To the south, a street stretches across the horizon with almost every big-box store imaginable lining its sidewalks. To the southeast, the headquarters of the McDonald’s Corporation rises out of the morning mist. With such a contrast between these giants and the everyday American small business, it seems that it is time for an equalizer.

What, then, is our great equalizer?

I believe that there are two. The first is the Internet, a field on which a gigantic corporation is not necessarily any more influential than the smallest of businesses. In our first issue, we demonstrated the power of establishing a Web presence to draw today’s customers to your business. We did not merely tell you about the importance of this as so many other companies and magazines do—we even offered you your own custom business website through our new myABCspace.com. Even now, so soon after the product’s release, it’s not difficult to find sites that we host through an Internet search. In this issue, we show you how to use eBay, one of he Internet’s greatest tools, to make money without even necessarily leaving your house. Our company’s president, who spent six months learning how to become one of eBay’s most elite sellers, will provide you with the foundation to become a power seller yourself.

Which brings me to the second equalizer. That, my friends, would be America’s Best Companies. Each day we gain more members, enabling us to prove to your corporate competitors that we mean business. Each new member adds to our already impressive ranks, allowing us to gain larger affiliates so we can offer your companies even more impressive discounts so you can play on the same field as the big-box companies. With each new Internet search, our name becomes more prominent.

And then there’s this magazine. As I said before, we aim to make America’s Best magazine into America’s best magazine. In every issue, we aim to break away from the news format of so many other business publications so we can give you something useful. A business magazine should first and foremost be a tool that enables businesses to succeed.

After years of seeing small businesses disappear in the face of larger companies, I believe that things are finally beginning to change, and we are at the forefront of that change. I hope that someday—and someday soon—I can look down onto these same streets and see that all things at last are equal.