Operating a Business in the Small Business Space

Dr. Cowan’s business experiences began as a research and development consultant in the pulp, paper and allied industries. His Independent research activities led to patents allowing commercialization of new process equipment by means of development and royalty contracts with major industry suppliers. They further allowed the development of a line of new technology instruments manufactured and sold to pulp and paper mills world-wide by a new company, Pulmac Instruments International, founded by Dr. Cowan.
After relocating his business from Montreal to Vermont, Dr. Cowan became involved with a small business education initiative. This resulted in the founding of the Vermont Small Business Network and a 15 year project focused on the question as to what specific business training would have been valuable to his own business development and therefore of general value to all small businesses. This was based on the recognition that his own business practices developed through the “school of hard knocks” were quite different from those of his large company clients and customers, and markedly different from the teachings of conventional business courses and the text books they employ.
Operating a Business in the Small Business Space essentially tells the story of this intellectual voyage of self discovery – seeing small business as a unique species of business operating in a different “space” and properly marching to a different tune – a new form of business training.