Chris Roush, business journalism professor at University of North Carolina, presents “Uncovering Stories in Small Businesses” during the free Reynolds Center workshop, “Uncovering the Best Local Business Stories,” in Lexington, Ky. The daylong workshop covered tips on how to find good stories in the business of government, how to cover economic-development agencies at the state and local levels, and how to find public information on private companies. Presenters also discussed how to find stories in small business and publicly available databases, and how to localize national and international stories for your audience. This free training was specifically geared toward community journalists and generalists on tight budgets and small staffs. Another workshop by the same name was later held in Fort Worth. For more information about free training for business journalists, please visit businessjournalism.org.

1. Uncovering stories in small businesses:
15 smart questions to ask for small-
business profiles
April 13, 2012
Chris Roush
croush@email.unc.edu

2. Private companies
n Writing about small and private businesses
can be fascinating because it forces the
reporter to dig deeper into analyzing a
company’s situation.
n You can’t rely on Securities and Exchange
Commission filings to provide the facts.
n You have to interview competitors, interview
customers and clients, assess the market and
look for clues as to why a small business is
successful – or struggling to make ends meet.

3. Private companies
n Writing about private companies is a lot
like writing about publics.
n However, the information may be harder
to find.
n But small and private companies will
open up and talk if they are approached
in the right way.

4. The issues

5. Private companies
n Find ways to include private companies in
broader stories.
n Private business owners and executives can
be willing interviews to talk about the local
and regional economy.
n They also might talk for stories assessing
issues such as a shortage of experienced
workers or how they’ll be affected by new
laws.

6. Private companies
n Many small business
reporters focus on issues
and trends instead of
profiling companies.
n They’re looking at how
these small companies are
struggling to make it in the
business world.
n They’re writing about the
decision to provide health
insurance and other benefits
to workers, and how the cost
of doing so can cripple a
small operation.

7. Private companies
n They’re writing about the struggle of a
small business owner to hand his
operation over to the next generation
after 40 years of running the company.
n They’re assessing the impact of the
new Home Depot in town on the local
hardware stores that have been part of
the community for a half-century.

8. Private companies
n With each story, the reporter isn’t
writing about the business, but is
gaining the trust of the small and private
business owner or executive.
n Then, when news specifically about the
company merits coverage, they’ll be
more likely to open up.

9. Private companies
n Like most businesses, the
small and private companies
need to understand the role
of the media.
n Many of them will expect to
receive glowing or positive
coverage, and when they
don’t get it, they’ll be mad.
n Some of them may even
believe that positive
coverage is a quid pro quo
in exchange for their
advertising.

10. Private companies
n Some stories are written about small and
private businesses if they’re unique to the
market.
n The Door County Advocate in Sturgeon Bay,
Wisc., covered the opening of the first car
wash in the county north of Sturgeon Bay.
n But that’s because of its uniqueness – it’s
the only car wash for miles. Make it clear that
the media outlet decides what’s news.

11. Private companies
n Writing about small and private businesses
can be done to show how they’re changing
and evolving with the community.
n The Southeast Missourian in Cape
Girardeau, Mo., wrote about the influx of
immigrant small business owners and
international workers in its area in a front-
page story.
n The story helped explain go its readers why
these businesses are opening around town.

12. Profiling the private company

13. Profiling the private company
n Private company stories are sometimes too
positive because they don’t include numbers.
n These stories may seen innocuous, and
they’re often written as flattering, positive
stories that tell the story of how a business is
thriving or succeeding because of its products
or its services.
n Many times, these stories can read like
advertorials, copy that the business should
have probably paid the newspaper to run.

14. Profiling the private company
n Profiles of small and private businesses,
however, don’t always have to be this way.
n Business reporters fell all over themselves in
the 1990s writing about the latest Internet
company to go public and make millionaires
of its workers.
n Many reporters who write stories about small
and private businesses aren’t being as
critical as they can be – and should be.

15. Profiling the private company
n If things aren’t going good, don’t
sugarcoat it.
n If a particular industry is suffering, don’t
buy the story that one small business in
that industry is telling you when he
remarks, “We’ve never had a better
season.”
n He’s probably lying.

