How can the next president better help small business and entrepreneurs thrive?
Answers (1,443)
+ Get technology and have a curiosity about it. Recent US Presidents and national politicians in general don't seem to care or know much at all about technology. "The Internets" and "The Google" have become punch lines. A president who follows technology can make more informed policy decisions. The lobbies that represent the interests of the auto industry in Detroit and the oil interests of Texas seem to have had far more pull in Washington than the interests of Silicon Valley. It's time to change that.
+ Along these lines the biotech industry in the US has been frustrated because the current administration in a number of cases has hamstrung progress citing religious values (stem cell research). Washington needs to regain its respect for science.
+ Get behind alternative energy. Green energy is perhaps the biggest new initiative taken up by entrepreneurs and investors in the past 12 months. There are too many steps that the federal government can do to aid these startups to describe here. The government doesn't need to decide which companies should win or loose but at the least it can remove impediments to the sector's growth.
+ Open up the wireless airwaves to new competition. Unlike the Internet, wireless is a closed oligopoly where very little innovation is occurring.
+ Back initiatives that bring computers and bandwidth to students.
Be forward thinking and open minded at the same time. While we need to support big industries in the US we need to be cognizant of what is happening elsewhere around the world. What are they doing in other regions that is helping small business thrive. Small business thrives when the mega multi-nationals are not allowed to run amok or given free reign to re-write the rules.
Lower the burden of federal regulation, and simplify the tax code so American small business owners don't have to face the hidden tax of preparing our taxes. The best thing government can do to enable entrepreneurs to thrive is to get out of the way, streamline the processes that may be necessary, and be prepared to take in more revenue from a thriving economy!
Przemyslaw H
Key Account Director at Virtual Activities Organization (vao.pl)
Best Answers in: Web Development (1)
Hi
I represent the company from Poland which delivers outsourcing IT services for US customers.
It is esential to build cross-border business platforms to match service providers and customers. The next step is to promote them.
It will benefit both the companies and the government. This will help SME to expand to new markets and allow start-ups to be discovered by various VCs.
Business platforms should support every industry, what is more it should be easy (free of charge etc.) to access them, so every partner can promote there.
Best regards,
Przemyslaw Herman
http://www.vao.pl
Links:
David D
District Sales Manager, Eastman Kodak Program, Mosaic Sales Solutions
Best Answers in: Career Management (1)
Do the best you possibly can to get out of our way, and remove any blocks that you can that keep us from achieving success. And remember, it's the small businesses in this country that make the economy work, not the huge corporations.
Ryan B
Biopreneurs: The Molecular Millionaires
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Senator Barack,
Good to meet you here. Small business and entrepreneurs are the part of the whole economy that runs the nation as well as the world.
Just focusing on a part of the situation may provide short term benefit, however, next president should and must think and view each and every situation on a broader perspective - Because he or she is a PRESIDENT.
Need Policy changes - fair and just sytems -
Have true social system that offers financial freedom and potential to have access (I mean true access) to the basic human need - FOOD, Shelter and Education - these will foster true democracy and entrepreneurship.
Thank you
Ryan Baiday, PhD, MBA
Support the development of business incubators. These "entrepreneurial ecosystems" are great starting homes for the entrepreneur and her or his new venture in years 1-4. The incubator lowers hurdles, mitigates risk, helps the entrepreneur network into valuable resources, and while it offers no guarantees, it does improve the odds for a successful start and graduation to a sustainable business that creates high-quality jobs in the process of introducing new technologies and products to the marketplace.
Links:
Clarification added September 14, 2007:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/12/Obama-queries-LinkedIn-users_1.html?source=searchresult
I think Allen answered it best, but I wanted to echo his response: fix the tax system.
The President's job is to run the executive branch of the federal government; he is not the king of the country. He can better help small business, entrepreneurs (and the rest of the country) by following the Constitution for the United States: 1) insist that the income tax be properly applied - an excise tax assessed against the exercise of privileges, NOT against the common law right to work and own or obtain property, 2) no more serial wars or foreign entanglements. Get us OUT of Iraq and Afghanistan, 3) market-driven costs for energy - open up the North Slope, 4) return to honest money. Abolish the Federal Reserve system (Ron Paul can explain to you how to do this). 5) Return all control of the schools to the local communities so we can train the next generation of entrepreneurs. The current system is a failure ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfRUMmTs0ZA ). Take care of those five things and you will best help small business and entrepreneurs, and the whole country, to thrive.
