Access to capital

The president’s State of the Union speech last night touched on many of small business owners’ key concerns, particularly increasing consumer demand by strengthening the middle class, closing corporate tax loopholes and ensuring open and fair Internet access for all. What’s more, the president highlighted the importance of small businesses and the middle class—the engine of small business prosperity.

There are many complex policy issues that have a major impact on the small business community. Each week, we’re going to help break one of those issues down so small business owners can stay in the know and remain aware of their stake in these national issues. This week’s Issue Q&A is on access to capital.

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?

The president announced today that he will instate a host of executive actions to help small businesses. The actions address key areas of concern for small businesses, including the lack of available credit, which plagues countless entrepreneurs trying to grow their businesses and create jobs.

Our nation’s smallest businesses—those with 1-49 employees—continue to outpace large businesses in the race to put America back to work. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees created more than half of all new jobs last month, and, from April to May, they boosted the actual number of jobs they generated by 16 percent, according to data released Thursday by Automatic Data Processing, Inc (ADP). Small businesses overall accounted for more than 93 percent of all new jobs last month, while large businesses created just 6.8 percent of new jobs.

The bipartisan Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, signed into law by President Obama today, will help address one of small business owners’ biggest problems: a lack of access to capital. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle came together to work for the good of small businesses with this act, which is what our nation’s job creators need right now. However, we strongly encourage legislators not to stop here. This bill will give startups a boost, but existing brick-and-mortar Main Street small businesses also need help.

The bipartisan Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which passed the Senate today after being previously approved by the House of Representatives, will help address one of small business owners biggest problems: a lack of access to credit. Recent opinion polling we released found 90 percent of small businesses say the availability of credit is a problem.

The budget proposal President Obama released today keeps the spotlight trained on small businesses’ key concerns: enhancing access to credit, investing in job-creating infrastructure projects and boosting small business provisions in the Affordable Care Act.