Small Change for Small Business
What is in the Stimulus Package for small business?
“There’s very little, if any, money in the stimulus package for small business, and what is there is really sort of a trickle-down from the benefits that go to consumers…and it’s a slow trickle, perhaps one you won’t see until sometime in 2010, and small businesses need help now. Less than 1 percent of every stimulus dollar will go to small business, despite that operations with fewer than 100 workers created 94 percent of all net job growth in America over the last 20 years.”
–Michael Alter, President of SurePayroll
SurePayroll surveyed more than 200 small-business owners nationwide to find out how the government could help them the most. 44 percent said they need immediate access to capital more than anything else. 29 percent said money invested in innovation and product development would really boost small business.
There seems to be very little disagreement by anyone that small business will be in the lead of our economic recovery–by putting people back to work first. That is why it is incomprehensible that Congress provided such a little bit of stimulus to small business–especially when the feds are also forcing banks to withhold loans.
Giving tax breaks and small checks to unemployed people, or people who are afraid they may become unemployed, might be a welcome gesture, but I believe people want jobs and job assurance, more than they want tax cuts.
I have some choice words for Congress, but I had better not print them here!
Small Business–Caught in the Middle
I posted about this subject before, but I thought it would be a good idea to see if anything has changed since then. Apparently it has, but not for the good of small business.
“…community banks have plenty of money to loan, but thanks to increased regulatory scrutiny, all banks–even those that had no part in the subprime mess–are being forced to tighten their lending standards and are therefore narrowing the range of acceptable borrowers.”
–Paul Merski, Chief economist, and Director of federal tax policy for Independent Community Bankers of America“We want to lend, but the regulators are flat-out telling us, ‘Get your capital up.’ Then there’s Congress telling you to, ‘lend it all out.”
–Greg Melvin, Board member of FNBCorp, a PA based bank that received $100 million in federal bailout funds.“The left hand has the banker by the throat, saying ‘We want your ratios adjusted to compensate for diminishing assets,’ while the other hand is saying ‘we need you to start lending.’ They’re coming from different directions.”
–Curtis Cummings, CEO of Alan Jeskey Builders of Las Vegas
Well, as is typical of anything the U.S. government is involved in, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing–and small business is caught in the middle.
Hundreds (thousands?) of small businesses are closing every day–putting more and more people out of work–because they do not have the financial resources to see them through this recession.
Putting cash in the hands of consumers who are supposed to spend it in businesses that no longer exist doesn’t make much sense.
Small businesses need access to operating capital to keep their business viable until the economy turns around. The banks have the money to loan to deserving businesses, and the willingness to loan it, but the federal government is telling them they cannot loan the money out.
Doesn’t make much sense to me–does it to you?
Open Source Funding
I know there are many newly started, or about-to-start businesses out there just waiting for an investor to jump in and help them. Well, now’s your chance. Hi-tech entrepreneur, Mark Cuban, has developed his own private stimulus plan for small business, and is willing to consider funding existing, or start up businesses. If you are looking for “jump start” money, this program may be for you.
Here is what Mark said initially on his blog:
Rather than trying to be a Venture Capitalist, I was looking for an idea that hopefully could inspire people to create businesses that could quickly become self funding. Businesses that just needed a jump start to get the ball rolling and create jobs. Im a big believer that entrepreneurs will lead us out of this mess. I just needed a way to help.
So here it is. Some people will love it, some will hate it. It is what it is.
Some of Marks rules for funding may be outside the box, but he moves fast, and if your business qualifies, you may be funded very quickly.
This is certainly not the only way to fund your business, but it is an interesting concept, and well worth taking a look at.
For more information and all the details on applying for funding, go to Marks blog.
Good luck!
Another Inconvenient Truth
I had heard of this documentary film about America’s fiscal problems, and then a friend just sent me a short version of the movie. I think we all have our own ideas about what the current economic situation means, but this is the only place I have seen the actual fiscal facts pulled together. It was produced by Christine O’Malley, an Academy Award nominee, and directed by Patrick Creadon, of Sundance fame. The full-length movie is a nonpartisan film that follows former U.S. Comptroller General, David Walker, as he crisscrosses the country explaining America’s unsustainable fiscal policies to its citizens. It was made prior to the election, bailouts, and the stimulus bill, so some of the current conditions are now even more dramatic.
The facts presented in this shortened video affect every small business and individual in the U.S.–probably the world. Although the video is about 30 minutes long, I think, like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, it is important enough that, hopefully, readers would set aside the time to take a look at it.
(email subscribers–view on the blog)
With so much doom and gloom, and misinformation coming out of the Eastern press, it is good to see exactly what lies ahead of us, so we can act accordingly. We will know how to plan for our future business, and what we have to do to make our businesses successful. The U.S. may no longer be the industrial giant of the world, but we certainly are a large community of entrepreneurs that work in our homes, in garages, in forest cabins, in university dorms, and in every block of every city of America. With our innate spirit of innovation, we can overcome the fiscal problems of America–and we will.
If anyone spent the time to view this documentary, I would appreciate your thoughts.
Let’s Lighten it Up!
There has been too much doom and gloom on the “ethers” lately, and since it is Saturday, I thought I would just lighten things up a little. Check it out!
(email subscribers–view on blog)
I hope that picked up your spirits a little. Have a great weekend!
Steve Jobs, Wall Street, and Bernie Madoff
There seems to be no limit to the lack of intelligence within the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or the people who run it–nor in the Department of Justice (DOJ); the prosecutors for the SEC. They are now investigating whether Apple committed securities fraud by failing to inform the public about the details of CEO Steve Jobs health.
Yes, this is the same government agency that was responsible for overseeing the activities of Wall Street, and the actions of Bernie Madoff. Apparently, they thought Wall Street was doing everything right, and that Bernie was an ok guy–just doing his job–but that, somehow, Steve Jobs and Apple are in cahoots to defraud Apple shareholders.
Jobs health issues have been public for several years, at least since he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004. His successful operation and recovery was as public as the media could possibly make it. Why now, all of a sudden, does the SEC and the DOJ think they need to review Jobs medical records–can’t they just leave the poor man alone?
Anyone who has ever looked closely at Apple would certainly realize that Steve Jobs does not run Apple single-handedly. Jobs has built a strong organization of capable people, and Apple will become, and is, less and less dependent upon Steve Jobs, the person. Yes, he is the poster boy for Apple, but there is no such thing as an indispensable person–never was, and never will be. But, of course, shareholders, playing the Casino game called Wall Street, prefer to act like “chicken little” and create enough drama that the feds feel they must investigate. Besides, the SEC and DOJ need to take the spotlight off the sweetheart deal they just cut with Madoff.
So, the feds will storm Apple’s castle, and wring out every intimate detail of Jobs health. To me it is incomprehensible that investors are entitled to every little detail of his health when his health history has always been a matter of public record. Since these government agencies have historically been the poster boys for incompetence in dealing with businesses, it should come as no surprise that they are oblivious to common decency, and the desire by Jobs to have a little privacy while he tends to his medical needs.
Here’s a quaint suggestion: take some of the resources of the SEC and the DOJ and use them to oversee where the trillions of dollars of taxpayer money is going and how it is being spent. Now, that, I could support.
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