Customers of Longview, Texas-based Aerosmith Aviation are often surprised to find out the company they hired to outfit their private planes has fewer than 50 employees. Making your small business look and function more like a big corporation is the cover story of the Feb./March issue of MyBusiness magazine, the member magazine we publish for the National Federation of Independent Business. The five small-business owners featured in this story tell us how thinking big helped them grow rich.

Another way to grow rich is to give less of your money to Uncle Sam. With April 15 just around the corner, small-business taxes are the focus of this issue’s MyBusiness Manual. Find out what your CPA wishes you knew, learn how to make the tough call between classifying workers as employees or independent contractors and find out whether you can actually write-off the MBA you’ve always wanted to get.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, love is in the air–is it in your office? Find out what employers need to know about the legal hazards of workplace dating.

Almost fifty years ago when Harvey Robbins and his wife were dating, they used to frequent The Palace, a soda shop in Tuscumbia, Ala. But like so many other small towns across the country, Tuscumbia was dying. In this issue, learn how one small-business owner single-handedly saved his hometown, including the spot where he and his wife courted.

In September, Hammock Publishing made a pledge to help the folks at Louisiana Cookin’, a New Orleans-based magazine heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina. One of our efforts to help culminated in a CD of all the magazine’s mouth-watering recipes from 2005. New subscribers receive the CD as a bonus with their first issue.

And what a bonus. Louisiana Cookin‘s crawfish jambalaya, creole pralines and zydeco grit cakes will make you say goodbye New Year’s resolutions and hello Mardi Gras!

To subscribe to Louisiana Cookin’, visit www.louisianacookin.com

It comes quickly. Here we are just 24 days into the new year and already were supposed to be depressedreally depressed. According to a British psychologist, Jan. 24 is the most depressing day of the year. Here in Nashville, we love to sing songs about feeling blue, but some of us around the office dont agree with the British shrink. Were a pretty happy bunch, despite the gray days, freezing nights, and pasty faces. Here are some reasons why Jan. 24 makes us clap our cold hands together:
I love taking walks in the evenings when it’s not to cold but you can still smell the lingering odor of wood burning fireplaces. It reminds me of childhood.
-Patrick R.
This is a great time of the year for doing things like cleaning our barn, cutting dead limbs and clearing fencerows. Mainly because creepie-crawlies are at a minimum, and it’s cold, so you don’t get weary from the heat. It’s also great sleeping weather. I do get depressed when it’s wet and miserable and cabin fever sets in.
-Bill
Because Jan. 27 is my half birthday!!!! It’s a joke, people. I’m not THAT obsessed with my birthday. (Note: the box decorated with balloons next to my desk is for presents).
-Lena
I love wearing sweaters, and since they are dry-clean only, I can wear them a couple of times (at least three) without doing lots of laundry!
-Emily
I am NOT a winter fan. It’s cold and rainy, and there aren’t any fresh tomatoes to be had for months. The only good thing about Jan. 24? Just 23 days til pitchers and catchers report.
-Laura
Summer weighs in from Austin, Texas, where it’s 70 degrees today. We have no sympathy:
I love this time of year because the warmth of the sun and the cool bite of a soft breeze make for a perfect afternoon walk with the dogs. January also brings chocolate Italian cream cake to our house. We have several family birthdays in January (a couple on Cole’s side, a couple on mine), so we all get together for a day in Gruene, Texas, for some live music, good food and great conversation. And the leftover cake always makes it back to our house!!!
Today is special because ten years ago, we adopted Neyland, our dog. Despite his muddy paws, he is a great way to cure mid-winter depression!
-Barbara
I hate this time of year. Or maybe I’m just down because the bill for my New Year’s trip just came due. But to be a good sport, I love this time of year because it’s movie award season and you know how much I love going to the movies.
-Jamie
I love cold weather in general. But there needs to be sunshine. I don’t care how cold it is, as long as it’s sunny.
-Allison
I love this time of year for its silence–the calm after the storm called Christmastime. And I can start counting down the days to my birthday (only 115 days left!!)
-Megan
I love wearing turtlenecks and eating chili. It just doesn’t taste as good in August.
-Shannon
I like the way the silhouettes of leafless trees looks against a winter sunset.
-Susie

The ancient Babylonians reportedly were the first to start making New Year’s resolutions some 4,000 years ago, with the most popular being to return borrowed farm equipment. Though people all over the world have been breaking their resolutions ever since, some of the Hammock crew decided to give it the ole college try.
Bill: I resolve to take my first rides in a helicopter and on a Jet Ski, and to enter a dance competition. UPDATE: I entered my first (and maybe last) dance competition Jan. 21. Won a few rounds, too, and got some ribbons. Kinda like taking first place in the county fair pickle contest.
Barbara The Production Director: Mine is to use clipless pedals on my bicycle and not to fall with them. So far, I’ve done three rides without falling. Plus I’m cutting back on sweets.
Shannon: To call my grandmothers more often.
Natalie: To stop cursing.
Laura: I normally eschew New Year’s resolutions but last year I tried a couple and they worked out great. So this year I’m going to resolve to choose colors and get my house painted. And hey, while I’m at it, I’ll resolve to keep my house as organized as it is right now, after being at home for a week.
Megan: To get rock-hard tasty abs. (OK, so I got that idea from a Tenacious D song.) Oh, and to finally fix my old clamshell iBook.
Rex: To get rock-hard tasty abs. No, wait. Megan said mine already.

