We are in that hazy netherworld that seems to sneak
up on us near the end of every year. We wonder where the time went, what the New
Year will hold and how we can take our enterprise to what we euphemistically
call the next level. This year there is an extra bit of haze in the picture
because the mid-term elections have sent a lot of rookies to various
legislatures and embracing small business may not be their #1 priority. This is
a good time to share some thoughts on what the business sector and small
business in particular really want and need.
I think that the biggest thing small business owners
want from all levels of government is simply respect. With over 60% of all jobs
created in the country coming from the small business community, won't
politicians and others simply say nice job to the men and women who hustle and
risk every day to build and grow various enterprises. It is my contention that
small business gets only lip service in the corridors of congress because the
heavy hitter lobbyists represent other interests.
That respect has to begin at the local level. Last
week I received a nice note from Bob Foster, the Mayor of Long Beach California
regarding a pilot program they've been working on for greater small business
development. He and his council want more city contracts to go to small and even
very small businesses. He says this will help
generate job growth and sales tax revenue, and ensure that their tax dollars are
spent locally. Are your local politicians building real bridges to
entrepreneurs? If so, please let me know about it and be sure to thank them for
it.
The next thing the owner of a growing business wants
to have is a clear set of rules regarding taxes, and health care costs that will
hold steady for at least a few years. The top layer of clouds blotting out the
sun for business is that a massive expansion of government has created an
equivalent amount of uncertainty for the private sector. Uncertainty means that
money goes to the mattress and many expansive thoughts are put away for a while.
Big business in America is sitting on about $1.8 trillion in cash, waiting
for a sign that the federal government won't do a snatch & grab on their
resources.
Carl Schramm, head of the Kauffman Foundation in
Kansas City has a clear idea about how the country can build a
path to greater economic growth. In a Forbes Magazine interview he said "The
single most important contributor to a nation's economic growth is the number of
startups that grow to a billion dollars in revenue within twenty years." He went
on to say that in the U.S. we need to see 75 to 125 of those billion dollar
babies every year to feed a post WWII rate of growth.
The owners of growing businesses need care, feeding
and specific education on how to get where they want to go. From our twenty
years of producing television stories of small business owners for Making It!
we've seen about five (out of 1000) rise to the billion bucks level. They were
all headed by hungry and even driven people who probably consume big dreams for
breakfast! One of the exciting aspects of this for me is that this superstar
level of entrepreneur comes from all known ethnicities and genders! Most
business owners simply want to make an independent living that can take care of
their families and help the kids through college. Many don?t have the iron
constitution, discipline and raw ambition that it takes to go from very small to
large, but that isn't what they want. I know that you can find your own comfort
level of enterprise building and it may have three, six or nine zeroes after the
first three digits.
Business owners don't want to feel that they are
being treated as pawns in some sort of class warfare. President Obama and his
administration have acquired a reputation as being anti-business. A lot of the
energy of the Tea Party seems to have come from small business owners who feel
that Washington simply doesn't understand them or their place in
reviving the American economy. Politicians sometimes inject haves versus
have-nots notes that imply business owners have some sort of unfair advantage.
Some Wall Street barons may indeed have that advantage, but Main Street America
certainly does not.
Notice that I didn't put easier loans or money in
general on the wish list. Money has never been cheaper and it seems that loans
for going enterprises are available. I believe that what small business owners
really want is very much what all humans crave. That would be understanding,
appreciation, encouragement and respect. Those ingredients are the food of
dreams and no country can be great without entrepreneurs who harbor big
dreams.
- Nelson Davis | Small Business Expert
