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Fellow internet junkies will recognize name of LoudCloud CEO, Marc Andreesen as an early architect of internet and developer of first "browser" to allow surfing web, called Mosaic. He's quoted in that story above, lamenting fact that his latest project is seen as too "small" with a valuation of only $439.5 million.

Marc, take a vacation! You've earned it!

Now my real motive in penning this essay is to ask why? Why does this economy see NONE of us that make up remaining 50% of economy and lament that companies worth nearly a half-billion dollars are "too small"?

You have literally millions of small business people doing virtually millions of jobs out here. The Butcher, Baker, Candlestick maker are all out here daily doing what needs to be done to make US economy run smoothly and continue to hum while big bad boys of ENRON and KMART and PG&E are going bust even with their billions?

Even slightly dishonest used car dealer who wheedles a few hundred more than necessary from hairdresser that "just loves that little sports car over there" is better than greedy corporate CEO's filling their bank accounts before trashing companies they run.

Ultimately, Joes Used Cars CEO contributes more to economy than does CEO who sees to it that his own account is flush before putting his invisible employees on street to look for new work.

I'm stunned that when analysts talk about small, that they are talking about those businesses earning nine- figure incomes! You've heard of what amounts to that fantasyland dream of earning six figures, right?

Why is that not enough? And why are those of us out in real world making less than that fantasy figure like single molecules sliding through a nanotube?

We are invisible entrepreneurs.

Francois de Visscher, a Greenwich, Conn. based financial consultant and investment banker said, "If you are a $100 million company, a $500 million, or a $1 billion company, you're not a small business anymore."

Thank you for that Francois, at least I know I'm still a small business. Thank goodness for that.

In all of these examples, common thread of waste is in delaying business – business gets put on hold while you “fix, adjust, redo or run a quick errand.” Add it all up and you’ve spent more than your time, you’ve spent money.

Individually, wasted dollars related to these scenarios may not add up to much. But if you start stringing them together and allowing same ones to happen over again, it suddenly turns into serious costs - costs directly related to not being ready for what you already knew was coming.

If you want to really see a change on bottom line, learn difference between "the cost of doing business" and "the cost of delaying business" by taking a little business advice from Boy Scouts: Be Prepared.

Sidebar: Two Simple Ways to Cut Wasted Time

Okay, I’ve presented potential problem areas of wasted time resulting in wasted money. So, what’s solution? The remedy isn’t complicated. In fact, I’m going to make only two simple suggestions for getting your “Be Prepared” mantra to work . . . Here they are:

1.Written procedures Help yourself by helping your employees with written instructions for important and repetitive tasks. And don’t just prepare for an employee’s planned absence. Prepare for unplanned absences, too, like a death in family or an extended illness. Make outlines of assignments, document procedures, and create a task or “to do” list for upcoming projects. A little forethought on front end will make entire project go smoother – and quicker.

2.Accountability Accountability also improves efficiency. By deciding who is responsible for what, you eliminate “finger pointing” when something doesn’t get done, and reduce chances of things falling through cracks or having to be redone.

That’s it! Use just these two suggestions to better prepare yourself and your employees, and you’ll see a remarkable difference in your efficiency rate, which will make a remarkable improvement to your bottom line.