Microbusiness News Briefs » Policy Matters

Counting ROI

dawnriversbaker — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:06:22 +0000

Let's face it: fiscal responsibility rhetoric aside, the SBA's funding is a drop in the bucket of the overall federal budget. Which means, among other things, that no matter how much waste, fraud, abuse and duplication Congressional overseers are likely to ferret out, the savings involved are likely to represent a drop in the bucket of the federal government's multi-trillion dollar red ink. So it's difficult to take inquiries into a drop-in-a-drop-in-the-bucket seriously when balanced against other federal expenditures — like the amount of money the federal government doles out to large corporations.

Wake Up Call

Dawn R. Rivers — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 07:06:16 +0000

Too many people on Capitol Hill persist in believing that it makes sense for microbusinesses to do business the way IBM does business, relying on strategies that are complex and paperwork intensive. But why would we want to do business in ways at which IBM excels and at which we rather spectacularly don't?

Invisible Silver Linings

Dawn R. Rivers — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:05:33 +0000

Let's put it this way: on the day that a representative from the National Federation of Independent Business spoke up at a Senate roundtable on behalf of microbusinesses, I thought we have arrived. That newfound recognition, that microbusinesses had their own peculiar policy needs and issues, was heady while it lasted. Looking back, it seems to have lasted for about a minute.

Living for myself

Dawn R. Rivers — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 05:04:29 +0000

If we are going to advocate for anything for women, I would think we'd advocate for our own freedom. Freedom from societal sex role scripts, yes, but also freedom from being required to fulfill anybody's expectations — even those of our female peers.

Freedom means having options. If you don't like my options, you don't have to live them. But don't tell me that I shouldn't live them, either.

That's when you're trying to take my freedom away from me, in the name of fighting for my freedom.

A Moment of Nostalgia

Dawn R. Rivers — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 05:00:14 +0000

When lawmakers bleat about how much they love small businesses, it can sometimes be nauseating but it is still a little reassuring. It is a nod in our direction, even if they don't mean a word of it. On the other hand, I'll admit that it's difficult to listen to those same lawmakers behave like starstuck fangirls every time somebody like Bill Gates or Jeff Immelt visits Capital Hill. Clearly, they really believe that U.S. economic policy should revolve around big businesses. I hesitate to say this because I know what kind of firestorm usually erupts whenever anybody evokes the "C" word. Honesty compels me to admit, however, that we haven't had economic policy revolving around small businesses since the days when there was a White House Conference on Small Business and when the SBA Administrator was elevated to a Cabinet level position.

Adjusting Expectations

Dawn R. Rivers — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 06:45:14 +0000

It's all starting to make sense now. Back when President Obama first named Karen Mills to be his SBA Administrator, there were a lot of questions. Her background was in venture capital, we said. Will she run her agency for us all or will the focus change to those high growth gazelles? I guess that answers that question.

More With Less

Dawn R. Rivers — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:49:38 +0000

Most of us don't really need loans. We need training and technical assistance. While you're at it, we could use a little regulatory relief. Oh ... and tax simplification would be nice, too. In short, we need a bunch of things that are difficult to accomplish politically because they are not particularly urgent — unless you are a small business owner — and they are not particularly sexy, so they don't make for riveting headlines. Small business regulations could never hold a candle to a Congressman's flexed biceps.

Democracy At Work

Dawn R. Rivers — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:17:44 +0000

President Obama has recently hit the road, talking up that nebulous and wonderful thing called innovation. Of course, we're not talking about just any innovation. The President is certainly not touting the sort of garden variety innovation that lets a microbusiness owner figure out how to rearrange his business model so that he can make a profit doing something that scores of business gurus before him decided was unprofitable. That stuff just doesn't count.

Back To Basics

Dawn R. Rivers — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:24:14 +0000

One of the most interesting things I've been watching over the last couple of weeks — and it was particularly striking last week in the days leading up to and away from the State of the Union address — is the rather odd rhetorical position occupied by America's Small Businesses. Politicians like to talk about us. That's because people like us. It's also because there was a time when politicians used to simply talk about business. That didn't go over too well, because they made no secret about the fact that when they said "business" they meant "big business." These days, when they talk about small business, they still mean "big business" much of the time but they have grown too savvy to let people know that.

Making Noise

Dawn R. Rivers — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 06:43:49 +0000

In all this, there has been a lot of the standard rhetoric about how wonderful small businesses are and how we are going to pull the country's collective economic chestnuts out of the fire. Except, of course, that nobody who either says or even thinks those things is talking about us — about microbusinesses. That's because policy makers and academic economists tend to think that microbusinesses are useless unless they're doing a certain set of things in a certain way. Of course, some people might consider it to be impolite to point out that the certain set of things and the certain way in question belong in a previous century. Since I generally try to be polite, I'm not going to point any of that out.