Every day across America, men and women get up in the morning and go to their small business to fight out a living. These are doers not whiners. You won’t find too many small business owners lying around in tents waiting for the government to save them. The following is from a recent survey of small business owners across the country:
Small Businesses Recognize the Link between Politics and Policy
- A vast majority (97%) of small businesses surveyed cite a candidate’s support for the free enterprise system as important, 84% cite as very important.
- Almost as many small businesses, (92%) think the business community should lead the American Recovery, compared to 8% who think the federal government has the best solutions.
- The vast majority of small businesses still are looking for the government to get out of the way (81%) and for more certainty opposed to government assistance.
- Small businesses see all bureaucrats in Washington as the problem but have sharpened their criticism of the Administration and Congressional Democrats in the past 9 months. Close to half of all respondents approve of the job the House Republican Majority is doing; only 8% approve of the Senate Democrat Majority. Sixteen percent of small businesses approve of the job President Obama is doing.
There is an old adage, “If you want to get something done, give the task to a busy person.” If you want to fix the economy, leave it to the thousands of hardworking, risk-taking small business owners to do it. But, let them be rewarded for their handwork and personal risk.
Helping small businesses thrive has been a top priority in Washington since President Eisenhower promoted the establishment of the United States Small Business Administration in 1953.
Every year since then, billions of dollars in government backed loans and business from government contracts flows to entrepreneurs all across the country.
Eisenhower was, I guess, what you would call an understated visionary. He understood the big things. Had the big vision thing. The Nation needed a first class interstate highway system for commerce, it was important for government to support small business operators. So that small business would not drown in the new world of mega military industrial complex sized corporations.
So it was Ike who saw to it the United States Small Business Administration was signed into law. He knew banks would rather loan to the big business with a track record and small start ups would be left out in the cold or fall victim to sharks. Thanks to US Small Business Administration 7(a) loans, loans to small business reached a new high of $17.7 billion in 2010. Without these government backed loans a lot of small business would not have access to the capital they need.
In his final State of the Union Ike was proud to say:
“An additional measure to strengthen the American system of competitive enterprise was the creation of the Small Business Administration in 1953 to assist existing small businesses and encourage new ones. This agency has approved over $1 billion in loans, initiated a new program to provide long-term capital for small businesses, aided in setting aside $3 1/2 billion in government contracts for award to small business concerns, and brought to the attention of individual businessmen, through programs of information and education, new developments in management and production techniques. Since 1952, important tax revisions have been made to encourage small businesses.”
It’s good to know our American business heritage, what previous generations did, so we can appreciate what we have now. It’s foolish to think that Government has been anything other than a great help when it comes to small business.
You could probably call the tens of thousands of EIsenhower’s dedicated SBA employees “government bureaucrats”. Nevertheless, the fine folks at SBA are an important national asset, part of what makes small business tick in America.
One of the many resources SBA offers 21st century entrepreneurs is their Office Of Small Business advocacy. A small business owner with regulatory problems will find help there.
But it would be a good idea to have a specific complaint – if you just show up and say “you want the government to get out of the way” or “I think bureaucrats are my problem” – you’re probably not going to get very far. These are serious people.