Risky Business
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Sarah Palin: Just How Pro-Small Business Is She?
Continue reading… 12 CommentsAfter 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.
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Best of the Small Business Blogs, Week of August 29
Continue reading… 2 Comments- 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
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Entrepreneur Goes Green With Clean Tech Firm
Continue reading… 0 CommentsThe 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.
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Where Obama and McCain Stand on Small-Business Issues
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Joe Biden: Friend of Small Business?
Continue reading… 0 CommentsSo, 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.
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Best of the Small-Business Blogs, Week of August 22
Continue reading… 0 Comments- 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?
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How Small Businesses Can Deal With Inflation
Continue reading… 1 CommentMarket 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:
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Republican and Democratic Conventions Still Have Room
Continue reading… 0 CommentsThe innovative startups that I run into often do completely different things, but what they have in common is that they take very common problems and find solutions to those problems that are obvious in retrospect. Here's a perfect example: Whenever a city hosts a large event—like, say, the Republican or Democratic nominating conventions—hotel rooms become one of the scarcest resources in that particular city.
A website launched earlier this month has a solution to free up much more lodging space: provide a platform for locals to host out-of-towners. The service also taps into its hosts' political passions by letting them donate their fees to the candidate of their choice.
According to the company, AirBed&Breakfast, hundreds of locals in St. Paul and Denver have signed up to offer their homes for the service—the company says that 50 new listings a day are popping up in Denver alone. Hmmm...Does that mean that Democrats are more hospitable than Republicans?
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How Online Shopping Is Like Pixar’s "WALL-E"
Continue reading… 5 CommentsWhen you think about the great cinematic depictions of a dystopian, apocalyptic future you think of Planet of the Apes, The Road Warrior, Dark City, The Matrix, and now...WALL-E. Yeah, that one kind of sticks out, but that's what so many moviegoers saw this summer in Pixar's cute-little-robot movie: a deeply cynical view of human nature. In the future according to WALL -E, everyone lets technology exploit their laziest appetites and turn them into Jabba the Hutts. Why get up off your seat when your computer can do it for you?
Well, the alarmist in me wants to say this news brings us a step closer to that view of the future:
Like to shop, but can't get to the stores until after hours? Love the mall, but can't stand the traffic?
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Why Retailers May Not Have to Fear Price Fixing
Continue reading… 3 CommentsLast year, the Supreme Court ruled that manufacturers can compel retailers to sell their products at a minimum price. The Wall Street Journal reports on the fallout from that ruling: More manufacturers are adopting minimum-price fixing, much to the chagrin of discount retailers who say the policy is "anticompetitive" and should be barred by federal antitrust laws.
When large businesses use their market share to fix prices, it is usually not a good thing for small businesses. But these minimum-pricing schemes might not be as bad as they sound.
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3 Reasons to Be an Entrepreneur
Continue reading… 1 CommentWhy launch your own business? Steve King has talked to a lot of entrepreneurs and explained in a post how the motivations for entrepreneurship can be grouped into three categories.
You should read King's full explanation, but I'll outline the three goals here:
1. Financial: The entrepreneur wants to be able to generate a certain amount of income through his or her business. This can be anywhere from just enough to support a basic lifestyle to a fortune.
2. Passion: The entrepreneur has a passion that he or she wants to pursue full time instead of just as a hobby. Phoenix Coffee, one business I've profiled, is an example of this. It's run by two people who are very passionate about coffee and had great interest in it. They channeled those interests into a business.
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Best of the Small Business Blogs, Week of August 15
Continue reading… 0 CommentsThe Wall Street Journal's Independent Street blog on the lessons Cold Stone Creamery can teach you about how to run a franchise.
John from the UK on the questions you need to ask yourself before writing a business plan.
Jeff Cornwall on why the small-business owner needs not fear the big boys.
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Is College a Waste of Time for Entrepreneurs?
Continue reading… 3 CommentsI've pondered the question of what kind of education is right for an entrepreneur. The difficulty is that little of what entrepreneurs learn when getting a standard four-year bachelor's degree has much direct practical impact on their day-to-day business. Yet there's undeniable evidence that entrepreneurs who go to college are more successful than those who don't. I think Charles Murray's op-ed on higher education is very important for entrepreneurs, even though it doesn't explicitly mention them. Murray says that we need to stop putting a bachelor's degree on a pedestal and admit that for many people, simply getting certified for skills would be a much cheaper and less time-consuming process for launching careers.
I think that many entrepreneurs may feel the same way. Launching a business is expensive and requires a lot of start-up capital. The cost just grows when you factor in the price of the education that society expects a professional individual to possess. But Ben Miller at the American Prospect fires back at Murray with some good arguments in defense of the current higher education system.
