Jane Applegate calls entrepreneurs the engine of the American economy — and after Sept. 11, she said it needed a tune-up.

        “The engine was sputtering, and the engine was running out of fuel,” said Ms. Applegate, author of three books on small-business management and CEO and executive producer of SBTV (Small Business Television). “If America stopped doing business, then the bad guys win.”

        Ms. Applegate brought her small-business seminar Back on Track America to Cincinnati Thursday, its fifth stop on a nationwide tour.

        The three-hour event featured sessions on doing business in a slow economy, managing employees more smartly and handling finances better.

        The session on starting your own business and contacting business counselors from the volunteer group Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) particularly interested Dan Dancer of Hyde Park.

        “I thought maybe it was time to do something on my own,” said Mr. Dancer, who recently lost his job at General Cable Corp.

        Patricia Thomas-Wilson traveled from Athens to the Bankers Club in downtown for the seminar because she wants to start her own business, maybe in restaurants or real estate.

        Ms. Applegate said such motivated attitudes are what the economy and the country needs.

        “We need to get small-business owners out of the office and back in the game,” she said.

        In addition to the on-the-scene experts, Ms. Applegate said Thursday's attendants also wouldn't leave without knowing how to get help in the future from SCORE, the U.S. Small Business Administration and other resources.

        “This is all about getting people out and reconnecting them,” she said. “Set your ego aside and ask for help. ... The smartest people realize they don't know everything.”

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