Jim Blasingame is an American small business expert, radio talk show host, author, syndicated columnist, keynote speaker, and president of Small Business Network, Inc., a media company dedicated to serving small business. He is the creator and award-winning host of the nationally syndicated talk radio showThe Small Business Advocate Show, which focuses on small business and entrepreneurship issues. He is the author of the award-winning books The 3rd Ingredient: The Journey of Analog Ethics into the World of Digital Fear and Greed and The Age of the Customer®: Prepare for the Moment of Relevance. Jim has also written two other books Three Minutes to Success and Small Business Is Like a Bunch of Bananas. Blasingame is an alumnus of the University of North Alabama.
Career
After more than 20 years as a successful employee/manager/executive of big businesses, including multi-year tenures with Sears and Xerox, Blasingame founded his consulting firm in 1989 to focus on supporting small business CEOs. His tag line was, "I'm an executive vice president you can lick." In 1997, Blasingame founded the media company, Small Business Network, Inc., so he could "talk to more than one person at a time." The new company was founded for the purposed of helping small business owners have the maximum opportunity to be successful along the ownership continuum, from start-up to growing enterprise to divesting. The company's initial medium was radio as Blasingame began broadcasting his nationally syndicated weekday radio program The Small Business Advocate Show, in November 1997. Two months later, in January 1998, he began simulcasting his program on the Internet. Today, Blasingame conducts over 1,000 live interviews annually with small business experts on topics relevant to challenges and opportunities of 21st century small businesses. These live radio interviews result in the production of 10 separate Internet podcasts every weekday and 2,600 annually. In November 19, 1999, Blasingame added another media channel, this time for his writing, with the launch of The Small Business Advocate NEWSLETTER, which has been distributed every Sunday since its founding. In 2002, Blasingame published his first book Small Business is Like a Bunch of Bananas, and in 2006, his second book Three Minutes to Success, which have sold over 90,000 copies combined. He is a syndicated newspaper columnist and is a contributing columnist to FoxBusiness.com, Forbes.com, American Express NASDAQ.com, OPENForum.com. Blasingame is also the founder of AskJim.biz, a small business knowledgebase and his blog at JimsBlog.biz. He has made TV appearances on FoxBusiness and MSNBC, and has been quoted in such publications as Fortune Small Business, CNN.com, New York Enterprise Report, U.S. News & World Report and the Los Angeles Times. Part of Blasingame’s work is devoted to helping big businesses “speak small business as a second language.” In this role he has worked with a long list of organizations, including IBM, Insperity, FedEx, Aflac, American Express, Office Depot, NASCAR, Cox Business, Bloomberg, Overhead Door, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, Ex-Im Bank, Sage Business Solutions, Zions Bank, Clarke American Checks, U.S. Commercial Service, Business Networking International, Bloomberg Television, Wall Street Journal, Advanced Micro Devices, American Chamber of Commerce Executives, Association of Small Business Development Centers, AmCham, and many local chambers of commerce, to name a few.
Ideology
Blasingame’s 1st Law of Small Business states, “It’s easy to start a small business, but it’s not easy to eat a whole x-large pepperoni deep dish in under 10 minutes.” His professional life is dedicated to those who employ over half of all private sector employees and generate over 60% of net new jobs. Blasingame writes and speaks on how small businesses can become vendor-partners with large businesses, and he teaches large businesses how to connect with and sell to small businesses. Blasingame believes we're entering what he calls "the Age of the Customer," and that small businesses will have a decided advantage in this new age.
Awards and recognition
2018 Axiom Business Book Award Gold Medal for his fourth book, The 3rd Ingredient: The Journey of Analog Ethics into the World of Digital Fear and Greed 2014 Independent Book Publisher Aware for his third book, The Age of the Customer: Prepare for the Moment of Relevance 2009 Champion of the Chamber Movement, American Chamber of Commerce Executives
2009 Champion of Small Business Development Award, Association of Small Business Development Centers
2009 Small Business Advocate of the Year, New York Enterprise Report
April 2005 Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council Small Business Advocate of the Month
2002 Small Business Journalist of the Year, by the U.S. Small Business Administration
2000 One of the 30 most influential small business experts, by FORTUNE Small Business magazine
