Hazleton Area Business Citizen March 2014 | Page 4

Hazleton Area Business Citizen

Editor’s Desk
The government classifies a small business as a firm with fewer than 50 employees.
Most of the businesses in Hazleton, like that of the whole country, fall into this category.
Today though, there seems to be less small business than years back. The changing climate
of the business environment has, for a multitude of reasons, seemed to have driven many
of the small businesses out of business.
Many of those businesses that remain compete today in a market that is global, brought
to us so efficiently by the internet. Competition has changed. Local seems to have less
relevance in business.
Some businesses are not so impacted by the internet, especially those in the service
industry. But economies of scale have seemed to make it advantageous for the larger
companies to become, well, larger, often at the expense of smaller companies.
Government involvement has a greater impact on small business today too. The HABC
is only three issues old but the extent to which regulation and taxation have impressed local
business owners is plainly conveyed in the magazine’s interviews.
Yet small business in Hazleton does continue. This month’s interview, with Dave
DeLessio of General Vending Co., gives some insight into how one of our area’s small
businesses continues to operate and even grow in this challenging market place.

The Editors

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HABC

March 1, 2014