Living a reasonably cushy life in these United States (by international standards), we Americans are inclined to take certain things for granted. For example, one thing we take so utterly for granted that most have never even thought about the concept is the infrastructure of the U.S. economy. The economic infrastructure of the U.S. consists of that set of institutions, instruments and conventions that form the foundation upon which we are all expected to do business. It is worth thinking about, thanks to new research released last week by the Microbusiness Research Institute*, which found that microbusinesses have had to evolve their own way of doing business (thanks to their size) that seems to be a poor fit for that infrastructure.

The paper, entitled “A Profile of Microbusiness: The 2008 IssuesLive Minnesota Regional Pilot”, documents and analyzes empirical information and survey data collected during IssuesLive, a series of public forums billed by its organizers as a public dialogue and needs assessment for microbusinesses with fewer than ten employees. According to survey results, microbusiness owners report that their primary challenges lie in the areas of time and money, while their top policy concerns are access to capital, the state of the economy and, in third place, health care reform. Microbusiness owner respondents expressed little interest in gaining better access to the policy making process; they appear to be largely disaffected with politicians and public policy. The entire report is currently available for download from the Microbusiness Research Institute web site here.

* Disclaimer: The Microbusiness Research Institute is the research division of Wahmpreneur Publishing, Inc., parent company of the Microbusiness News Briefs.