Years like 2008 “are what separate the people who can take on the responsibility of owning a company and those who can’t,” say David Bennett and Dave Price, co-owners and principals of Atlanta-based Bennett Design & Landscape.
“My business partner and I have cut our salaries, we work longer hours now, we work weekends, but we have a lot of employees who depend on us for their mortgages,” Bennett and Price explain. “We take that seriously. Our employees know our commitment and they have stepped up their game. We’re all in this together.”
That’s the small-business story in a nutshell. When a small business is faced with challenges, who typically bails it out? The small-business owner.
It’s a fact many are talking about after the government recently bailed out business giants Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG.
“Small businesses have a high failure rate and when things go bad there are few options open to entrepreneurs, especially in today’s tight credit market,” points out Eve Tahmincioglu on MSN’s Your Biz.
“It is interesting that the government is bailing out the big companies while the small guys are left to slug it out on our own,” says Dale Micetic, president, ISS Grounds Control, Phoenix, Ariz. “If we have issues, the story remains, ‘too bad, business is inherently risky – everyone knows with reward comes increased levels of risk.’ So we are left to our own devices while the availability of labor decreases, costs of fuel, fertilizer and chemicals increase and the levels of government or “compliance” reporting increases – all due to government legislation or lack thereof. Sometimes it can become discouraging being a small business person in the U.S.”
Of the more than 1,000 Americans surveyed in a national CNN poll, 62 percent think the government should step in to address the problems facing struggling financial institutions. But Americans think the cost of the $700 billion plan passed by Congress Oct. 3 is too high. Though 55 percent favor the bailout, 65 percent said it will probably treat taxpayers unfairly.
Even a green industry veteran like Micetic can see, while they may seem inappropriate, government bailouts are necessary when they serve to maintain a stable economic market that is healthy and growing. The cost of doing nothing may be much more severe.
“If they don’t jump in and fix the ‘free fall’ in the financial markets, we risk losing foreign investment as well as other revenue sources that drive our economy,” he says. “The issues of liquidity impact every small-business owner in his or her ability to borrow money to finance growth. It also impacts our clients in regards to what they are willing to pay for landscape services. If the market meltdown isn’t fixed, every American lives life in limbo not knowing if they will have jobs and, therefore, not spending their money on the somewhat discretionary items our industry provides.”
In fact, 88 percent of the 518 CNN survey respondents said they are concerned or even scared by the tumult in the financial markets. The criminals in this case are not the politicians, but the “Wall Street guys who continued to take home huge salaries and bonuses while they made decisions that lead to the ruin of the businesses they were entrusted with managing by corporate boards of directors and the stockholders who pay their salaries,” Micetic adds. Since the markets are circular and related, failing companies can also negatively impact people’s ability to get mortgages and loans – further decreasing the average person’s trust in these large corporations. But that could be good news for the small-business owner, who gains another distinguishing point from his larger counterparts – increased trust.
“Yes, the bailout of large business interests is disheartening and will probably be an expensive fix that each American taxpayer will pay for,” Micetic adds, “but it is also the best thing for the economic health of the country.” SOI