Posted on 01/28/2015 9:34:29 PM PST by george76
When small and medium-sized businesses are dying faster than they’re being born, so is free enterprise,” writes Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup. “And when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.”
For six years, the number of small businesses closing has exceeded the number of businesses starting. The number of business deaths exceeded births in 2008 for the first time in US history and has gotten worse in the ensuing years. Since 2010, the rate of small business closures has increased.
In the 1980s, the number of new businesses exceeded those closing by more than 100,000 every year. Today, 70,000 more businesses die than are started each year. This somber fact goes a long way to explaining the current weak job market. Two-thirds of all new jobs are created by small businesses.
...
A few years ago, I had an idea for a small business. It wasn’t a flashy tech start-up or a potential billion dollar idea, but I thought it would meet a need in the marketplace. Things were preceding well until I met with lawyers. The amount of regulatory and legal clearance that was required convinced me to bury that idea deep in the ground and never speak of it again.
I doubt my experience is unique.
...
All the rhetoric out of the White House or the halls of Congress can’t arrest this American decline. Small business is literally dying in the United States. By the time the media or the political class notices, it will be far too late.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Small business is dying...isn’t this a success story for big business and the current “government”? The more the many are dependent on the few the better for the few.
It really is sad to see where we’re headed. It wasn’t all that long ago when we seemed to be at the peak of The American Century.
I’m not saying the good ol’ days were always good, because sometimes they weren’t. I still remember my dad being out of work during the bad recession we had at the beginning of the 1980s. But you always knew that things would get better eventually, and that you had a fair chance to succeed if you worked for it, y’know?
The number of business deaths exceeded births in 2008 for the first time in US history and has gotten worse in the ensuing years. Since 2010, the rate of small business closures has increased ... In the 1980s, the number of new businesses exceeded those closing by more than 100,000 every year.
I suspect demographics has a much bigger role here than the author realizes. In the 1980s, the Baby Boomers were just hitting their peak earning years. In the mid-2000s they were starting to retire.
So who can open a small business in their community...who would want to?
lets see I could open a:
Hardware store ah right there’s Lowes and Home Depot
Office supply....nope theres Office Max and Staples
Hamburger stand.....In and Out, Carls, etc
Taco stand.....
Hot dogs...
OK I’ll just give haircuts.... Super Cuts
A phone store...oops Apple and ATT
OK a coffee shop... Starbucks
etc etc etc
Wall Street owns your Main St
I idled my "small business" this year. I started a business when I lost a job (the 2nd one in 2 years) in 2012. God was watching over me and my family because it took off and bridged the gap for us. I hesitate to mention what nitch it is because when I started, I had no idea the demand for the work for the particular clientelle. I will say it was a small maintenance and repair company (construction orientated). I (ME alone) did $40K in revenue in the first 3 months working full time (actually the 2nd and 3rd month mostly). I hired some help part time as 1090 work (1 guy from my church) for nights and weekend work, also a former small business owner. Then I got a big kid job and "we" kept the side business going for a couple years. In full year (2013) 1 we did $90K in revenue at about 15% net Profit (mostly on the side). In year 2 (2014), fully on the side, we did $100K at about 20%. It was a lot of work. So we worked out a business plan to see what it would take to go full time. We figured the revenue we would need, what we would need to pay ourselves and how many additional workers we would need and what it would cost to employ them. That's when we trashed the whole idea. As we drew the ROI curve to meet our income needs, we realized it was doable and, at the pace we were going we would be at optimum size for revenue, profit, costs and risk at about 15 employees in about 4 years. Then we discovered we would be in a regulated class for what we do. Then we discovered there were some things we couldn't affored to do because of regulations. Then the whole idea died. Between the EPA and some wildlife regulations with regards to legal drains and standing water, along with some emissions regulations from spraying PAINT, it was way too risky to skirt the rules. I still keep the company name and insurance and licenses paid up just in case. But adding 30 to 40 hours to a work week for an additional $10K to $30K at risk of breaking some previously unkown "laws" motivates me to forget it and keeping working for someone else.
It's pretty sad. I didn't mind working harder for myself. Hell I took my kids to some of the sites for help now and then. I liked it. But this is the end of the American Dream.
Small bussiness , the backbone of American entepreneuer spirit is dying
Big Business is being taxed and regulated to death
Investment in new business is being taxed higher than ever before
and middle class citizens have seen their incomes , or their meager investments, or income go down,
or , they can get a second job (part-time), or a third job (part-time) to keep income level the same as what it was 6 years ago..,
The FED Govt. says that a thirty hour job is full-time when I could just barely make it on a 40 hour work week.