1. Jan. 10 is Hammock Day for you. How long have you been with Hammock Publishing?
I started Jan. 10, 2000, so this is my sixth year.
2. What do you remember most about your first day at Hammock?
Well, at the Monday meeting, after being introduced, Will Weaver spilled my coffee and I thought “this is not a good start.” However, later that day our creative director did ask me to retouch one of the covers to Connect magazine. The issue was promoting a show on the Sports Illustrated swimsuit models, and the cover image was a far cry from what I did previously, which was a magazine on business relocation.
3. If you didn’t work at Hammock Publishing, what do you think you would be doing?
I’ve always had a passion for cooking. If I wasn’t an art major in school, then I would have gone to culinary school.
4. What was your favorite cartoon growing up?
The Bugs Bunny and Road Runner show.
5. What CD do you have in your truck right now?
Boston’s first album and Blues Brothers’ Briefcase Full of Blues.
6. What was your most memorable day at Hammock?

I will admit working at Hammock has some GREAT perks. First I would have to say the day that Hammock employees were invited to the Nashville Speedway to participate in the Farve/Jarrett driving experience. Lucky for me, we promoted the school in one of our magazines. I got to drive 10 laps in a NASCAR racecar, and they even had a video camera in the car where they tape you driving. I purchased the tape for evidence. That was a great experience.
A close second is being able to go to the CMA awards at the Grand Old Opry.
7. What’s your favorite reality TV show?
Would you ever participate? The Apprentice. Yeah I’d give it a shot, but I don’t think I’d ever live in New York city though.
8. If you could travel this summer to any country in the world, where would you go?
Well if it was up to my wife and me, we would both say Australia, however, I have always wanted to visit the Emerald Isle, go figure!
9. Where did you grow up?
Westfield, Mass., and yes I do miss a good snow once in a while.
10. If you could switch places with any other Hammock employee for one day, who would it be and why?
Bill Hudgins, because he’s got a way with words.

All the presents under the Hammock tree are for Bill Hudgins today as he celebrates 12 years with Hammock Publishing. While he ripped through the paper and ribbons with the vim of a 6-year-old, I solicited his Hammock history with a few questions.

1. Dec. 15 is Hammock Day for you. How long have you been with Hammock Publishing?
12 years, longer than anyone else except Rex. I believe I am also the oldest employee, at 56-plus.
2. What do you remember most about your first day at Hammock?
I knew just about everyone here I had worked with most of them at Buntin Public Relations before Hammock Publishing was founded, and had also done a bit of freelance work here a few months earlier. But what struck me was the aura of freedom, empowerment and creativity  for example, we were encouraged to investigate this weird new thing called the Internet. It was really like coming home after a long journey.
3. If you didn’t work at Hammock Publishing, what do you think you would be doing?
Working for LandLine Magazine, a trucking publication produced by the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association. I write a column for them and occasional feature articles.
4. What was your favorite cartoon growing up?
“Rocky and Bullwinkle.” For better or (most would say) worse, it shaped my sense of humor and verbal skills.
5. What was your most memorable day at Hammock?
The second most memorable was just after midnight on the Sunday before Memorial Day 1998, when I was in Washington, D.C., covering the annual Rolling Thunder Parade honoring POWs and MIAs from our wars for a trucking magazine we published then called Road King. A freelancer named Mike Perry was with me and we were at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Later that morning, my wife joined us, and we rode with some 250,000 motorcyclists through the streets of DC. The next day I laid a wreath at The Wall on behalf of truckers. It was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had, and still makes my eyes mist over.
The most memorable was an occasion we dont talk about much here, but that changed the companys direction  for the better.
6. Whats your favorite reality TV show? Would you ever participate?
The only reality show I ever watched, and I use the term advisedly, was “Dancing With the Stars.” I watched that because I started learning ballroom dance earlier this year. Yeah, Id give it a shot.
7. Where did you go to college?
Columbia University in New York City.
8. Where did you grow up?
Victoria, Va., a very small town about 65 miles southwest of Richmond. We have an accent there that sounds a lot like Canadian  dog becomes doag, house hohse, that sort of thing. They used to grow a lot of tobacco, and when I was a young child in the ’50s, the now-vanished Virginian Railroad was the big employer. I havent been back in years.
9. What was the last book you read? Last magazine you read cover to cover?
I mostly read audiobooks. The most recent was Ann Patchetts Bel Canto, which I decided to read after she emceed the Nashville Area Literacy Council Spelling Bee that Hammock’s team won. I had also read her Patron Saint of Liars a while back and enjoyed that. Magazine? Family Handyman probably comes closest as the most recent.
10. If you could switch places with any other Hammock employee for one day, who would it be and why?
It’s a toss-up between Rex Hammock, so I could understand more about the stuff he blogs, and Carrie Wakeford, because she is an artist and I would like to know what it feels like to be able to do the kinds of work she does.

Hammock Publishing production director Barbara Mathieson volunteers at the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere during her time away from work. She is pictured on the zoo website at http://nashvillezoo.org/docents.htm. Barbara is in the new Lorikeet Landing and is showing visitors how to attract the colorful birds with cups of nectar.

Were always proud of the work we produce along with our clients. But its nice to be recognized for those effortsespecially when the group doing the recognizing is comprised of industry peers.
The Custom Publishing Councils Pearl Awards were announced last week and MyBusiness magazine (the member publication we produce for the 550,000 small-business members of NFIB) won the top award in the Editorial Excellence category for magazines with circulations of more than 125,000.
Woo hoo!!!!…ok, back to work.

For the first time ever, the Country Music Awards left Music City for the Big Apple. Cowboy hats, blue jeans and Southern accents were in full effect at Tuesday night’s awards ceremony at Madison Square Garden. And while you could probably argue that it was a good thing for country music that the CMAs were in NYC (more exposure and all) some of us back in Nashville couldn’t help but feel a little bitter at all the ooohh-ing and aaaahh-ing over the New York affair.
If you haven’t been here you might not realize it, but the Music City is a great city. Often referred to as the Athens of the South, Nashville is hardly a hick town. Below are a few reasons some of us would choose Nashville over New York any day.
We dont have the Yankees!!!
-Patrick B.
Two words come to mind…Pancake Pantry
Oh, and better traffic on Nashvilles Broadway.
Oh, and friendlier people.
And less crime.
And less expensive housing. Okay, I’ll stop…
-Summer
Let me take a contrarian point-of-view, here. The cabs are cheaper in New York than in Nashville and our public transportation is, well, challenged. But in the transportation department, Nashville’s abundant Southwest service makes it a snap for getting to and from most places quickly (and cheaply). Also, the Ryman Auditorium is a world-class venue for live music. (Oh, sure. New York’s not shabby in that category.) Speaking of live music, the Station Inn.
-Rex
One can afford to live alone because of slightly affordable rent.
-Carrie W.
Southeastern conference football is available in Nashville, although the “home” team Vanderbilt isn’t a powerhouse. and Radnor Lake, where my husband and I go hiking and herping (looking for snakes) on Sunday mornings.
-Barbara The Production Director
I can get most anywhere in 15 minutes or less. I can buy more than I can carry when I go to the grocery store. And people dont look at you funny when you say yall.
-Shannon
We have trees and grass within minutes of our homes and they are not full of muggers (just chiggers and ticks).
Jersey is a cow here, not a landmass barely visible through the smog.
A 30-mile commute doesn’t take two hours, and there are no tolls.
$300,000 buys a huge house and land, instead of just a third-floor condo.
We can wear shorts in November.
Our women are prettier. And some can even cook (and will).
-Bill
I can afford to have a car. Loveless Cafe. Great music, cheap cover charges.
-Jamie
More green spaces, parks, trees.
Closer to my family.
-Allison
If fellow drivers see that you’re stuck in traffic, most will actually let you in their lanes.
-Emily
1. Doesn’t reek of roasted chestnuts
2. Many fewer Yankee fans and other people who wear multi-colored, belted leather Giants jackets (and modeled their personal style after Don Mattingly)
3. Nobody here feels the need to announce, hourly, that they live in he world’s greatest city (It’s just understood)
4. Dogs here come in sizes larger than the Norwegian Brown rat
5. Camoflauge is not worn here as an ironic downtown pose (Fort Campbell soldiers, plus hunters, gain value from it)
6. Investment banker guys here don’t get manicures (or at least don’t brag about it)
7. A public display of orange flags isn’t referred to an art installation. It just means it’s “Football Time in Tennessee.”
8. We can visit. You have to live there and spend your free time figuring out when you have to move to Connecticut or New Jersey.
9. Car service? How about the luxury of driving a big-ass car yourself.
10. We don’t have to wait years before seeing someone we know at the grocery store.
-John