Nettie Hartsock is a wonderfully generous writer who covers “Must Read Business Books” for AllBusiness.com. Last week she asked me a handful of questions about Duct Tape Marketing.

Here’s my favorite question:

Nettie: Why do you love small businesses?

John: (laughs) There’s something in equal parts about it being both gratifying and terrifying and for the challenges that you have to meet for the companies.

It’s s a whole different feeling in terms of the results that you want to get for these businesses. With small businesses, you’re really working for the person that signs the check, directly with them in order to help their business grow.

Early on I did work for a large corporation and I got a check for 156,000 dollars and it was an error and the thing it was just an accounting error, but I remember that day thinking I could cash this check and no one would ever know. But it also served as a really good example of what happens in larger corporations where there is no accountability and no real drive to get anyone results.

So for me the challenge in working with small businesses is that you really have an opportunity to prove yourself and they really have an opportunity to see the results.

You can catch the full interview here.