A White House plan to boost the nation’s sagging economy will do little to help small businesses over the long haul, critics say.

The proposed plan, which includes up to $145 billion in temporary tax cuts, is aimed at encouraging business owners to “expand their operations, create new jobs and inject new energy into our economy,” President Bush said Friday.

Yet small-business advocates and policy watchdog groups say they doubt employers will react favorably to temporary tax cuts.

Instead, they say, businesses and investors would be better served by permanent tax cuts, including reductions in capital gains, dividend tax rates and small-business expensing, among other measures.

The Small Business Administration this week named a former senior manager to lead efforts to meet federal small-business contracting goals and enforce size standards.

Fay Ott, who as a senior advisor has reviewed policy and budgets at the agency since 2004, becomes the SBA’s associate administrator for the Office of Government Contracting and Business Development.

The job includes helping federal agencies meet their small-business contracting goals, which have fallen short in recent years.

More information on how small businesses can do business with the government is on this blog.  Click here

Discover Small Business Watch: Healthcare costs continue to be a financial burden for small businesses, according to this month’s poll, which found that 77 percent of small business owners do not offer health insurance to their employees, up from 74 percent last year. Thirty-nine percent of small business owners said that the cost of health care has a major impact on their ability to grow, while seven out of 10 said that obtaining affordable health insurance for themselves and their employees was very difficult (51 percent) or somewhat difficult (18 percent).

“Healthcare costs were having a big impact on businesses when we did this survey one year ago,” said Rachakonda. “This year’s survey shows that the situation has only worsened. Nearly four out of 10 entrepreneurs feel that healthcare costs have a major impact on their ability to grow.”

Senator John Kerry (D- Mass.) this week proposed a Senate economic stimulus package that would target tax incentives for small businesses, reduce fees on loans and double funding for microloans.

The proposed bill will increase the amount small businesses can write off on their taxes for new investments for 2008 from $125,000 to $200,000. The bill will also increase the net operating carry back period for losses arising in taxable years ending in 2007 and 2008 from two to five years.

The bill will also provide more funding to leverage nearly $20 million in microloans.

Kerry said in the coming years federally backed loans will be increasingly important to spurring economic lending in the small-business sector so entrepreneurs will not have to use high-interest credit cards to finance their businesses.

“Small businesses already employ more than half of our country’s workforce, so we need to make sure that entrepreneurs have money in their pockets to continue to grow their businesses,” Kerry said.

 SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Nearly half of small business owners are concerned they will not have enough money to retire (43 percent) and many say they are worried about not being able to pay for medical costs of a serious illness or accident (47 percent) according to the latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey.

Eighty seven percent of small business owners surveyed said they do not plan on a traditional retirement (stopping work completely) although almost half of these (47 percent) say they may cut back on work. This reflects a nine percent increase in the number of small business owners who are not planning a traditional retirement, since the question was last surveyed in Q3 2005. Forty percent (up five percent from Q3 2005) say they will not fully retire or cut back, and will only stop working when they are forced to do so for health reasons. The majority of those who do plan to cut back on work or stop working completely say they will do so at an older age than first planned (60 percent) with two-thirds saying this is due to financial reasons.

Somehow i landed on this web page.  I just can’t believe it is true so I am doing a little test just to see if it is.  I figue if it is true he would have been published in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times.  Or maybe he won the lottery and is now telling everyone that he is making his money on Google.  What do you think?  I’m looking for comments and results.  Has anyone tried this product and received results?  If so I want to interview them and learn how they are manufacturing their success and share it with the rest of the world.

I found this group of podcasts that provide small businesses on information on how to do business with the Federal Government. 

Are you new to doing business with Government agencies? Trying to decide who in Global One can be your customer and how to connect with them? “Are You FederallyReady?” will explore the in’s and out’s of identifying, capturing and delivering against government requirements and developing the all too important relationships required to succeed.

Small businesses are the backbone of the US Economy. Why aren’t any of the presidential candidates focusing on them? None of the candidates have accepted our invitation to do a 10 minute podcast phone interview to discuss small business and economy issues on small business coaching site www.mysuccessgateway.com .

The reason they are ducking us might be their debt to big business in order to fuel their interests. Look at the small business jobs in each of these states and the number of votes that it took to win the states!!! Is this not profound?

