It's a peculiar thing but, while there is a lot we know about microbusinesses, there's a lot we don't know about them, too.

If you've been paying attention to my occasional rants over the year, no doubt you already knew that. You may even be wondering why I'm bringing the subject up once again.

Well, you see, I run a publishing company. One of the things I publish is research.

My research division, the Microbusiness Research Institute, will be releasing its first paper this week. I'm excited about that.

While I was writing the paper, I did a bit of digging in order to review how much previous research has been unearth about microbusinesses. Much to my delight, I found that I've been able to tease quite a bit of information out of the literature over the years.

That's a good thing.

At the same time, because the paper to be released will summarize the results of a microbusiness survey, the data provides some valuable insights into what microbusiness owners actually think about a variety of issues.

No one will be speaking for them. They will speak for themselves.

And, if you want to look at things from a slightly broader perspective, the number of microbusiness-specific pieces of economic research out there can probably be counted on one hand. This paper, I think, begins the job of establishing in the literature that microbusinesses really are a separate, and demonstrably different, category of small business.

Now, here's the really exciting part.

Prior to releasing this paper, I have shared it with several colleagues in the research space and I find that the data and analysis I have offered in it have prompted a positive blizzard of ideas for further research. Microbusiness-specific research.

I can hardly wait.

(I'll be announcing the release of the paper later this week at The MicroEnterprise Journal Blog. I'll also remind you about it in next week's newsletter.)