Oct. 23--It was sheer coincidence that the president of the United States made an appearance early Wednesday afternoon at the St. Louis Small Business Monthly's annual St. Louis Business Expo.

Barack Obama didn't materialize at the St. Charles Convention Center by design or, for that matter, in the flesh.

And though he appeared courtesy of CNN on a television set tucked in the corner of an exhibition booth, Obama announced plans for an initiative to stimulate jobs and commerce by funneling additional funds to small businesses.

Talk about kismet.

As Obama spoke, I was making the rounds of the expo, asking one small-business owner after another about ... jobs.

More to the point, I wondered if small businesses will ultimately be a lifeline for many of the 142,000 area residents currently collecting unemployment. The answers, in no particular order: Perhaps, hopefully, it depends.

Not that owners of small businesses aren't willing to add payroll.

It's just that the small profit margin of small businesses leaves the proprietors little room for error -- or new employees.

Jenny Thomasson, for example, would love nothing more than to lighten her workload (80 hours a week) and that of her partner and husband (50 hours a week).

But, down to three part-time employees from the six on her payroll a year ago, she just can't afford more help right now.

Should the occasion arise when she can add payroll, Thomasson will have no shortage of applicants: Each week, Thomasson fields a minimum of six unsolicited calls from job hopefuls.

"And I'm just a flower shop," said the amazed co-owner of Stems Florist in Florissant.

Thomasson ends each call by expressing regret and encouraging callers to submit an application -- just in case.

If, or when, Thomasson hires again, it will only be for part-time positions. The pay, she said, will exceed the minimum wage. But the package will include nothing in the way of health benefits.

As I spoke with Thomasson and other small-business owners, several themes emerged, good and bad, that deserve the attention of job-seekers who see small businesses as an alternative to the corporate cultures that vaulted them into the unemployment office.

Small-business owners are an independent and demanding breed -- "For a lot of new business owners, hiring an employee is like handing over your baby. You think no one can possibly share your passion or attention to detail," said Don Barnes, the owner of PeaceFrog, an independent website consulting firm that hired its first employee this year. "You have to be able to accept the mistakes of others."

Don't count on health care -- Unless the pending health care legislation radically changes the landscape, employees of small businesses are generally on their own when it comes to benefits. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey conducted for the Small Business Administration found that employees of small companies are twice as likely to be uninsured as workers in larger firms.

Don't expect full-time wages -- Directly connected to the issue of benefits, employees of small businesses can pretty much count on part-time hours with fairly low pay. That's the downside. The upside is flexibility that comes with working side by side with your boss.

Shortly before I wandered into her booth, Thomasson learned one of her part-timers had just landed another part-time job. Should one of the many applicants that contact her every week expect a call?

Sorry.

Thomasson will simply re-adjust that employee's hours to accommodate the other job.

Talk to enough small-business owners and a paradox starts to emerge.

They are risk-takers. As Barnes puts it, they are willing to cast off the "security blanket" of a steady paycheck, benefits and the other perks of corporate employment.

Once the blanket is pushed aside, boldness gives way to economic reality, said Patricia Guttman, public information officer for the St. Louis branch of the Small Business Administration.

And that's when jobs enter the picture.

"If they don't have working capital to operate the biz, then they can't sustain a full-time or even a part-time employee," Guttman notes.

Locally, Guttman said her agency has seen a slight upswing this year in employment at small laboratories and research facilities.

Hiring in the service industry, particularly restaurants, has been more erratic.

A final word of caution for job-hunters considering a downsize from corporate America: According to SBA data, 50 percent of start-up businesses perish in five years.

In other words, small businesses represent a risk for employees and employers alike.

Elliott Stipes, the owner of Green Clean Commercial -- "a sustainable commercial cleaning provider" with 23 employees in St. Louis -- takes another view.

A fresh start with a new business, he said, might be the perfect place to re-generate a career.

"Someday," said Stipes of his 21/2-year-old company, "we might be a big corporation."

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