South Carolina Small Businesses employ 763,000 jobs in South Carolina.

Bush won South Carolina with 937,000 votes in 2004.

Michigan small businesses provided 2,001,591 jobs in 2003.

Kerry won Michigan in the general election with almost 2.5 million votes.

Florida Small businesses provided 2.8 million jobs in 2003.

Bush won Florida with 3.9 million votes in 2004.

Nevada Small businesses employed 399,000 people in 2001.

Bush won Nevada with 418,000 votes in 2004.

A look at the National Debt by each President

I found this post from Vincent in Facebook.  There might be some value for those of us who are seeking a roadmap to success in 2008.  Thanks Vincent. 

By the way: You may find that the concepts in that post kind of tie in with a podcast between Stan Relihan and me: http://connections.thepodcastnetwork.com/2007/12/16/connections-015-king-of-the-yahoo-groups/
While no one can guarantee success, I believe each of us can come closer to success if we start our relationships off with our optimism set on “P.E.R.F.E.C.T. T.E.N.”

“P.E.R.F.E.C.T. T.E.N.” optimism represents the resolutions I offer those with whom I network and can best be expressed as:

Planning – A planned year is better than an unplanned one. And it’s the same with business relationships. I resolve to plan my work and my success with you. (Resolution #1)

Elation – Elation is the height of relationships. Elation is the tone and the tune to which I will set my relationship with you. My “Elationships” start and are maintained as close to 10 as possible. I resolve to give you strong reasons to be elated about our working together. (Resolution #2)

Results – Results matter. Having relationships without getting results equals misery. I resolve to work as intelligently and as resourcefully as I can to get the best results I’m capable of producing for you. (Resolution #3)

Faith – Faith matters. Faith in one another helps you and me to cover more ground more effectively and with less stress. You get your results faster when we have faith in one another. I resolve to work to keep the faith you’ve express in me. (Resolution #4)

Effort. People who don’t believe in effort, don’t get results. I’m honored when I get results. I’m shamed when I don’t get results. Therefore, I resolve to put in the extra effort to get the results you and I have decided to pursue. (Resolution #5)

Concentration. Without concentration, effort is wasted. Wasted effort is wasted energy. Wasted effort and wasted energy leaves you poor. Concentration literally means to stay “within the circle”. All work I do for you will be circled on my calendar until it is completed. Therefore, I resolve to concentrate on my work for you until I get the results you need. (Resolution #6)

Talk. I will talk with you. I intend that most of my conversations with you will be positive. But positive or negative, I resolve to talk with you, asking for your help if needed, and keeping you informed about significant obstacles as well as noteworthy progress. (Resolution #7)

Truth. What good would all of the above and any of the below do if our work is not grounded in truth??? Truth takes strength. Truth takes caring. It takes energy. Commitment. Sometimes it can be draining to tell the truth. But be that as it may, I insist from myself to give you all the truth you have a right to know. I resolve to tell you the truth about our project. (Resolution #8)

Efficiency. Efficiency has been in style and it has been out of style. Waste is guaranteed to happen when efficiency is out of style. To keep it from going out of style, however, efficiency must be looked at as part of a whole system. Sometimes though, efficiency must be subordinated to getting things done at the right time. At all other times however, I resolve to be as efficient in my work for you as is within my power. (Resolution #9)

Networking. Networking is about nurturance. If your network and your networking aren’t nurturing you, what good are they? This is an odd bit of truth – but I want to nurture those who turn to me for business. I don’t want to get boxed in to old business concepts just because they’ve been in practice for years and years and years. But I also don’t want to work with anyone that I can’t take pride in introducing to my network, the people I care about. I believe that introducing you to my network will help you and my network and me by helping me to have more hands and minds to get things done for others and for you. If the people in my network know you, they’re more likely to help you. (This is a neural networking approach to consultative work and it’s about integrating life into the work we do for business.) If I work for you, I resolve to help you grow, to help you prosper by introducing you to my network for your nurturance. (Resolution #10)

I wish you and all my network of friends the best of the best as we pursue a P.E.R.F.E.C.T. T.E.N. in 2008 and beyond!!

–
Thanks,
Vincent Wright
www.VincentWright.com
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