John Arensmeyer
As Fairfax, Va., small business owner Mike Brey prepares to close the books on 2012, he’s also starting to make expansion plans. But he hasn’t sealed the deal on his two new Hobby Works stores yet — largely because of growing economic uncertainty as we race toward the edge of the “fiscal cliff.”
With the news Friday that the private sector added 171,000 jobs in October, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, it’s evident our country is on its way to recovery. As the economy improves, it’s also clear small businesses are becoming more confident in their ability to rebound.
John Arensmeyer
Ben Geyerhahn
They’ve been in the spotlight for months, and the attention small businesses got during the first presidential debate sent them into the stratosphere in terms of media coverage. So let’s try to answer the question a lot of people are asking: who are these small business owners everyone’s talking about?
John Arensmeyer
John Arensmeyer
Here’s a riddle for you. What did the small business owner do when she opened the letter from her health insurer?
If it’s Lynn Petrazzuolo we’re talking about, she did the happy dance. Because in that envelope was a $1428 rebate check from her health insurance carrier, who was reimbursing Lynn because it had failed to spend her premium dollars the way the new federal healthcare law requires.
John Arensmeyer
As the year progresses, small business owners are becoming increasingly iconic in Washington. In the latest round of legislative battles over whether to eliminate tax breaks for high-income earners, the small business voice is unscrupulously being leveraged to push a partisan agenda — an agenda that assumes small business owners are high-income earners. But there’s a problem. For the most part, they’re not. And the real voices of small business owners are fighting to be heard.
Tim Gaudette
In Colorado, Main Street businesses are working to rebuild the state’s economy. These entrepreneurs are doing all they can to hire, grow and move their businesses forward. For their wellbeing and that of Colorado’s economic future, it’s important they have ample opportunity to innovate—particularly in the energy efficiency arena, as indicated by a report released Wednesday.
John Arensmeyer
Lawmakers passed up a golden opportunity recently to shake the recession’s effects and put American small businesses back on the hiring track. Congress has a lot more work to do this summer if they plan to support entrepreneurship. Small businesses across the nation are poised for growth, and now is the time to facilitate their expansion by passing smart jobs legislation and helping them access capital.
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