When I was 40, I learned to ride a motorcycle. It wasn’t difficult to learn, but there did come a point where I hit a roadblock. I was doing something wrong which caused me – twice – to drop the bike at slow speed, when pulling away from a stop sign. It totally blew my confidence, even though I was a licensed rider. It took me months of talking about the problem and reading and getting encouragement from other women riders online – all of this while not riding at all – to finally figure out the problem.

And then, the time came to get back on the bike. My husband rode my bike for me to the high school parking lot and my daughter tagged along. I found myself sitting on the bike with the shifter in neutral, exhaust rumbling, and tears running down my face. Scared that I was going to drop my beautiful bike again, and fail at something I really wanted to do. My self-talk went something like this:

“Self, you can either do this, or not. It’s up to you. But you have to decide. If you’re not going to do it, you have to sell the bike. And you know what? You CAN do it. You’ve already done it. You have a license that proves you know how to do it. You just have to drop that shifter into first and roll forward. Just go.”

As I sat there, I happened to look over at my daughter, sitting on the curb and poking a stick around in the dirt. Perfectly happy to spend her Saturday watching me go in circles in a parking lot. And I thought, “If I give up just because this is really hard, what does she learn?”

My desire to set a good example, to be a lesson in perseverence in the face of uncertainty, won out. I pulled in the clutch, dropped into first gear, and rolled forward. After an hour-long practice session in the parking lot, including plenty of turns from a stop, I hit the streets – newly confident and ready to ride. And I haven’t dropped the bike since. Well, at least not for the same reason.

I share this story because being an entrepreneur is a little like learning to ride a motorcycle at age 40. You understand the risk, and take it anyway. You realize that we don’t just persevere for ourselves, but also for the example it sets for others – including our kids.

Have you noticed that kids seem to be born with the entrepreneurial spirit? With the desire to be self-sufficient? It manifests itself in lemonade stands, lawn-mowing gigs and babysitting jobs. But somewhere along the way, that spirit gets – if not crushed, certainly back-seated to the notion of working for someone else. That a job is stability, and that owning a business is crazy-talk.

As a business owner, you have a unique opportunity to nurture your kids’ natural sense of entrepreneurship. To show them that their talents and interests hold at least as much potential as that job at McDonald’s. As summer approaches, what will you do to teach at home what’s not being taught at school: that entrepreneurialism is at least as rewarding as building a career with an employer – and in many ways, moreso? That risk – especially calculated risk – is good? That sometimes, you just have to take that leap of faith and roll forward?

Des Moines ranks as the 8th-best medium-sized city in the U.S. in which to launch a business, according to rankings released this week by Fortune Small Business magazine. Additionally, Dubuque ranks as the 8th-best small city; Waterloo as the 17th-best small city; and Ames as the 18th-best small city in which to launch a business.

“Location matters more than ever before,” states the print article in the November, 2009 issue. (The magazine has not yet updated its website with this article as of this writing, 10/10/09 12:15 p.m.)  “The Great Recession redrew the map of America. Entire town sank in the subprime mortgage crisis; capitals of finance and manufacturing were brought to their knees. And while the headlines heralded each new disaster, a quiter but equally important phenomenon was taking place. A handful of communities… were soldiering through the recession almost unscathed.”

Of course, the Des Moines area has seen troubling lay-offs among employers large and small, but the FSB ranking is not just based on changes in employee count. It looks at other factors which influence the business climate as well, including per capita income, hourly wages, workforce quality, crime rates, taxes and foreclosures.

Those who are immersed in online networking might find it hard to remember that there’s also offline networking – you know, meeting actual people at an actual event?

Here are a few tips for making the most of an in-person networking event:

1. Be authentic – don’t adopt some kind of weird, not-the-real-you persona when you attend an in-person event. Just be yourself.

2. Be genuine – when you’re talking to someone, don’t constantly look over their shoulder to see if someone more interesting is approaching. Give your full attention to the person in front of you.

3. Find a legitimate reason to share your contact info – when talking to someone you haven’t met before, don’t assume they want your business card just because it’s a networking event. Think about how you can be of value to them, and offer your card after expressing that potential value.

4. Ask lots of questions – Making small talk can be agonizing, especially when it feels forced. Instead of the usual weather-related stuff, why not ask some leading questions of the person in front of you? What’s new in your industry? How has the recession impacted your business?

5. Become a resource - Write a short “nice to meet you” note to new people you meet and send it via email, and include a link to an online article that’s relevant to something you discussed with them.

When I had been working as a corporate hack for about ten years, I came to a point where I desperately wanted to own my own business. So in the mid-90′s when I was downsized out of hackdom, I took the opportunity to do just that – I did freelance business communications and marketing work under my own awning as Green & Company Creative Services.

For a few reasons, this only lasted about four years, and by the end of it I was glad to return to the (at least somewhat) secure and social world of cubicle dwelling. Since that time, I’ve taken it as a sign of hope that I continue to have a lot of ideas for businesses. Businesses that I’m certain will make me wealthy.

In just the past couple of years, I’ve thought seriously about starting a junk/thrift store, a t-shirt printing business, a biker leather retail store, an online gift shop, a house-flipping business, a mail-order food business selling giant brownies, and a private detective agency.

The signs that I am contemplating starting a new business are that I immediately brainstorm and purchase a relevant domain name, open up my copy of Paint Shop Pro and design a logo, and then rush to Walgreens to buy a stylin’ spiral notebook to record all my plans for that business. My life could have taken any number of these turns (maybe more than one of them, simultaneously!) were it not for the same roadblock presenting itself again and again:

Money.

Last year I had come up with several good ideas for t-shirts for women bikers. I went through the initial steps of domain name/logo/spiral notebook, and expanded my knowledge of PSP so I could effectively create my designs in-house. My research showed that I would either need to invest in some pre-printed inventory from a screen-printer, or in a commercial-grade heat press to make the shirts myself. I needed about $2000 to make it happen either way, but I quickly realized I did not have a source for that money. We had no savings, my husband’s business was in a very slow period, and I was fairly certain no bank would make me a business loan because of past problems with poor credit. (I’ve been working to rebuild my credit through our mortgage and a vehicle loan, but how do you know when it’s okay to ask for money again?)

I would have needed closer to $50,000 to really start the leather store – I sure as heck didn’t have that lying around, and wasn’t comfortable applying for a business loan in such a high (to me) amount.

Recently, though, I’ve done a little research and I’ve learned that an actual business loan was probably not my only option. An unsecured line of credit – particularly in a smaller amount – might have been the way to go because you don’t have to put anything up for collateral: the loan is made on your promise to repay, like a credit card. Unsecured loans are made by banks, consumer finance companies, and these days even online. The interest rate is a little higher than a collateral loan, but that’s the price you pay for asking the lender to take the risk. And, while I wasn’t willing to bet my house on giant brownies, I was certainly willing to make payments on a $2000 unsecured loan had I known I could get one.

So – perhaps business ownership isn’t completely out of the picture for me after all. I assume that lines of credit are a little harder to get these days, what with the housing market illustrating the dangers of making loans to high-risk buyers, but one day I certainly hope to be among the favored who qualify.

Meanwhile, I think I will stock up on stylin’ spiral notebooks, just in case my ship comes in.