We started this blog to talk about low-cost but cost-effective ways that small business owners can market their companies. It’s an interesting enough subject but, as it turns out, not enough to fuel the “I swear to blog weekly” ambitions I thought I had.

I find myself distracted by events and circumstances: a crippled national economy as it impacts people I know; profit-driven insurance conglomerates that inject themselves, insidiously, into our everyday decisions; indescribably brave, green-clad individuals who move me to evaluate the sacrifices I am prepared to make for my family, and for freedom.

As an advisor to small business owners, it is almost incumbent upon me to talk about using social networking sites to expand your reach, monitor what customers are saying about you, control your brand—blah, blah. In reality, I think Twitter is the dumbest thing that any less-than-utterly-narcissistic person could ever do. Honestly? You want your every unfiltered, truncated, grammatically-incorrect thought out there for any client – any human being – to see? I hope not. If you do, then I don’t want to know you. (For the record, blogging isn’t much better. The audience size for the average blog? One.)

But I would dutifully recite its purported value to any client for whom social media, Twitter included, makes sense. It would probably even make a good blog topic. The fact is, I never saw the purpose or true value of the thing until I stumbled on the #IranElection channel. Now that, I sincerely believe, matters.

Don’t get me wrong: small business matters, too. So many of us rely on it for income, for employment, for the health and security of our families. But where we used to farm the land, build tangible products, trust our future to pensions; nowadays ideas are our seedlings, services our products and the future uncertain to a degree that it simply wasn’t before. Given this, how do we keep ourselves (and subsequently, our businesses) connected to real things?

I’m not sure.

My husband was laid off the other day. He is our primary earner, the source of health insurance and retirement savings (what’s left of them). We formed this company solely to pay our daughter’s school tuition … and in preparation for the arrival of this inevitable day (because layoffs are a reality of modern working life that no exertion of effort or dedication will delay) when we require a ready-in-the-works backup plan. Small ambitions, until now.

Now, our business plan changes – under duress maybe, but still, it changes – and we navigate the tumultuous waters of unemployment, health care and growing a small business in the ugly face of a down economy.

We’re hopeful. We see this as an opportunity to do anything, to live more authentically in our personal and professional lives. And what I’m going to do is blog it: because our real-life challenges can maybe produce some workable ideas that will help you face yours.

We’re starting ankle-deep in septic water. We were, quite literally, mopping the mess with every towel we no longer own, when his boss called with the news. Tuition is due tomorrow, and that’s all of our savings. No credit cards, and about 30% of our accounts receivable are more than 50-days overdue.

I hate to do it, but I guess that’s where we start.