I'm John Batchford. The Business of America is small business, and I welcome my colleague longstanding,

Gene Marks, Guardian columnist, UK, U.S. edition, the Philadelphia Inquirer, hometown newspaper,

and other distinguished publications to measure small business 25, but small business expectations

26. Gene has been on the road with his associations and gatherings across the country.

And that is a very good way to look at the optimism.

Remember, they look at their books nine months out, just like Wall Street.

Gene, welcome.

You've been much on the road.

We're going to begin in Des Moines, Iowa.

Who did you gather with? Good evening to you. Hey, John. It's good to see you and it's good to be back speaking with you. Yeah, I was on, I spoke to a few associations this past month and also went on a couple of client projects as well. And Des Moines, my client project was with a company that sells overhead doors around the,

you know, around the state of Iowa.

And they sell into commercial and residential customers.

So you can imagine loading docks that need those, you know, automatic doors that go up and down,

your own garage door as well. This is a family-owned business, having a pretty good year. They obviously have their operational struggles.

This is a small business. They've got about 15 to 20 people. They are struggling with health

insurance this year. They are struggling to find good people, particularly the installers and mechanics that

go and install these doors as well as service them. And also just organizationally, the company

is owned by a couple of the mom and the dad who started it like 30 years ago. They got a couple

kids in the business and trying to figure out where to go with the business going forward.

We all agreed setting up a trust was going to be the way to go with the two kids active in the business,

having, you know, being beneficiaries of the trust.

So, you know, doing okay.

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