photojournalist himself, says the most important skill in his trade is anticipation. To truly tell the story, a photojournalist must anticipate positioning, anticipate the decisive moment, anticipate the emotion. Wouldn’t you imagine this foresight comes from skill, experience and an attributed focus to the visual aspect of the event at hand?

Apparently, I’m not the only one who wonders about professionalism. The layoffs have rallied protests and cancelled subscriptions almost as fast as a printing press roles off those newspapers. The Tribune’s Garcia calls it idiocy. And he speculates it’s a union-busting move.

Okay, let’s put aside any correlation between unions and firing 28 photojournalists, one of whom is Pulitzer Prize winner John White. Because, even though there’s a great probability the Sun-Times will rehire full time photojournalists in the future—you know, photographers whose experience justifies a much smaller salary—the point I’d like to discuss is that of changing times and the freelance economy.

According to the Forbes article the Sun-Times says “The Sun-Times business is changing rapidly and our audiences are consistently seeking more video content with their news” (I actually prefer still photography, but I suppose one person’s opinion doesn’t constitute a complete market segment). In truth, the whole newspaper industry is changing. Digital editions have replaced print editions. Advertising revenues have plummeted. And major newspapers, including the Sun-Times, have declared bankruptcy. Is it any wonder newspaper groups are looking for new directions in production and management?

And then there’s the freelancing. Maybe this nomadic work style is by choice, like it is for me; or maybe it’s because of seemingly unfortunate circumstances, as this photojournalist-blogger probably feels. In any event, freelancing is the fastest growing sector of our U.S. job economy and many prejudices that once accompanied it are now forced to the wayside. No longer is a freelancer’s work of lesser quality. No longer must we accept less pay. And safety comes with numbers, which means together we can improve the way we work. Maybe freelancing won’t be so bad for these 28 photojournalists?

Oh, there are many angles to this issue!

What do you think? Do you agree with the Sun-Time firing its photojournalists? Where is journalism headed and what about its quality? And lastly, is there life outside the traditional job market?

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