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How to Go From Unemployed to Entrepreneur
Continue reading… 3 CommentsIt's pretty hard to feel good about these unemployment numbers. But if you've lost your job and have thought about starting up your own business, then I highly recommend this personal account by Steven Miller, a manager at Standard & Poor's, about how being laid off led to his new identity as an "accidental entrepreneur." His story shows the truth to the saying "necessity is the mother of innovation." His unemployment led him to start his own commercial loan analysis business, which he later sold. The silver lining in the unemployment numbers is that many people may find the courage to be entrepreneurs after job losses.
The problem is, if you've recently lost your job, you're going to be looking for security. That's not exactly the life of an entrepreneur. But Miller has some tips for how to overcome the uncertainties of striking out on your own:
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More on Small-Business Taxes
Continue reading… 5 CommentsI wanted to comment on Jeff Cornwall's post regarding Mark Cuban's proposal to get rid of taxes on businesses with fewer than 25 employees as a way to jump-start the economy. Jeff's post is very enthusiastic about the plan, in some contrast to my more skeptical take.
Cuban's proposal would give us a chance to test out the impact of the Fair Tax. He advocates that small businesses only pay sales taxes. What a great way to prove the power of a simple, non income based tax system.
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Why Getting Rid of Small-Business Taxes Might Not Be Such a Good Idea
Continue reading… 5 CommentsAs promised, I'd like to discuss the proposal from the great entrepreneur Mark Cuban that has been flitting around the blogosphere the last week. In case you missed it, here's the beef:
If you want to see an immediate reinvigoration of the economy, open the door back up for individual entrepreneurs to enter the real world without fear and without an immediate financial burden that preempts their ability to be successful.
If we really want to stimulate job creation in this country, take the same approach to [taxing] small business with 25 or fewer employees that we take to Internet taxes. Outlaw them.
No taxes of any kind on small businesses with 25 or fewer employees. No employer payroll tax. No state or local taxes. No taxes on earnings. Nada. The business owners will pay income taxes on their personal income they pay themselves, but not corporate earnings.
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Meet the New Economic Stimulus Plan
Continue reading… 0 CommentsWe've seen plenty of evidence that Americans—small-business owners and consumers alike—haven't been responding very well to President Bush's economic stimulus plan. The evidence has piled up so high that even supporters of the plan can't deny it. Harvard professor Martin Feldstein admits that he and other economists were too optimistic about the effects of stimulus on the economy.
Here are the facts. Tax rebates of $78 billion arrived in the second quarter of the year. The government's recent GDP figures show that the level of consumer outlays only rose by an extra $12 billion, or 15% of the lost revenue. The rest went into savings, including the pay down of debt.
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Taxman Knocking on Small Businesses' Doors
Continue reading… 1 CommentIn one example of how the federal government is seeking to raise revenue on the backs of small businesses, the next Congress will likely consider repealing LIFO accounting methods. Now, the National Small Business Association has launched an entire website devoted to cataloging other examples of attempts to squeeze more tax dollars out of entrepreneurs. The site focuses on actions the IRS is taking to close the so-called tax gap (the difference between the amount of money the government is supposed to get and how much it actually brings in). The NSBA alleges that the IRS is disproportionately targeting small businesses in this effort, and points out that the last two years have seen a 150 percent rise in audits of small corporations while audits of large corporations are at a 20-year low.
One way to deal with the tax gap without even worrying about what the IRS is up to is to simplify the tax code, removing the various loopholes that have created a gap in the first place. There's also the whole issue of scrapping small business taxes altogether: Jeff Cornwall and Growthology had some thoughts on that subject the other week. I'll be throwing in my own two cents soon.
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Dog Cloning: Business of the Future?
Continue reading… 22 CommentsIn other pet news, animal cloning takes a leap forward with the quintupling of Booger the pit bull. Reminds me of the 2000 Schwarzenegger flick The 6th Day, where a mall boutique called RePet lets you walk in with your dead pet and walk out an hour later with your pooch or cat restored to exactly the way it was.
OK, so we're not yet at that point. Bernnan McKinney, the lady who owns Booger, wants us to get there now:
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New Business Idea: Pet Sharing
Continue reading… 2 CommentsThe Wall Street Journal reports on the growing trend of "pet sharing." The article discusses how large hotel chains are organizing this service and how neighborhoods are setting up their own systems of sharing dogs among the residents. Of course, some entrepreneurs have found ways to turn this trend into an enterprise.
Asensia Inc. in Big Sky, Mont., tried to capitalize on demand for shared ownership of pets with its Flexpetz service, which was launched last year, with locations in New York, London, San Diego and Los Angeles. Flexpetz members have taken dogs out for short periods of time for a $100 monthly membership fee, plus $45 a day.
Zipcar has found success with car-sharing programs in major urban areas. So why not have a Zipcar-like program for pets? People's lives are only getting busier. Plus, high gas prices and redeveloping urban centers are pushing people into denser living arrangements. One idea for new enterprises is to extend the model of Zipcar and Flexpetz to other goods that many people don't have the time or space to own.
