Small businesses are the backbone

Last weekend, while Americans were recovering from their Thanksgiving feasting, the nation's retailers were having their Super Bowl.

The sales push began on Thanksgiving Day and continued into Black Friday for major retailers, leading into Small Business Saturday and then into Cyber Monday.

Small businesses, defined as having 500 or fewer employees, have long been the backbone of the U.S. economy. According to the Small Business Administration, the nation's 28 million small businesses represent 54 percent of all U.S. sales and have provided 55 percent of all jobs since the 1970s.

The 77 million people that make up the small business workforce would rank as the 17th most populous country in the world, just ahead of Iran.

Each small business has its own unique story.

"All the corner shops in our towns and cities - the restaurants, cleaners, gyms, hair salons, hardware stores - these didn't come out of nowhere," said House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Small businesses also significantly impact Pennsylvania's economy, representing 98.3 percent of all employers and employ 48.6 percent of the private sector labor force. Most of the state's small businesses are very small; 76.7 percent of all businesses have no employees and most employers have fewer than 20 employees.

Nationally, 78 percent of U.S. small businesses employ only one person, and more than half of them operate out of the home. It takes six days to start a business in the U.S. while the wait in China is 38 days.

The small business vote proved large in the recent presidential election. According to an exclusive nationwide poll with Manta, a social network for small businesses, Donald Trump won the crucial first debate in the eyes of small businesses on Main Street.

Manta CEO John Swanciger said small-business owners were highly invested in this election for good reason, with important issues including the minimum wage, overtime regulations, and continuing health care policy changes.

The top concerns for small-business owners in order of priority are access to capital (lending by financial institutions), hiring, religious freedom, foreign policy, immigration, health care and taxes. Almost 80 percent said raising capital was their No. 1 concern.

There's not been a great deal of love for government from small business. A poll showed that only 24 percent believed the government was supportive of the small-business man and 10 percent of those polled said they didn't want government involved at all.

President-elect Trump continuously pounded the economic issues home during the campaign, and the strategy was a winner. His victory, however, still has many wondering how the campaign rhetoric will translate into concrete steps and whether Senate Democrats will try to slow the Republican agenda.

Among Trump's major promises was to repeal Obamacare, something Republicans in Congress have failed to do so far.

Trump also said he'd reverse some of Obama's executive orders, including one that eased deportation policies against minors who are in this country illegally; eliminate a rule that allows the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate bodies of water on private lands; and withdraw our nation from an international agreement on climate change.

As for taxes, Trump advocated lowering the income tax on all companies to 15 percent. Businesses can be taxed at rates up to nearly 40 percent under current law and corporate tax rates range from 15 percent to 35 percent.

The tax law can't be changed without Congress, but the National Federation of Independent Business believes that a Republican president and Congress will lower taxes for small companies.

As for trade, Trump campaigned on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, which governs trade among the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and wants other trade deals modified. He also wants the U.S. to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Regarding the minimum wage, many believe Congress will be pressured to lift the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 since 2009. Some small-business groups say a higher minimum wage hurts small companies while others say it helps them compete and gives consumers more money to spend.

As someone once said, "Small business isn't for the faint of heart. It's for the brave, the patient and the persistent. It's for the overcomer."

Although the author of that quote is unknown, it speaks volumes to the entrepreneurial spirit that drives the American economy.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com