Actual results of the ACA on small business.

[Pine Lakes]

http://www.wtae.com/news/health/small-b ... z2sNjzy7GL

This is saddening to see fellow Americans suffering at the hands of liberal socialist policies. The surface is just being scratched as it will surely reach us all.

[Gary A]

The surface is just being scratched as it will surely reach us all.

The worst is yet to come. As a small business owner we want to provide insurance to our employees but cannot with the regulations of the ACA. It is just to costly to stay competitive.

Just wait until all the ones that have paid on the exchanges find out that they have to pay 100% of the costs until the high deductible is met. Some will drop their policies like a hot potato and just go to the ER when they need care.

[Pine Mt Beagles]

Small Business Trends

Small Business, Big impact!
One thing is for sure, as a small business owner you are not alone! There are millions of small businesses across the United States traveling the same road as you each and every day. Although your business operates in its own unique fashion, the cumulative impact of the small business sector is enormous.

Small business is BIG!
The 23 million small businesses in America account for 54% of all U.S. sales.
Small businesses provide 55% of all jobs and 66% of all net new jobs .
The 600,000 plus franchised small businesses in the U.S. account for 40% of all retail sales and provide jobs for some 8 million people.

The small business sector in America occupies 30-50% of all commercial space, an estimated 20-34 billion square feet.
Furthermore, the small business sector is growing rapidly. While corporate America has been "downsizing", the rate of small business "start-ups" has grown, and the rate for small business failures has declined.

The number of small businesses in the United States has increased 49% as big business eliminated 4 million jobs, small businesses added 8 million new jobs.

[Gary A]

(Revenue strains

A tepid economic recovery will continue to frustrate small-company owners, says Susan Woodward, an economist with Sand Hill Econometrics in Menlo Park, Calif. Small retailers are struggling even as consumers spend more. Growth in online shopping and a tendency for people to patronize stores owned by big companies (choosing Starbucks rather than the local coffee shop, for example) will continue to be a challenge.

A sustained surge in construction of single-family homes could be a game changer, Woodward says. Growth in housing spills over to manufacturers, retailers and other businesses.

Labor market challenges

Expect small businesses to struggle to find skilled workers for jobs like high-tech manufacturing.

The situation may change if employers of all sizes keep adding jobs at the stronger pace of the second half of 2013, says Peter Cappelli, a professor of human resources management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. A shrinking pool of workers would force small businesses to train new hires, something many have been reluctant to do.

Health care may become a recruiting issue. Owners who say they can’t afford to buy insurance under the health care law could find it harder to attract top talent.)


PMB, anyone can cut and paste. Are you out in this economy as a SBO trying to make a living? I am, and I see first hand all over this country how this president's policies are affecting small business. And it is not good.

[Pine Lakes]

Gary we need real world information from SBO's like yourself to reveal the truth. I hope what Rufus cut and pasted is true, Lord knows folks need jobs, but color me skeptical.

"Other recent data have not been as rosy, including reports Monday that showed U.S. manufacturing activity slowed sharply in January on the back of the biggest drop in new orders in 33 years.

Still, economists blame most of that weakness on frigid weather, and expect a rebound in coming months."

[bluegrass]

Poor, sad Rufus...owned yet again.

[Pine Lakes]

"Only 24% of the public believe economic conditions are improving, while nearly four-in-ten say the nation's economy is actually getting worse, according to a recent CNN poll. Meanwhile, the Consumer Confidence Index declined two months in a row.

The economy still feels depressing because for many people, it is, said Elise Gould, a labor economist at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

"Those at the very top have bounced back, but we have not seen that for people at the middle or at the bottom," she said."


"The country’s business reporters got a dollop of bad news from the National Small Business Association, which released its year-end survey of economic conditions on Wednesday. The outlook, as their press release stated, is “not so good.” NSBA Chair David Ickert observed that “there are very few incentives to start or grow a small company” under prevailing conditions. Indeed, the survey shows that pessimism is rampant. Fifty-one percent of respondents say they anticipate a flat economy next year. Thirty-five percent foresee a recession, while just 14 percent anticipate that the economy will grow next year. By a 47-23 margin, surveyed small-business owners think the national economy is worse than it was one year ago. Particularly troubling to small business owners is “economic uncertainty,” which 69 percent of business owners cite as a significant challenge to the future growth and survival of their business."

How can this information be different from Rufus' overwhelming optimism? I'm sure it's Bush and Cheney's fault, even after 5 years.

[Gary A]

Here is the one sentence from PMB's post that sums up what is going on.

(While corporate America has been "downsizing", the rate of small business "start-ups" has grown, and the rate for small business failures has declined.)

The downsizing is real. Workers are being asked to work longer hours for less pay and benefits to make up for this downsizing. Been there, done that. Downsized workers have 3 choices. Find a job with another company, start their own business or not work and live of the taxpayers. The failure rate of small business starts ups is somewhere between 60-80% in the first year and a half depending on what study you look at.

The total number of people in the workforce continues to decline. At some point in time there will not be enough taxpayers to support those that choose not to work and I am not taking about the ones that can't work. This is already happening in some European countries.

[Pine Lakes]

Good point Gary. I also would like to add that I don't understand how the downsizing of corporate america is having a positive influence on small businesses. Most small businesses(that I know of) supply larger ones. Outside of service jobs like resteraunts I don't think there is much small business growth, which is suggested in my previous post. I wish I could say that the President and our government as a whole was doing a good job, but I just don't see it, and the more liberal we get the worse off we are.

[Gary A]

Pine Lakes,

I agree with you. The downsizing is not a positive influence on small business as a whole. Most new small businesses fail. The only growth I see in small businesses are the ones supplying engineering capabilities to industry which is a very small sector of small business.

[Newt]

"the rate of small business "start-ups" has grown, and the rate for small business failures has declined."

Where is the source for that statement?

Small business is what sparks the economy and job growth. I have seen no evidence of either.