Small Business Environment

[finknottle]

There has been some discussion about small business and whether the Administration is a help or a hinderance. Administration defenders like to point to their efforts at loosening the credit market, while detractors point to increased regulation and mandates. I found a survey which may shed some light.

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archiv...ng-level/61247/

At the bottom is a July 2010 survey asking asking small businesses what their single biggest obstacle was. Here are the choices, with the percentage listing it first in '10 followed by the percentage listing it in '09.

 

Taxes (22, 19)

Inflation (4, 5)

Poor Sales (29, 34)

Financing & Interest Rates (4, 5)

Cost of Labor (4, 3)

Regs and Red Tape (15, 11)

Competition from Big Business (6, 5)

Quality of Labor (4, 2)

Insurance (7, 9)

Other (5, 7)

 

So the most widely perceived problem is the sales environment (no big surprise), but in the past year concern about that has receeded while concerns about taxes and regulations have grown. The financial market continues to be of little concern.

[DC Tom]

There has been some discussion about small business and whether the Administration is a help or a hinderance. Administration defenders like to point to their efforts at loosening the credit market, while detractors point to increased regulation and mandates. I found a survey which may shed some light.

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archiv...ng-level/61247/

At the bottom is a July 2010 survey asking asking small businesses what their single biggest obstacle was. Here are the choices, with the percentage listing it first in '10 followed by the percentage listing it in '09.

 

Taxes (22, 19)

Inflation (4, 5)

Poor Sales (29, 34)

Financing & Interest Rates (4, 5)

Cost of Labor (4, 3)

Regs and Red Tape (15, 11)

Competition from Big Business (6, 5)

Quality of Labor (4, 2)

Insurance (7, 9)

Other (5, 7)

 

So the most widely perceived problem is the sales environment (no big surprise), but in the past year concern about that has receeded while concerns about taxes and regulations have grown. The financial market continues to be of little concern.

 

They'd feel different if they knew Apple had record profits...

[Dave_In_Norfolk]

They'd feel different if they knew Apple had record profits...

Oh snap!

[Magox]

There has been some discussion about small business and whether the Administration is a help or a hinderance. Administration defenders like to point to their efforts at loosening the credit market, while detractors point to increased regulation and mandates. I found a survey which may shed some light.

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archiv...ng-level/61247/

At the bottom is a July 2010 survey asking asking small businesses what their single biggest obstacle was. Here are the choices, with the percentage listing it first in '10 followed by the percentage listing it in '09.

 

Taxes (22, 19)

Inflation (4, 5)

Poor Sales (29, 34)

Financing & Interest Rates (4, 5)

Cost of Labor (4, 3)

Regs and Red Tape (15, 11)

Competition from Big Business (6, 5)

Quality of Labor (4, 2)

Insurance (7, 9)

Other (5, 7)

 

So the most widely perceived problem is the sales environment (no big surprise), but in the past year concern about that has receeded while concerns about taxes and regulations have grown. The financial market continues to be of little concern.

Funny you mention this, NFIB small business survey was released today:

 

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily...alling-optimism

 

 

The National Federation of Independent Business index of small business optimism fell in July for the second month in a row, further pointing to a long, hot summer of misery in the key sector of the economy for hiring.

 

"The recovery in optimism that we are currently experiencing is very weak compared to recoveries after the 1982 and 1975 recessions," said William Dunkelberg, NFIB's chief economist, in a release. "The small business sector is not on a sustained positive trajectory, and with this half of the private sector missing in action, the economy's poor growth performance is not surprising."

 

 

The NFIB, the nation's largest lobbying group for small business, has been a consistent opponent of such Obama administration policies as health care reform and plans to allow the Bush-era tax cuts to expire. Dunkelberg said lack of confidence in the economic policies of the administration and Congress is contributing to the skepticism of small business owners.

 

"Owners do not trust the economic policies in place or proposed, and they are distressed by global and national developments that make the future more uncertain," he said.

[Dave_In_Norfolk]

In Asia, the latest economic news from China indicated that its economy was beginning to cool after a torrid pace in the first half of this year. The July indicators, for industrial output, retail sales, fixed asset investment and bank lending, all provided a fairly consistent snapshot of a country where economic growth remains the strongest in the world, but where the nearly manic spending of the last few months is starting to fade.

 

Drats!! Not even China is safe from Obama's anti-business regulations! Doomed were are, doomed!

[3rdnlng]

Drats!! Not even China is safe from Obama's anti-business regulations! Doomed were are, doomed!

 

Do you feel it necessary to prove your ignorance and lock step partisanship on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis? Let me ask you a question. Have you learned anything about economics and capitalism from some of the very knowledgeable posters here? Try to answer it seriously please.