Links:
Small Business's supply more that 50% of all new jobs created each year and as such they are vital for the economy of the United States. I am currently studying how to open my own business and the one thing that seems to be the largest barrier to a small retail business is the cost of the lease and the cost of the employees. If there is a way that the government can assist with the costs of a lease during the opening years (when profits are likely to be non-existent) then the barrier to entry for new bricks and mortar stores will be lowered and you'll have more businesses forming.
Make it much easier and less expensive for small companies to provide quality health insurance to their employees. Many small companies cannot afford to provide health insurance.
Steve
In a similar vein to what others have said - 1) reduce the burden of Federal regulations; 2) Reduce the tax burden, and 3) Reduce the complexity of the tax code. In addition, reduce the complexity of Federal contracting regulations to allow more streamlined acquisition from small businesses - current rules favor large enterprises, either implicitly or in some cases explicitly.
Ray M
Energy expert, educator, award winning sculptor
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The best investment the federal government can make that would directly affect small businesses and entrepreneurs is to kick off high level development projects in infrastructure, space exploration, and new energy technologies.
Federal vision and funding in these areas will create a wide array of opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs to capitalize through business expansion, financing, and long term contracts.
The fallout of federal development in infrastructure, energy and space include benefiting small businesses and entrepreneurs as well as:
-restoring the US as a leader in science and technology
-establishing the US as the source of the next frontier in energy devel-opment
-replacing the failing infrastructure
-creatin demand for more science, engineering and education majors
and much more.........
Eric W
Software Engineer, Sr Staff at Siemens Health Services and Owner, Digital Carvers Guild
Reduce the complexity for taxes. I spend at least a work week a year just dealing with taxes. I'm never sure that I've done everything I'm supposed to do or that I've done it correctly. I have to deal with taxes at the township, county, state, and federal level, and even with the best of intentions I end up finding out about some obscure use tax after the penalties kick in. It's frustrating to spend so much time and energy on something that is not building my business.
Charles T
President Sell-Through Solutions, Inc. and CE/Computer Training Consultant
It is now more difficult and expensive than ever for small businesspeople to obtain affordable health insurance, either as a sole proprietor, or for their employees. Even when we're able to obtain insurance, coverage is worse than ever, with exclusions for pre-existing conditions, bargaining over which body parts will be covered, and outrageous out-of-pocket costs for the supposedly "insured."
I don't have any good answer for you, but the fact of ask this question in a place like LinkedIn is already a very good sign of attention to entrepreneurs, new technology and real economy, my compliments.
Giuseppe
Wayne R
Senior Software Test QA Engineer for Systems and Software Developement
Best Answers in: Ethics (1), Software Development (1)
Simply allow them to be. There are som amny hoops that I have to jump through every single day. Worrying about am I meeting this regulation or that statute or that law. I have to worry about setting aside enough for Uncle Sam on every single transaction, when sometimes I coud take that money and use it to make the company better. Small businesses have more than enough to worry about by just trying to sustain their proprietors let alone making sure they have enough to cover hidden and often very obscure taxes. Simplify the tax code for small businesses and you will see more small businesses become large businesses or at the very least maintain their status quo.
Lakshmi S
VP, Global Practice development Utilities/Energy sectors; PMP, CSM(ScrumMaster)
Eliminate employer matching federal withholding for small businesses, up to certain level. Let the big companies pay higher matching to make up for the gap. Group health insurances need to be affordable so all the employees can be covered and they can get better benefits.
Louis J
Instructional Design / Training consultant
Best Answers in: Occupational Training (1), Web Development (1)
First, stop kowtowing to the needs of BIG business. Eliminate corporate welfare. Support free enterprise by reducing protectionist policies. Reform the patent system to do away with overly broad and obvious patents.
Audrey H
Researcher/Writer/Policy Analyst -- Founder and Owner, Knowledge Empowerment
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One major way to help entrepreneurs and small businesses is to make health care and insurance affordable and accessible. Many individuals who would otherwise seriously consider becoming entrepreneurs are stopped cold by the prospect of a) qualifying for health insurance and b) paying for it. While some states (like Illinois) do have alternative state-sponsored policies, the benefits are often restricted and the costs are prohibitively high. For small businesses, providing health insurance for their employees is oftentimes an impossible goal, again leaving the employees to find their own health insurance, and most likely discouraging a number of highly qualified candidates from considering small businesses as job prospects.
Ensure that BIG corporations pay a fair + proper amount of income tax on profits and use the increase in tax revenue to design incentivised tax breaks for small business.
