It's 2009!  With a brand new year, there are many reasons to be hopeful about 2009. Change seems to be a common theme this season, and with 2009, you can expect to see plenty of it. While change can sometimes bring uncertainty, there's something that can be said for the ability of ordinary Americans and small businesses to get through even the most uncertain times.

You can certainly feel confident in knowing that there are millions of small businesses out there that are continuing to keep the economy afloat. Small businesses represent 99.9% of the 27.2 million businesses in the United States and remain the prime drivers of growth in both good times and in bad. Eight years ago, small businesses bailed us out of the 2001 recession, generating 100% of all new jobs and jumpstarting the recovery. This year, we should look for a repeat.

There are still many challenges that we will continue to face nevertheless. With a new administration and a new Congress, we will see policy debates about the economy flaring up again in ways that will have real consequences for small businesses. Some of the first items on the agenda for the new administration will come in the way of restrictive workplace regulations.  The incoming administration has espoused its support for the expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act, mandatory paid leave, and card-check, all ideas that represent a government-control mentality that will suffocate any growth and innovation by businesses already gasping for air in this difficult economic climate.

At the NCPA and the Family Policy Center, we believe that all such policies should be considered in light of Five Guiding Principles.

• Flexible: Is the policy flexible? Does it allow businesses the freedom to develop their own solutions?
• Personal: Is the policy personal? Does it empower the individual to make his or her own choices?
• Voluntary: Is the policy voluntary? Can individuals and businesses decide what's best for themselves, or does it rely on ideas like federal mandates that ignore unique circumstances in a complex world?
• Portable: Does the policy encourage portability? Can individuals earn and keep work benefits like health insurance and retirement accounts without losing them by changing jobs or locations?
• Fair: Is the policy fair? Does it provide the same opportunities or tax structures for different individuals, groups, or organizations?

As small business-owners, it often comes down to a choice between making payroll or scaling back on health benefits to your employees. Between dipping into your retirement to pay the bills or even letting a few valued employees and friends go. These are not easy decisions, but if certain command-and-control policies like FMLA expansion are implemented, you can be certain that the choice has already been made for you. If we use the Five Guiding Principles to form our policy decisions, we can ensure that small businesses will have the full flexibility to conduct business in ways that help them both survive while protecting their employees.

We want to hear what you have to say! Take a look at the Guiding Principles and let me know how they can be of benefit to your small business and family. In 2008, Congress opened taxpayer pocketbooks to keep some of the nation's biggest companies afloat (despite the fact many of them had caused the crisis). This year, we need to work harder than ever to keep small businesses in the conversation so that Congress doesn't regulate and tax the small guys and gals into the ground.

2 Responses to “What will the Obama Administration do for small business?”

1. Ray Wooldridge Says:
   January 6th, 2009 at 2:44 pm

   Terry, Good thinking! I am positive that it is in small business where the “rubber really meets the road”. The giant corporations must be important to us but they always exaggerate the direction of the economy. In other words, they help when you don’t really need it, and they hurt when you can least afford it. Have a good day!! Ray

2. Hank Wilfong Says:
   January 6th, 2009 at 3:12 pm

   At the NCPA and the Family Policy Center, we believe that all such policies should be considered in light of Five Guiding Principles.

   Flexible: Is the policy flexible? Does it allow businesses the freedom to develop their own solutions?

   Personal: Is the policy personal? Does it empower the individual to make his or her own choices?

   Voluntary: Is the policy voluntary? Can individuals and businesses decide what’s best for themselves, or does it rely on ideas like federal mandates that ignore unique circumstances in a complex world?

   Portable: Does the policy encourage portability? Can individuals earn and keep work benefits like health insurance and retirement accounts without losing them by changing jobs or locations?

   Fair: Is the policy fair? Does it provide the same opportunities or tax structures for different individuals, groups, or organizations?

   Excellent principles, Terry. All in all, I’d probably buy off on them, in today’s environment, and in view of where the “free enterprise system” has evolved into. I say that with the feeling that employees control too much of the fate of the business. It’s almost as if management/owners are at the mercy of the employee. It’s almost as if employers have to provide “personal benefits” for employees who are not “bound to the job”, but the benefits they’ve been “granted” and “paid for” by the employers go wherever the employees go.

   At one time, before I went to serve in the Reagan Administration, I had the second largest Black CPA firm in the nation. When, I returned home, I opted NOT to buy back into the firm. I did not feel that i should be at the mercy of my employees. I did not feel obliged to pay for “personal benefits”. Since that time, 1985, I have not had a SINGLE employee. I use contract labor/consultants, as needed.

   By the way that firm that I founded, has been long gone. They could not afford to continue to pay the employees in the manner to which they’d become accustomed. Employees might want to chew on these things, just a bit.

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