Seven great ways to support the real “job creators”

There is a great deal of talk in Mordor…oops, I mean…Washington, about “job creators.” But this is just more jaw-flapping from those who want to give the wealthy more wealth and destroy the middle class. It is small business, not the wealthy or mega-corporations, who create jobs.

But the middle class and small businesses have had virtually no benefits from anything the government has done for many years, under either party’s administration. Unfortunately, neither the Dempublicans nor Republocrats care a whit about the actual engine that drives employment in this country – the small businessperson.

Here are some things that could be done to actually create jobs rather than give tax loopholes to oil companies, corporate jet owners and those who buy yachts.

1). A payroll tax holiday. A one year payroll tax holiday for small businesses (say, under 50 employees) would allow many of us to hire one or two additional people. Multiply that by the millions of small businesses out there and you have a real dent made in unemployment at minimal cost to the government.

2). A tax credit for those of us who give our employees health insurance. Rather than give GE billions of dollars in tax credits, give some credit to the actual backbone of America’s business and solve a great deal of the “uninsured employed” problem as well. Give small business a tax loophole when we cover our employees.

3). Have one place to file taxes. I have to employ a payroll company to do our very small payroll. Why? The (expletive deleted) government makes us file various taxes so many places with so many forms that only professionals can keep up with it. This costs me $120 a month that could go towards other, more useful, things in our business. And MUST every little neighborhood tax us?

4). Streamline health insurance. One of our folks spends 20 – 30 hours a month simply fighting with the health insurance company to get them to honor their contract and pay out what they’re obligated to. We need strong laws to require simplified and understandable health insurance contracts, with clear and understandable statements of coverage, fewer exclusions, and strong requirements that they pay out what they are contractually required to pay.

5). Leave us alone! I’m not against all government regulation. But mom and pop businesses really shouldn’t have to spend hours each year complying with regulations or being accountants. It isn’t just the Feds, either. The Feds at least exempt very small businesses from many regulations, which is more than State and Municipal governments do. Even mom and pop businesses spend precious hours and financial resources kowtowing to the small-minded little bureaucrats inhabiting the rat-warren cubicle mazes of government offices. Leave us alone! There is really no need for all of the regulations (or even most of the regulations) small businesses must put up with.

6). Protect small businesses from lawsuits. It is far too easy for anyone to file a lawsuit for anything in this country. We desperately need to change our legal system so that frivolous lawsuits become very expensive for the one filing them, and there is a presumption of “innocence” on the part of a business absent a clear indication of negligence or malice. Simply making an honest mistake should not bankrupt a business. Nor should defending oneself from a frivolous lawsuit.

7). Make collection from deadbeats easier. Most small businesses are plagued with collections problems. It is incredibly time consuming and expensive to make deadbeats pay up in this country. It usually isn’t that they can’t pay. It is that it is so easy to stiff a small businessperson that some dishonest people just decide not to pay. There are many ways it could be made easier to collect from deadbeats. Understand that when a deadbeat doesn’t pay, it has a ripple effect throughout the whole economy. If someone can’t pay, most of us will negotiate. It’s those who can, but won’t, who irritate us.

The fact is that neither major party is truly pro-small-business. But small business drives the engine of our nation’s economy and will drive any recovery we have. Supporting some very real help for America’s small businesses is supporting your very livelihood and the economic recovery of all of America. It will be opposed by both bought and paid for political parties, but it is essential for our country and our people.

Meet with your colleagues for highly effective job search networking August 8th at the DAC. Executives, go here. Management, business, professional and technical, go here. NO VENDORS and nothing is sold.

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