If you’re thinking about going into business for yourself, then you likely need to be at the Selma-Sallas County Public Library this afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m.

for a clinic for small business.

The event is sponsored through a partnership with the Selma/Dallas Chamber of commerce and the Small Business Development Center at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Counselors will be on hand to help with loan information and to process the loans.

This clinic comes around about twice a year,, but it’s important.

In the 1920s, Calvin Coolidge said &8220;the business of America is business.&8221;

He wasn’t far off.

From the beginning of America until the 1880s, virtually all business was small business.

Lack of transportation and poor roads kept folks near home. Financial institutions were too small to support big business. The only sources of power were wind, water and animals, if you were fortunate enough to afford one.

After the 1880s, the telegraph, the railroad and steam engines contributed to the spread of business away from the home or the shop and into the larger capital ventures.

However, the success stories of small businesses remain.

Clinics, such as the one today, preserve our heritage and give folks a helping hand to fulfill their own vision of the American dream.