Jul. 6--Launching a business in the midst of a recession is akin to lifting anchor amid a gale. But the entrepreneurs in this week's cover story are doing exactly that -- betting that if they can stay afloat amid the choppy waters of this economy they will thrive when fair weather blows in.

The nature of the economic crisis varies depending on your vantage point. For the last 10 months I have been in New York on a journalism fellowship that allowed me to take classes at Columbia University's business school. There, the economic downturn was measured in classroom fever-charts and the teeth-gnashing of students who were seeing their dream jobs in finance go the way of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.

Back home in South Florida, the signs of economic hardship are much more visceral: A trip to the beach includes a sea of for-sale placards and shuttered storefronts.

Many of those storefronts belonged to small businesses. Indeed, small firms represent upward of 95 percent of all companies in the area and are the region's major employers. But getting an accurate picture of their health can be tricky in the absence of hard data and reliable statistics.

The Small Business Administration, which guarantees loans to entrepreneurs, backed just 255 deals worth $93 million in Broward and Miami-Dade counties through May of this year. Compare that to year-ago figures of 1,079 loans worth $198 million -- and then keep in mind that last year's figures were already dreadful -- and you get a sense of the slowdown.

While much of that drop is coming from banks that are simply turning off the taps, some of it has to be attributed to small-business owners scaling back or throwing in the towel. On the other hand, the SBA's recently unveiled ARC program, designed to give struggling businesses short-term emergency help, has had the agency's phones ringing off the hook.

Even successful entrepreneurs ready to move on are suffering. BizBuySell, an online broker of small businesses, said the number of companies sold during the second quarter was down 50 percent from a year ago.

While layoffs are creating a steady stream of potential entrepreneurs, financing for their ambitions is nowhere to be found. What that means is that entrepreneurs starting a company now better love what they do -- they're likely going to be in the business for a long time.

We wish them luck.

Jim Wyss covers business for The Miami Herald

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