16. Profiling the private company
n The Petersburg Pilot in Alaska
focused on the struggles of local
salmon fisheries in its paper.
n The story did not mince words. It
began:
n Wave after wave of bad forecasts
are rocking Alaskan’s salmon
fishery as fisherman and
processors scramble for that
miracle seasick curing patch. The
amount of fish not returning is not
enough to cause this nausea; the
price heaved at the independent
fisherman, however, leaves them
weak-kneed with sea legs.

17. Profiling the private company
n Think of reporting about small and private
businesses the same way as stories about
larger and public businesses are written.
n They’re just as important to the reader and
viewer.
n Because it’s being written about a business
that probably hasn’t had much exposure, the
piece will probably have more readers
wanting to learn about a company they
haven’t heard about before.

18. Profiling the private company
n Think of writing profiles of small and private
businesses as being companies that might be
sold, might go out of business or go public in
the future, putting them in the public’s eye.
n With stories already written about the
company, your media outlet will have the
background to cover future stories more
thoroughly about the company.

19. Profiling the private company
n Small and private businesses like
for the media to write stories about
them when they’re new and trying
to attract customers.
n But rarely do they want the
attention when they’re going out
of business.
n Still, these stories can also be
important because they might
reflect on the broader town or
county economy.
n If a store couldn’t make it in the
town, what does that say about
the future of similar stores in the
area?

20. Profiling the private company
n Reporting about small and private
businesses often requires the journalist
to focus on the founder of the business
or the owner.
n They’re often the ones that control the
company.
n Without that interview, though, where do
you turn?

21. Profiling the private company
n Ifpossible, find out where the founder
used to work.
n Maybe someone there can tell you
about his work habits or his business
ideas.
n Maybe he was fired or dismissed from
his previous job, or left his previous
employer to start a competing business.

22. Profiling the private company
n Many of them are protective of their business,
and want a reporter to recognize the long hours
and the tough times that were put in to make the
business successful, or at least survive.
n If a business owner is reluctant to give you an
interview, understand that they’re leery.

23. Profiling the private company
n One way to get past the hesitation is to let the
business owner see that you recognize the
pain that went into building the operation.
n That doesn’t mean your story has to be
positive.
n But a good point to make in most profiles of
small and private businesses is how they
were started and that they have lasted as
long as they have.

24. Questions to ask yourself
n Whom else should you talk to
besides the business owner to
keep it from being a one-
source story?
n How can you add quick context
about the industry to a story on
a small business? For
example, new coffee shop
opens in town – what are the
overarching issues, concerns in
that retail sector that you
should ask the business owner
about?

25. The 15 Questions
15 questions for the small or private
business owner
n Many small business owners are wary of questions
from reporters, particularly when they’ve never
been interviewed before. These questions will show
the owner that you’re genuinely interested in telling
readers about his company.
1. Where did you get the idea to start your business?
How does your background fit into the company
idea?

26. The 15 Questions
2. How did you fund the
business? Did the money
come from savings or
relatives?
3. How soon after you first
opened your doors did your
business first make a profit?
How did you celebrate?
4. What was the hardest
obstacle to overcome in
getting the business off the
ground?
5. Who do you consider to be
your biggest competitor and
why?

27. The 15 Questions
6. How have you grown the business? Has it
been through advertising or customer
recommendations?
7. Who is your biggest customer? What would
you do if you lost that customer?
8. What is your best-selling item?
9. How would you react if a similar business
opened nearby? How could you handle the
increased competition?

28. The 15 Questions
10. How big do you foresee your company becoming
in the next five years? In the next 10 years?
11. What would make you sell your business to
another company?
12. How are your employees involved in the day-to-
day decision making for the business?

29. The 15 Questions
13. What is your end game? Do you plan
to sell the business, or hand it down to a
new generation?
14. Has your financial performance
improved or worsened in the past year?
Can you give details.
15. What is the one thing that you want
people to know about your business?

30. Questions?