Growing up in a mid-sized town, there was a rule about starting your own small business: Join a church. Once you joined a church (it didn't really matter which

Growing up in a mid-sized town, there was a rule about starting your own small business: Join a church. Once you joined a church (it didn't really matter which one), you gained a lot of social connections that turned into business connections. I don't know if there was any statistical truth to that, but it was definitely accepted in my family's social circle as a rule.