What is the sense in knocking yourself out just to pay more taxes to the FED Govt. who just pi$$e$ it away on third and fourth world countries, who don't appreciate us ?
2016 can't come too early enough for me .
I declare that Zero is working part-time , and he should be paid part-time wages, with deductions for room and board, and the transportation expenses should come out of his paycheck.
He doesn't know what it is like to work , pay bills , support a family, and still try to be an effective parent;
all that he has , has been given to him because he is black , and is eloquent in front of a teleprompter.
He lies , ..and he is committed to taqquiya , and he lies to the infidel (non-believer).
All I can reasonably say is : " FUBO ! "
If the next Congress does not start repealing Government Regulations by the basket full then it will not matter. Small business will wither and die along with America. We have passed the point of no return and the EPA and their friends are determined to destroy most businesses it seems.
The best thing that the new Congress can do is start repealing laws. Wouldn’t that be a change (hoot)! Unfortunately, don’t count on it as both parties are of the same mind it seems. More National Government, less Individual Freedom.
It's an interesting argument. But I dissagree. Baby Boomers that stayed in the business for themselves passed it on or retired large. Most Baby Boomers worked for the same company for many years and were motivated by PENSIONS. The Gen Xers (me included) were the generation that started job hopping in the 90's when the grass got greener and greener on the othe side of every fence. The 80's and 90's saw LOTs of start ups and failures in the tech industry. And those entrapenuers are in their prime right now 30s and 40s. There is a lot of potential there, including me. There is just too much regulated risk in starting up a business today. That regulated risk is heaped on top of the normal competitive risk that naturally exists.
I believe your argument certainly desrves a place in the numbers. But I would not agree that it compromises the largest cause for the statistics by far. For proof, look at the population growth of the nation with regards to Baby Boomers 30 years ago and eligible workers today. If the increase in labor participation was keeping up with population growth, the unemployment rate would be well into double digits.
Interestingly, I have a completely different perspective than a lot of the sentiment here on this subject. I've spent several years in a senior executive role in a professional company, and with every passing day I get more convinced that I can do this better than most companies in my industry. It's probably different in other industries, especially in areas like retailing where economies of scale put small players at a disadvantage. But for many industries (including mine), a company actually gets cumbersome, unwieldy, and uncompetitive once it reaches a certain size.
I'm in the process of putting together a business plan right now, and at this point it looks like I could earn more money for myself even while I undersell my current company by about 20% on price.
I did basically the same thing. I could see the writing on the wall for the profession I was in so I branched off in to somthing else. It actually hit me in my sleep during a dream. I googled it in the morning and found out what I was dreaming about was real, and I could do it.
after taxes in 2013 I relooked at how hard I was busting my ass to get ahead...
I realized ya know what.. it’s NOT work it to work that hard and went mini galt.
I am doing just fine, but last year working half as much I paid basically 1/4 as much in tax and my net was not that much different than the year before.
lol. You have a Baby Boomer mindset. All the best ideas are taken and the little guy has no chance. That’s old fasion my FRiend. Service and innovation is where the newest small business ideas are today. But those businesses have to hire lawyers and accountants today if they plan to get any bigger than 2 or 3 employees.
By the time the media or the political class notices, it will be far too late.
...
Big Government and Big Business are getting exactly what they want. They are fully aware of what’s going on.
personally.. I’d pay zero full wages to take the rest of his term off completely and do nothing but take his aggressions out on whitey, his golf ball.
Bite me is far less harmfull than Zero. But hey, come to think of it. He can go with to play golf too...
Then again.... Bonehead.....
whos after bonehead?
it’s sad when those in “leadership” are better gone from their jobs, than doing them.
One possible problem here might be that it is now too easy to improve productivity ... meaning that someone with a great idea for a start-up in a technology-based industry might decide it isn't worth it because the technology wouldn't be relevant long enough to make an initial investment pay off.
I don't see unemployment rates as an accurate measure of small-business activity. The person who has the capacity and the drive to start a business may not be the same as a typical long-term unemployed person.
New tagline ...
When the government seems to exist only for pulling Gotcha!s, when the tax-system is set up so that you have difficulty paying your fair share
whe you try to live honestly, when the legal-system is seriously arrayed against you based not on any sort of logical law but rather the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted
and to the great effect of forcing you int no-win situations… well, it becomes very hard to make a case for working.
“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion — when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing — when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors — when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice — you may know that your society is doomed.”
— Ayn Rand
Ain't that the truth , Bro . ?
The time to ship his butt to his Sarasota retirement home was last November.
We have to primary his a$$ with a reasonable candidate who can appeal to his hommies and get him retired so he can play golf with Zero.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.