Small Business

[Martin Hash]

Every politician talks about encouraging small business but almost no politicians know what they are talking about. Let me break the news to them: small businesses fail - a lot. Almost all small businesses fail - even the “successful” ones are failures if you divide the money they net by the hours, money, and commitment the owners put into them. I know from much experience and association that the long-term “profit” that most small business owners take when they retire is simply the accumulated cash value of the tens of thousands of unpaid hours sunk into the business over decades of unrewarded labor. My favorite small business saying is, ‘I only make a buck an hour but I make up for it in hours.”

It is a fact of life that taking money from a small business is the same as taking money from the owner, yet local authorities seem to think a small business is somehow independent cash? Actually, every dollar taken from the business in ridiculous fees, taxes, penalties, and special impositions is subtracting from the owner’s already below minimum wage income. Businesses don’t pay taxes – people pay taxes.

Business is the backbone of America. Owning a small business is the American dream. Fortunately, Americans are optimistic people because odds are their small business is in for tough times. Still – it’s worth it. My “solution” to the small business dilemma is to remove all monetary impediments to their creation and continuance.