The primaries for narrowing the field of eligible political candidates has passed and now political advertising has begun in earnest, both in print, on television and through the Internet.

However, there's a platform I've never seen promoted, but I'd like to. In addition to things like tax increment financing and revolving loan programs, I think towns and cities should offer another perk to encourage entrepreneurs to set up shop in their geographic regions: supplemental funds for training.

When my daughter opened her coffeehouse and café in 2002, she was on a tight budget with borrowed funds for renovating the space and purchasing equipment. When the shop finally opened, it was do or die. She was out of loans she could use for operations. She had to open up shop to get some additional cash flow.

 She'd grown up with training ingrained into her very being, but without the necessary funds, training was minimized. Instead of having a few days for new baristas to perfect their brews and become comfortable on the cash register, or having a night where they could practice on friends, they each had about two hours of formal training and then were left to practice on their own.

When the local newspaper did a story on the shop a few weeks after opening, the shop was ill-prepared to handle the crowd that came the next day because the employees hadn't had adequate time to practice and prepare.

So here's my solution: my daughter had borrowed funds from her local municipalities Revolving Loan Fund. This fund was created by state tax dollars. The municipality then charged a small amount of interest-in my daughter's case it was 4.25 percent-on the balance. The interest and principal payments were then rolled back into RLF.

Why not use the interest to create a new fund to help with training expenses? I realize some of the interest probably is needed to cover funds on defaulted loans, but every bit of help counts, especially in this economy, when starting up a new business. And having those with a stake in the small business' success encourage proper preparation can help prevent poor performance and give them an even better chance at making it in this economy.