Small Businesses: You Didn't Build That!

SMALL BUSINESS AND JOBS

President Obama recently got himself in hot water with a lot of hard-working business owners when he said, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.”

Conservatives pounced on this statement as being arrogant and patronizing toward the risk-takers that actually employ others and create jobs.

Liberals claim the quote is out of context, and point out that we are all mutually helped by teachers, roads, infrastructure, firefighters and the invention of the Internet.

As a small business man myself, I have heard a lot of about jobs and small businesses in this long election cycle we have all had to endure. Here are some things that you might surprise you about small businesses. They may not be so small. A business under 500 employees usually qualifies.

A staggering 99.7 percent of all employer firms are small, paying 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll, and employing half of all private sector employees! Half! That is about 60 million jobs.

Maybe even more significantly, they generated 65 percent of net new jobs over the past 17 years, from 1993-2009. That is 9.8 million new jobs.

Small businesses are the ones that take risks.  Just look at the rate of failure. Only a quarter stay in business 15 years or more.  And, the majority of small businesses are started with owner’s own cash, bank loans and credit cards.

So, yes, we all drive on roads contracted for by the government. However, they were paid for tax dollars from people like me, and you. Further, they were built by private businesses simply under contract from the government.  The Internet was invented by the military, which is funded by our tax dollars. Firefighters, who are true heroes along with our soldiers and police, are paid with tax dollars.

Remember, the government cannot give you anything it does not first take from someone else.

The current administration wants to raise taxes on business owners with incomes over $250,000.00.  However, we should all recognize that precious few folks with incomes under that number could provide many jobs. 

Job creators are certainly struggling and lack confidence to hire you and your neighbors.  We are in crisis of confidence and both sides blame each other. 

We cannot tax out way to prosperity, we must grow there.