Welcome to Inside Small Biz. I’m Kae G. Wagner and I started Inside Small Biz as the answer to a problem I had 20 years ago. That’s when I was starting my first company, North Star Marketing (I still own it and you can check it out at www.northstar-m.com) and looking for help in getting this new “baby” off the ground.
What I discovered was that very few people were able to give me really good advice and help me start and grow my company. So, 20 years later I’ve put together Inside Small Biz to help you grow your organization so you can get to success (however you define it) faster than I did.
Why start Inside Small Biz now?
I have a great team at North Star Marketing and they are doing a fabulous job of growing that wonderful company. So, I realized that I was ready for the next thing about 2 years ago and started checking out all of the possibilities.
You know – franchises, partnerships, on-line opportunities. But as I looked at what really got me going was my realization that the group that I loved working with the most were the small business owners. Over the years I’ve worked with a ton of them and what I love is their passion.
Small Business Owners have a drive and a love for their work that gets squeezed out in corporate America.
So, I started working on Inside Small Biz as a way of working with small business owners. These are “my guy,” (gals, too) and I love their ability to make decisions quickly, to be nimble on their business feet, to constantly innovate and to show up every day with their game face on, no matter how bad the business weather.
Oh, the Mistakes I’ve Made…
Looking back over the past 20 years I shudder at some of the mistakes I’ve made. I’ve had great ideas that I abandoned before I should have (pulled the cake out of the oven too soon) and put up with inept employees because some days I didn’t have the courage to fire them.
So, I’ve seen just about every scenario you can throw at me and been through all of the business cycles as well.
Now I want to take that experience and make life easier for every Small Business Owner in America.
The Upside of Success…
In spite of all of the mistakes I’ve made, we’ve been very successful. It’s been a great life. I have a wonderful husband who takes great care of me and is very interested in this new venture. You’ll get to “meet” him on one of our teleconferences because he is a real estate investor and taught me what I needed to know so I could buy the building we’re in. (It’s a great way to invest your dollars.)
We got married on 5.5.05 at 5:55 p.m. (yes, he has a thing for numbers) and so I went through a rebranding of my own – from Kae Groshong to Kae Groshong Wagner to Kae G. Wagner to Kae Wagner.
Between the two of us, we have five kids and 8 grandchildren and love our family times. So, I’m Nana Kae to his grandchildren and love having them over to clean out the stream, rollerblade in the basement, have sleepovers and all the fun stuff that kids bring to life.
My two kids are a little younger than my husband’s – my son is in the Airforce and headed to Korea, then to Japan and my daughter is just graduating from college and headed to NYC and an agency job. I guess the agency business got in her blood at an early age.
I’m an author – two books – “The CEO’s Little Black Book on Branding” and “The Power Principles of Marketing” and am on the speaking circuit as well.
I love writing, photography, culinary arts, natural healing arts, reading just about anything and golfing.
So, why can’t I play like Tiger?
My greatest challenge is my golf game. I just can’t seem to get all of the moving parts aligned at the same time, but nonetheless, I have fallen head over heels in love with the game.
So, I keep hacking away and hopin’ and wishin’ each time that I could just get better. My husband promises me that I will…so, I believe…I believe.
We have a lifetime goal to play the top 100 public courses in America and we have about 15 under our belt. This year, we’re hoping to play Bethpage (the Black course), but they probably won’t let me on.
Sign-off
So, that’s a glimpse into who I am and over time we’ll get to know each other better. For you, the Small Business Owner, I can’t wait to work with you and help you achieve the path to success that you started with your business
kae wagner
“Do what matters every day and every day will matter.”
Inside Small Biz - a blog for Small Business Owners 
I just wanted to point out that I love your letter. But there is a typing error for the word franchise that I figured you would want to correct. Great work and what an accomplishment to do what you have done.
By: Sarah on August 7, 2008
at 4:19 pm
Hi Sarah, thanks for picking up on the typo…I appreciate that. Inside Small Biz is one of the most rewarding things I’ve done in my career and it’s been a pleasure to work with Small Business Owners. I still enjoy working with large corporations, as well, but the Small Biz guys have tremendous passion and enthusiasm for their work.
By: kaegw on August 8, 2008
at 2:57 pm
Your attributing of the following quote to Lincoln may have been in error. I found this several times on the internet attributed to Dr. Adrian Rogers. Don’t know who is right. “Something for those who are into “wealth redistribution” to consider. The following quote is from the late Dr. Adrian Rogers (1931-2005) who was the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church and founder of Love Worth Finding Ministries.
You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
link to bio of Adrian Rogers … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Rogers
By: jacquie thiel on March 23, 2009
at 2:42 am
HI Jacquie, thanks for the response. Can’t validate either way, just saw the quote in a series of quotes that were attributed to Lincoln. I’ll check out Dr. Adrian Rogers…thanks for the info. Kae
By: kaegw on March 23, 2009
at 1:04 pm