Gordon Roberts
Several responders have already made good suggestions regarding incubators and tax code issues. I would also suggest doing something to make it easier to know how/where to find financing. I think most entrepenuers are aware of organizations (both public and private) that can help in this area but, as I write this, I couldn't name which agencies they are or how much financing they provide. I would guess I am not alone in that sentiment. We all know the IRS is where we file and pay our taxes. If we all had the same "knowledge" of whom to contact to help start a business, it would probably give a lot more people the confidence to know they can do it.
Geoff F
"Hands-on" Software Architect and Senior Developer
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Don't help. Don't interfere. Simplify or remove regulations so they are fair and compliance is tractable for a small organization. If you "Help", you introduce loop holes, complexity and opportunities for some few to succeed by gaming the system instead of fairly competing.
Never introduce regulation, rules or laws where only large companies can manage compliance.
Absolutely force importers and foreign manufacturers to pay for and enforce trade, safety and other regulations in full conformance with what US companies must endure.
Simplify and rectify the immigration process so that it is fair, workable and representative of US values but enforce the law. Lawfully punish those who hire persons illegally in this country. Criminal behavior should be punished without regard to race, creed, religion or country of origin, Civil rights should not be degraded as an excuse for criminal invasion.
Senator - One of the issues currently is the legal immigration. Most of the legal immigrants on the temperory worker, H1B visa are stuck in the Green Card process for about 6-8 years.
I would appreciate if the next president could help in fixing this process.
This issue has received attention from many lawmakers for example the letter from 12 state governors which was issued yesterday: (http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/press-release/7381/)
Any help in this matter is appreciated.
Links:
Paul S. R. C
Software developer / manager; formerly with dynamicsoft/Cisco, Ascend/Lucent, AT&T Bell Labs, now at Google
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To amplify what Mr. Becker said: Help small businesses provide quality, affordable health care to their employees. Rising health care costs are effectively a tax on U.S. employers, making us less competitive in the global marketplace.
I'd go further: Help individuals also be able to afford health care. The next Microsoft or Google could be born in some garage tomorrow, but only if the founders aren't swamped by one $100,000 hospital bill.
(Also please note that health care and health insurance are not the same things! The former is the goal; the latter is only a means to an end.)
Thank you for your interest. --PSRC
By BEING ONE. By experiencing it. Without this, it is just smoke in mirrors.
William (Bill) S
Founder, Ethical Brand (International)
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Apply the concept of bus, pool and ride-share lanes to the business world. Create clearaway paths for the up and coming generation of entrepreneurs who recognize the difference between "being green" and "doing the right thing". Make "being a dinosaur" tough. What is the next "global warming". Is it food? Education? Healthcare? Social division? Third world economics?Or all of the above? There is a new generation of entreprenuers who realise that one of the keys to securing competitive advantage lies in their ability to play a meaningful part in resolving the world's problems and in so doing, reverse a long-standing trend, which is the consistent decline in commercial morality, or at least the public perception thereof. Public mistrust of business is at or near the low levels that were once the exclusive domain of politicians... The market is ready to embrace those whose commitment to "doing the right thing" is genuine and authentic. Do whatever it takes to make "doing the right thing" easier. Should you become president, you'll have everything you need to do that right there at your fingertips...
Africa F
Realtor, African Freeman Group, Inc. at Africa Freeman Group, INC, Solid Source Realty
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Lower the tax burden that sbo's face, cut down on the convoluted SBA process, give the same sort of consideration that is given to large companies.
Ryan M
BDA at Loan Home Inc
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Mr. Obama, I appreciate you asking this question here. I am a small business owner in your home state of Illinois. I believe the three greatest things the next president could do to assist small business would be:
-To create an expanded set of write-offs for small businesses that are in the first 1-2 years of operation...the absolutely critical years for small business. I am past this point in my business, but every little bit counts in those years.
-To create legislation to impact the cost of health care. Health care plans for small business (and the rest of America) are outrageously expensive.
-To influence children in our schools to have the tools to become entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial skill-set is not currently taught in our schools. We need to reform the school system to allow students to find their true calling and allow them to specialize much earlier in their lives.
Thank you again for this posting and good luck to you in your campaign.
Alvin M
Lawyer focused on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Litigation at Bricker & Eckler, LLP
The president can help small business and entrepreneurs thrive by making the tax code friendlier to them. The next president must recognize that with outsourcing, etc, small businesses are the new lifeblood of this country and they must be treated in the same favorable way that large corporations have been treated.
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