Small Business Themes All Around Us

For small business owners, every day is an opportunity to get better. There’s no room for complacency. It’s all about identifying problems, looking for solutions, and stepping in the right direction. There are a number of themes I have written a lot about this year, and it’s interesting to see the way they continue to show up around the globe here at year’s end.

Energy Independence
The United States’ energy situation has been a central issue of late, because of how much has changed in just the last few years. For a long time, the idea of energy independence was science fiction, but now it’s conceivable thanks to developments in shale oil and gas.

Energy powers our production facilities. It lights our stores. It fuels our cars. And when energy is cheaper and more abundant, not only does it mean less money spent on utilities, it also means new jobs in the energy sector, and more money for everyone to spend at American businesses.

Shale gas production has been growing rapidly in recent years, now up to a third of domestic natural gas production. And these sources of new energy have driven down prices; the price of natural gas has dropped nearly 80 percent from its peak six years ago!

The Wall Street Journal notes that this boom has not only created thousands of jobs in the energy sector. Jobs are popping up near shale oil fields in the tens and hundreds of thousands in related industries, too—things as diverse as plastics, fertilizers, and textiles.

As we continue to develop these technologies, it’s important to make sure they’re safe. But the potential rewards necessitate that we pursue this technology responsibly instead of ignoring it out of fear that there might be difficulties.

Legal Immigration
For the United States to revive its economy, it needs to once again attract and welcome the most talented, industrious people from all over the globe, while also retaining our own best and brightest.

The way to do that is to create an economic environment that encourages and rewards entrepreneurism. Clear away obstacles that prevent innovative people from pursuing their dream. Establish clear rules but make them stable and predictable, so that entrepreneurs can realistically estimate their risks and rewards.

While the United States has work to do in this regard, we’re still in far better shape than some other countries around the globe. I’ve written before about how surveys show that half of China’s millionaires are actively planning to leave the country within just a few years. And now new studies show that Russia faces a similar problem; 22 percent of all Russians want to leave the country, and 40 percent of young people ages 18-24! These people are sick and tired of the country’s corruption and graft, and the government’s unilateral power to shut down the businesses of those who oppose its policies.

Russia both stands as a powerful negative example of what NOT to do, it also represents an opportunity for America to once again serve as the land of opportunity. If innovative, skilled, and industrious people from China, Russia, and other countries want to find a place where they can live free and create things, they should find a home in the United States. People like that create jobs and make life better for everyone around them, and we should welcome them with open arms instead of closing the doors. There’s a lot of rhetoric going around about illegal immigration, but reforming our legal immigration system should be just as high a priority, if not higher.

Spending
At this point, we all know that the government is too big and spends too much money. Our annual deficit is around $1.5 trillion, and our national debt is over $15 trillion. Just on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone we’ve spent more than a trillion dollars!

A Gallup survey found that 64 percent of Americans believe big government is the biggest threat to the country’s future.

As David Brooks wrote in a recent column, this is a different kind of economic situation. The way he put it, “In the progressive era, the task was to build programs; today the task is to reform existing ones.”

We have an enormous, complex, incomprehensible tax code—one that didn’t even exist a century ago, before the Constitution was amended to allow a federal income tax. We have thousands upon thousands of regulations, costing businesses billions of dollars each year and shutting out entrepreneurs from even starting up. We have unsustainable pension plans and entitlement programs that are driving cities into bankruptcy and making it almost impossible for states to balance their budgets. And healthcare costs continue to skyrocket, projected to eat up more and more of the country’s wealth.

When our government is inefficient and ineffective, it hurts small business, because the government’s money comes from the taxes and fees paid by regular Americans—particularly entrepreneurs. Every dollar the government wastes is a dollar you could have spent improving  your business, your employees, and your community.

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These are incredibly important issues that will continue to weigh on us as we move into the new year. I believe it’s our responsibility to ourselves and each other to confront these problems head on, speak the truth about what is and isn’t working, and come up with real solutions.
America’s entrepreneurs are this country’s greatest resource, and we know how to get things done. I encourage you to start the conversation here at OneMoreCustomer and let your voice be heard.