Last week my lady and I took off to Carmel California for a few days of "head clearing," and we decided to go north from Los Angeles by road. Road trips are always therapeutic for me and they also offer a chance to do some first hand, eyes-on research as to what small business owners are thinking and doing.

I think that every business owner and even the most senior corporate executives should drive around their communities or territories or maybe across the country if that is your marketplace. Most of us in business necessarily read a lot to keep up with trends and developments. Not only do we like to know what other businesses are doing, making those observations in person can simply be the best.

At 7:15am while filling up the car with gasoline, I got into a chat with the owner of the Union 76 station in my neighborhood. Even though the price of gas here had risen every day for the past 40 days, the gross margins for station operators hadn't budged and was still hovering around 2 cents per gallon. Just like movie theatre operators, the gas guys and girls are looking to sell other things like food and drink where they can rejoice with bigger markups and afford to pay their rent. The net profit numbers of Exxon, Chevron and others grew to the sky as prices went up, but the service station operators have had to be very resourceful with merchandising to make it through.

Rolling up Interstate 5 and across #46 from Bakersfield to Paso Robles, I was impressed by two things. Whatever may be happening with family food budgets across the nation, the agriculture business in the middle of California seems to be running full tilt. The big trucks carrying produce were spreading their dust trails in all directions. The second eye-witness observation is that wineries have grown up around this state like the wage increases for public union employees. When I moved to California in 1977, there were fewer than 400 bonded wineries in the state. By 2007 there were over 2600! They are generally small businesses themselves, and I got a lesson in how their growth provides opportunities for other small operators. At a meal stop we met a man who operates a pipe and valve business in Modesto who has adopted a pretty good lifestyle due to the increased business from the new vintners.

The strangest small business I noticed along the way was based on the death and legend of actor and cult figure James Dean. He died September 30, 1955 along highway 46 (then known as 466) at the intersection of highway 41, near Cholame California. Dean's film roles in "East of Eden," "Giant," and "Rebel Without a Cause" made him an instant deity upon his tragic death while driving his new Porsche Spyder to compete in a sports car race at Salinas. Today, a convenience store near that intersection does a brisk business in James Dean souvenirs-nearly fifty four years later! So much for the people who say that you have to have the newest, trendiest thing to turn a buck. It left me wishing that I had a product that could sell to a cultish group of fans.

At our destination, the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea itself, there was a major municipal business lesson for towns wanting to attract a crowd at the affluent end of the tourist market. There are no parking meters or signs that say no parking on this side of the street between noon and two. There don't seem to be any high rise hotels or sprawling condo developments either. Blissfully, I didn't see any tee-shirt or flip flop shops anywhere near their central shopping district which has high end shops and galleries by the dozens. The lesson is that to attract people who will spend with the town's merchants, you don't have to make it cheap. You do need to make it easy, pretty and comfortable. The Tickle Pink Inn and Highlands Inn are just two examples.

I highly recommend that if you are even thinking of starting or growing a business, get out a map and plan a road trip. Don't schedule it too tightly so that you have lots of time to wander and pause to talk with business owners and their customers. They are the best focus group for what you want to do. Toss that point and shoot digital camera into your pocket to record some of what you observe. I promise that if you let your curiosity be your guide it will an enjoyable, educational and probably inspiring trip.

Let me know your thoughts by e-mail: nelson@makingittv.com