It’s clear that high fuel prices are taking their toll on many small businesses, threatening profit margins. This is a troubling development when you consider the importance of small businesses to the U.S. economy. 99.7% of all employer firms in America are small businesses (defined as fewer than 500 employees). Small businesses pay about half of US private payrolls, and they have generated 60-80% of net new jobs annually over the last decade. (I got these statistics from the Small Business Administration.)

For this reason, I love covering small business trends. I have a lot of admiration for entrepreneurs and people who start their own firms. To me, small businesses are a component of the American Dream -- the idea that through hard work, courage and determination a person can achieve financial prosperity.

My report for next week's "Pain at the Pump" series is essentially three vignettes of small business owners linked together by a common theme -- the impact rising gasoline prices is having on their pursuit of the American Dream.

My cameraman Howard and I spent the day in Bergen County and got stories from three businesses handling the problem in three different ways. I hope to do more stories like this in the future: common problems affecting small businesses and how they are solving them.

Any ideas? If you work for a small business, I’d love to hear about your firm's major challenges these days -- is it the credit crunch? Healthcare costs? Government regulation? Something else?

As a viewer do you agree that you’d like to see more small business coverage? Or are you more interested in stories on big, well-known companies, whose stocks you can trade?