Congrats to Jim Blasingame on Your 10th Anniversary!

But
if you will permit me, today I would like to talk about a couple of
milestones, and a few accomplishments, of which we’re kind of proud.

On
November 17, 1997, I began broadcasting the Small Business Advocate
Show for two hours Monday through Friday, and since that first day the
program has been nationally syndicated.  This week we will begin the
celebration of our tenth anniversary and the beginning of our 11th year
on the air. 

In
January 1998, we began simulcasting our show on the Internet,
which makes us  one of the pioneers of Internet steaming.  Since 1999,
we’ve offered multiple on-demand streaming options and in 20o7 added
the ability to podcast all current and archived interviews.

This
Friday will be my 2,600t broadcast since we began — including all the
holidays — even when I was on the road. I’ve conducted just over
10,000 live interviews with small business experts and entrepreneurs
and next week I’ll broadcast my 11th consecutive live Thanksgiving Day
show. When you hear me talking about making sure that you’re passionate
about the business you start, if you didn’t already, now you know that
I practice what I preach.

From
the beginning, my primary programming goal was to focus on the
fundamentals that are important to successfully starting, operating and
growing a small business, and to make all of the things we do available
to you for free.  On that last note — the free one — I must say
thanks to our outstanding corporate partners, without whom the free
part would not be possible. We’re going into our 9^th year with Palo Alto Software, our 8^th year with IBM, our 4^th year with Administaff, and our 3rd year with Aflac.

Jim has been a wonderful supporter of mine, and invited me to be a member of his exclusive "Brain Trust." The Brain Trust is a group of small business experts who contribute their time and expertise to Jim’s radio program. On The Small Business Advocate website, the entire Brain Trust is listed, along with their archived radio interviews with Jim. Here are my radio interviews with Jim. A podcast version is available there too.

Here’s to 10 more, Jim!