Entries for August 2008

After expressing some skepticism of Joe Biden earlier this week, let me demonstrate this blog's nonpartisanship and cast the same suspicious light on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The fact that she's not very well known, was announced as John McCain's pick just today, and has been governor of Alaska for not even two years means there's a vacuum of information around her, especially regarding her stances on business and entrepreneurship.

But maybe that makes it all the more distressing for people who like pro-entrepreneur policies that one of Palin's most significant acts as governor seems to have been propping up a failing state-owned enterprise that had lost over $700,000 in two years. I am sure this part of her record will be highly scrutinized in coming weeks, but at first glance it looks like typical special-interest politics. There's no doubt that state-run companies are not very good for your average entrepreneur, because they crowd out room in the market that could be going to more innovative and competitive players. Enterprises run by the state are not exactly known for their innovation and competition, but if you've read about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the newspaper recently, you know that.

• Guy Kawasaki on the color red's mystical link to business success

• Jim Jantsch on how to measure your website's effectiveness

• Robb Mandelbaum on Obama's tax plans

The current "going green" craze is pushing some people to move out of the suburbs, buy more expensive hybrid cars, or give up their cars altogether. But this demand for lower carbon footprints is pushing entrepreneurs to develop ways to reduce emissions without altering one's whole lifestyle.

Out of Livingston County, Mich., comes entrepreneur Kyle Schwulst, whose company ElectroJet fits motorcycles with a special fuel injection system that reduces carbon emissions. His company has been so successful that Schwulst traveled to Beijing to fit police and medical motorcycles there with his system, and manufacturers seem to jumping on board, to the tune of a projected $500 million in sales for ElectroJet. So pretty soon you might not have to feel bad about buying that motorcycle, a vehicle that tends to be emission-heavy.

File this one as another example of how the free market is finding solutions to the problem of global warming.

So, where does Obama's vice presidential pick stand when it comes to small-business issues? It's definitely known that Senator Biden supports the controversial card check for labor union elections and a higher minimum wage, but here's something less known.

Last April, some Senate Republicans, led by Jim DeMint of South Carolina, tried to insert an amendment into a math and science bill that would amend the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley legislation to exempt smaller businesses from some of its regulations. The "Sarbox" bill, you'll remember, was passed to reform corporate governance in the wake of the Enron collapse. But many in Congress who supported the bill initially thought that several of its provisions went too far—such as Section 404, which requires companies to produce massively expensive "internal control reports." So, DeMint and others wanted to give smaller companies a break from Section 404, but Biden and 61 other senators disagreed, shooting down the amendment.

• Over at The Agitator, Tim Lee explains how one policy used by city and local governments to spur small-business development is more often a tool for wealthy developers and others who are politically connected.

• Instigator Blog breaks down entrepreneurial whiz Paul Graham's helpful steps for startup fundraising.

• Small Business CEO ponders laws requiring paid sick time. Are you for or against?

Market watchers are debating whether the recent spurts of rampant inflation mean prices are at a peak. Meanwhile, small-business owners are feeling the pain from inflation: The NFIB's survey for July found optimism and profit levels at depressingly low levels. Even if inflation has peaked, we are clearly in an economy quite different from that of recent decades when inflation hasn't been much of an issue.

This is a new world for many small-business owners, so I think there needs to be a discussion on the blog about what exactly can be done about it from the individual perspective. Obviously, one business owner can't alter the macroeconomy, but there are steps to keep the business healthy. Let me kick the discussion off with a few examples: