How can you expect government to help small business? Many small business people get all excited when they are asked to be on a government steering committee, one which has a mission statement to help it expand the small business community and get jobs moving again.
The reality is that most politicians form committees when they don't know what to do, do not really want to make a decision, and wish to avoid a political event which could hurt them in upcoming elections.
By forming a committee they pass the buck, and then they can always refer to the committee and if things don't work out they can blame the committee rather than themselves.
Worse, very rarely do committee recommendations ever really get implemented, or turned into policy.
Meanwhile the delay assists the powers that be in looking like they are doing something of value when in reality they are merely postponing making the hard choices that must be made, making the crisis worse, having no legitimate leadership or relevant policy intervention.
Generally, the committee spends countless hours putting into their minutes what any normal entrepreneur small business person could've done in seconds.
In fact, for a real entrepreneur that has to get things done in a timely basis and actually turn a profit a committee can be a living hell.
Sitting with a group of people who have never run a business, and want to moderate the conversation based on some academic principle, or Robert's Rules of Order is simply outrageous, especially to a small business person that has to make decisions on the fly.
Every time I hear the federal government, a state government, a county government or even a city government at the mayor's roundtable talk about forming a subcommittee to address the concerns of small business people, tax revenues, employment, or decreasing regulation - I cringe.
Not because I don't believe these things should be discussed, rather because I know this will not to lead to any meaningful results.
In fact, the longer the committee exists the more time is put between the problem and the solution only exacerbating the real challenges.
Not long ago, there was a presidential task force which had been formed and on the committee would be many small business people, lots of lawyers, and the Secretary of Commerce, the head of the Small Business Administration, and various other government agencies - sounds good right? I mean here's the government actually doing something about the problem, or so it would seem.
But really nothing could be further from the truth.
In reality if the Secretary of Commerce and the head of the Small Business Administration had never run a small business of their own, how on earth would they know what to do? And if they had, they'd already know what to do and they wouldn't need to form a committee in the first place, they could just get it done and get people back to work by providing the proper tax incentives, reducing regulation, and putting the stimulus money where it would do the most good, the quickest.
The reality is Washington DC runs with lobbyists, and they represent large businesses, not necessarily small ones.
At the local level you will find more small businesses involved in funding various political candidates, but really they are out for their own skin and not necessarily anyone else's.
A true small business person which focuses on their customer, giving them value, and bettering the best efforts of their competition will always be thriving in the marketplace and they will be busy, thus they won't have time to sit on a committee.
No one should be fooled into thinking that these committees are ever going to solve any problems, they can't.
And for the most part they really don't want to solve the problems, because there is a lot of opportunity in crisis and chaos for corporate America, and the politicians they support.
Please consider all this.
The reality is that most politicians form committees when they don't know what to do, do not really want to make a decision, and wish to avoid a political event which could hurt them in upcoming elections.
By forming a committee they pass the buck, and then they can always refer to the committee and if things don't work out they can blame the committee rather than themselves.
Worse, very rarely do committee recommendations ever really get implemented, or turned into policy.
Meanwhile the delay assists the powers that be in looking like they are doing something of value when in reality they are merely postponing making the hard choices that must be made, making the crisis worse, having no legitimate leadership or relevant policy intervention.
Generally, the committee spends countless hours putting into their minutes what any normal entrepreneur small business person could've done in seconds.
In fact, for a real entrepreneur that has to get things done in a timely basis and actually turn a profit a committee can be a living hell.
Sitting with a group of people who have never run a business, and want to moderate the conversation based on some academic principle, or Robert's Rules of Order is simply outrageous, especially to a small business person that has to make decisions on the fly.
Every time I hear the federal government, a state government, a county government or even a city government at the mayor's roundtable talk about forming a subcommittee to address the concerns of small business people, tax revenues, employment, or decreasing regulation - I cringe.
Not because I don't believe these things should be discussed, rather because I know this will not to lead to any meaningful results.
In fact, the longer the committee exists the more time is put between the problem and the solution only exacerbating the real challenges.
Not long ago, there was a presidential task force which had been formed and on the committee would be many small business people, lots of lawyers, and the Secretary of Commerce, the head of the Small Business Administration, and various other government agencies - sounds good right? I mean here's the government actually doing something about the problem, or so it would seem.
But really nothing could be further from the truth.
In reality if the Secretary of Commerce and the head of the Small Business Administration had never run a small business of their own, how on earth would they know what to do? And if they had, they'd already know what to do and they wouldn't need to form a committee in the first place, they could just get it done and get people back to work by providing the proper tax incentives, reducing regulation, and putting the stimulus money where it would do the most good, the quickest.
The reality is Washington DC runs with lobbyists, and they represent large businesses, not necessarily small ones.
At the local level you will find more small businesses involved in funding various political candidates, but really they are out for their own skin and not necessarily anyone else's.
A true small business person which focuses on their customer, giving them value, and bettering the best efforts of their competition will always be thriving in the marketplace and they will be busy, thus they won't have time to sit on a committee.
No one should be fooled into thinking that these committees are ever going to solve any problems, they can't.
And for the most part they really don't want to solve the problems, because there is a lot of opportunity in crisis and chaos for corporate America, and the politicians they support.
Please consider all this.
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