Your Biz Blog: The passion of the small business owner - Your Business

Last week, my producer Lisa and I set up camp in an office building in New York City that houses hundreds of small businesses. The company, Sunshine Suites, which runs the building (a small business itself), provides desks, Internet access, conference rooms, and fax machines —basically it's a plug-and-play solution for small businesses. And the result is four walls filled with some of the most dynamic, passionate people you could find.

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We went there to talk to small business owners to get a sense of some of the challenges they face — to learn what keeps them up at night and what makes them pop the Champagne. We spoke to a pair of friends who are creating what they hope will be the next must-have T-shirt. They spend part of their time designing and getting the T-shirts made, and the other part literally driving through New York State themselves convincing store owners to stock their shirts. I spoke with a woman who worked for a major publishing company much of her life — who was used to expense accounts and paychecks, and gave it up to start her own small publishing company where for a few years she had neither.

What was most interesting for me about spending the day in these offices is that I did not meet one single person with whom I wouldn't have wanted to have a 10-hour conversation. Whether the product or service of these businesses was compelling to me was rather irrelevant because the process of running each of those businesses was infinitely interesting. And even more than that, the common thread of passion bordering on obsession (and sometimes crossing that border) is so magnetic. The egos I encountered were large — as you'd expect since you need a big ego to fuel the feeling that you can start something that will be a success — but kept in check as I think happens when you hold the job of both CEO and trash-taker-outer.

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Watch 'Your Business' Sundays at 7:30 a.m. ET on MSNBC.

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