This week (beginning June 17) is Small Business Week. Small Business Week has been celebrated for 50 years now.

If you own a website or blog, work as an affiliate, or in any other way are moving toward making money online then you are a small business.

You might not feel like a small business. You might not have an official business name, own an LLC or have any of the other trappings of a small business … but you are one.

Let me share the short stories of two small business people. One is a name you would not know, the other a “big fish” who you almost certainly know.

Both are small businesses. Both bring value to their customers and the world. Both have helped me in my own business and can be of help to you as well.

My first friend lived in a small town in Arkansas. So small that jobs were scarce and opportunity for advancement scarcer.

So he turned to the Internet.

He studied how people were making money online (this was 1997) and determined that selling information was the way to go.

But what information? He did not have deep experience or special expertise. He did not have technical skills or know how to create a webpage.

But he knew how to read, how to research and how to organize that information.

In a very real sense he was curating other people’s content, even though the term “curation” would not be applied to the Internet for a decade or more.

What this small business success began doing was writing short reports on topics he would research. Over time, he hired others to do the research while he wrote the reports.

Still progressing, and wanting more free time now that he was making money, he hired writers to create his small reports, paying them well for their work and earning a fortune for himself.

Today Jimmy Brown is free to spend time with his family, go on mission trips and basically work only when (and yes, if) he so chooses.

He has recently moved his family from Arkansas to a new location and is the associate pastor of a church, following his passion while his automated online business keeps cranking out the profits.

But notice this — he started with nothing. No special knowledge. No special skills. Nothing that would make him stand out from the crowd.

But he wanted to succeed, was willing to work hard and followed a proven path all the way to freedom.

As with all people who succeeded, he failed his way forward.

Our second story is a man who was broke and in debt at 45 years old. Around that time a dream was birthed in him to become a public speaker and travel the world helping people achieve more.

He wrote out a set of principles for life and business and began using them. He kept careful notes, refined his processes and began sharing freely what he was learning.

Seventeen years passed before he could begin to fulfill his dream of being a public speaker. It was another four years before his message began to spread.

Today you will know the name behind this story and may have guessed already. That’s because Zig Ziglar is indeed a “household” name and was the world’s foremost motivator and sales trainer.

In the course of his years he touched millions, made millions and gave meaningful employment to a staff of dozens of employees.

And it all started with a dream, a goal and belief that he could “get everything in life he wanted if he would help enough other people get what they wanted”.

No matter where you are today you can become one of these small business success stories.

You are indeed a small business. Even if you work alone in your home after everyone has gone to sleep (been there) you are a legitimate business. Even if you have yet to earn your first dollar online, you are a real business.

Follow your dream, choose a proven path and commit to working as hard as it takes and sooner than you might think success online can and will be yours!