March 17, 2009

I don’t know too many small business owners hanging around looking for bailouts. The bailout of choice for the small business owner is innovation and determination.

It’s funny how every politician in the last cycle, Democrat and Republican alike, talked about Main Street, but I don’t think they really know where that is – ‘cuz it’s in Flo’s Diner in a back alley in Harlem and it’s in a Facebook Group for wedding photographers and it’s here – this is the new main street.

And if that’s so, and I believe it is, then it’s going to take new thinking to make real impact. There are some great opportunities for small business in the current bill and you should get with your accountant right now to talk about taking advantage of accelerated depreciation of equipment and the ability to carry back net operating losses as far back as five years.

And, while I don’t expect any economic stimulus package to properly acknowledge the role of small business as the economic engine that drives our economy, as long as the current administration is making noise about small business, let’s try to get a couple important things fixed.

1) Really fund the SBDCs and SCORE and every other group providing education, support and training for small business.

2) Fix the Uncle Louie problem along with the banks – Yes, we need credit and we need banks to survive and start making loans but, Uncle Louie, who’s sitting on $500,000 and believes in supporting his niece’s crazy big business idea needs a tax credit to make that loan (while we’re at it we need bigger credits for investing in our own business)

3) Want to create jobs? – Don’t make hiring an employee the most expensive, regulatory nightmare a small business has to go through. Depending upon whom you ask the economic stimulus act is slated to create jobs through spending that will cost between $70,000 and $200,000 per job created. Here’s my advice: give ½ of that to a qualified small business and let them create real, fulfilling, and permanent jobs. Any small business owner worth their salt knows how to take a buck and turn it into a buck fifty.

4) Fix health care – I know this is a biggie, and it impacts more than small business, but millions of Americans are trapped in unfulfilling cubicles by the fact that pre-existing health conditions make it impossible for them to escape. Fix this and the surge of entrepreneurial investment and innovation would take on tsunami like characteristics.

No matter what the hand dealt small business folks with survive on grit and pluck, just like always, but, hey, as long as we’re trying to get it right, let’s tell it like it is.

Small business is the economic engine that can pull us out of this recession - let’s put some oil in the engine!

Photo credit: Svenstorm