11.11.08
Small Business Is All-encompassing
Starting, growing, and operating a small business is an all-encompassing job. It includes many tasks that we do not always associate with business. For example, if you are in business, you are affected by (and in turn have some minimal effect upon) the economy. You are affected by taxation. You are affected by education. You are affected by policy decisions made by pointy-headed bureaucrats, decisions that benefit LOOACs at the expense of SLOBs.
This means that any small business forum or discussion must admit that questions of faith, politics, societal improvement, and economics are germane to any competent business discussion. After all, if your faith does not influence or govern the way you run your business, you don’t really have a faith. If your voice is not allowed in a political or social discussion, then whose voice will be? If you, the provider of jobs, are not included in talks about jobs in the inner cities or jobs for ex-convicts, how can these problems be addressed? When talk turns to taxation, you, the payer of taxes, need to be the first and foremost part of the discussion.
Zoning issues, environmental regulations, safety regulations, all affect you, and not just negatively. Safety regulations, for example, reduce your insurance costs by reducing accidents and reducing the damage caused by those that do occur. Zoning can prevent “Big Blue” from opening a superstore across the street from your little grocery, or it can keep you from opening in the part of town you desire to serve. Even economic empowerment initiatives, which often involve tax subsidies for businesses that open / move into certain areas and hire local residents, affect you. This is especially true if you are already in the area and your taxes are being used to subsidize competitors who move into your market area.
Small business is an everything job. Everything you are, everything you do, everything you believe is all wrapped up in that enterprise. And if it is not, you should be thinking about how you’re going to replace your business, because you have certainly lost your hunger and desire.
Therefore, do not feel that you cannot or should not be involved in the debate around any issue, whether schools, the economy, taxes, or foreign imports. You will be among the first affected by any decision that is made, so get involved. Attend your town’s board and council meetings. You cannot hit them all, but pick one or two and hit those (school board, water district, sewer district, cemetery district, irrigation district, public power district, resource conservation district, park district, fire protection district, et cetera). If we are going to make this country run right, it is going to be small business owners that make it happen.
