Flexibility ends frustration.

As Karen Link Hudepohl was driving she realized that her year-old publishing business was as lackluster as a stretch of Interstate 75. Consider that of the 1.3 million businesses launched in 1991, nearly a million will perish before their fifth birthday. The upshot: She broadened her publication's focus from stories about new business startups to information that small businesses could use and learn from. That September 1989 trip was the genesis of Miami Valley Business News. The retooling of her business is illustrative of how small business owners, especially entrepreneurs, have to be flexible to survive and prosper. In changing her business' thrust she also hit on a vehicle for advertisers. That was in contrast with her first publication, Miami Valley New Business, which failed to enthuse advertisers. They were skeptical of the buying power of new businesses. Now her publication is in its third year of publication, with a circulation of about 14,000. Only about 1,000 pay the $15 annual subscription. The 16-page tabloid-sized publication makes no pretense of being a "news" magazine. Instead, the paper usually has 15 to 20 articles ranging from inventory management and telephone sales technique, to succession planning and tax savings. Typically smaller businesses experience a much quicker turnaround coming out of a recession than do large corporations.