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"As a small business owner, I view the government's tax and regulatory policies as the number one hindrance to growth. There is little to no confidence that more government involvement will make things better. I don't hire or borrow due to the implications."
Michele French (San Francisco, CA) Michel French Technical 2/2012
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"Easy to sum up... unfunded mandates and over regulation - taxes, employment, operational, and reporting at both the state and federal government level. Very little, if any, regulatory or reporting requirement benefit the small business, but impose huge workloads. Employment taxes, healthcare mandates, and employment reports are significant dis-incentives to create new positions and hire additional employees. Actually, new employment is the very last alternative in a growing business because of the long term impacts of federal and state regulations on employment. Tax incentives are mis-guided. I cannot take a tax incentive to the bank to fund new equipment, hire more employees, or do anything tangible. Tax incentives make good headlines but are generally useless in a small business operation."
David Mower (Klmarnock, VA) NN Wifi LLC 2/2012
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"My concerns include the incredible red tape to start a business and with the nightmare with registering and updating CCR to get federal contracts; starting with ZERO capital; trying to keep a business going while working a "real" job; zero funding to help start or develop my business and unstable economy that is currently hurting our business ventures and the high tax rate paid by contractors, self employed and small business owners."
Lita Pepion (Billings, MT) CRL Health and Fitness LLC 4/2012
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"I hold a builders license. I can be fined for not having the proper paperwork in my truck for a tube of caulking. I can be fined for not checking for and then disposing of lead-based paint properly. And what constitutes properly depends on who you're talking to. This is just a measly 32,000 dollars for a lead infraction. I have to pay the state for my license, for new lessons in how to follow the latest regulations. Then I can't hire who I want for what I can pay without worrying about diversity, union causes and whatever else is the most trendy thing at the time. All the while the paperwork piles up to comply with ever-changing rules, regulations and mandates to make sure everybody I hire has the worst health care the government cares to provide, or else I get fined or put in jail. It's hardly worth it to try to stay in business: and I'm not."
Jim Mendocha (Fulton, MI) formerly Classic Builders 2/2012
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"We are a construction contracting company and every job funded by a government agency comes with social engineering requirements telling us who we need to hire and how much to pay them. The endless red tape we have to deal with increases our costs and that of the community paying for the work. Politicians score political points with these schemes and then they pass on the responsiblity for their execution to hostage businesses. The other thing that would help the entire country would be to prohibit employers from providing medical insurance. You would see health care costs come down in a big hurry if individuals purchased their own medical insurance directly. Medical insurance is unaffordable because employers have no choice but to pay the going rate from a handful of providers."
Mike Ullman (West Chester, OH) Winelco Inc. 7/2012
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"I see four major hurdles: 1) the overall economy simply is not vibrant enough to generate new business in my industry--engineering & construction, 2) continued addition of new regulations is hurting margins, 3) the new and obstructive bank regulations have dried up working capital and 4) the unknown costs of healthcare is driving the decision not to hire new employees. Combined, these obstacles are killing this economy!"
Julian Irby (Pensacola, FL) Irby Engineering & Construction, Inc. 2/2012
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"When the administration tries to punish the so called wealthy and corporations, they forget they are punishing companies like mine, we create jobs, we export US product and services, we help our communities. We cannot compete globally with our high corporate taxes. Taxes and regulations are killing our business."
Adrish Banerjee (Woodland Hills, CA) Mindpower Worldwide, Inc. 4/2012
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"We do a lot of work with the federal government. I spend a large portion of my time managing my business' registrations on the various federal websites, managing my business' certifications (like the VA's Center for Veterans Enterprise, which hurts more veterans businesses than it helps), managing invoices on various federal payment systems, and generally trying to stay abreast of federal changes. Trying to simplify and consolidate these registration, certification, and invoicing/payment operations would help me to spend more time working and less time with needless paperwork."
Greg Nagel (Elm Grove, WI) Nagel Architects 7/2012
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"Regulation that forces us to pay federal and state payroll taxes every two weeks is killing us. We work with large corporations and state and municipal governments. It’s the rare case when I can get paid every ten days even at a discount. It’s more likely payment is received within 30 - 45 days. Therefore, I eat up much needed cash flow to pay tax while I wait for customers to pay. We've wanted to add jobs for some time, but this mismatch holds us back."
Carmen Barker Lemay (Minneapolis, MN) Integrative Growth, Inc. 7/2012
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Recognizing the importance of entrepreneurs’ feedback in the process of shaping the very policies that will help determine their business sustainability and growth, Chairman Graves launched Small Biz Open Mic in September of 2011.
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