Biznik Blog

This week President Obama spoke about small business in his State of the Union address:

“We should start where most new jobs do – with small businesses – companies that begin when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, or a worker decides to become her own boss. Through sheer grit and determination, these companies have weathered the recession and they’re ready to grow. But … financing remains difficult for small businesses across the country. Even those that are making a profit. So tonight I propose that we take 30 billion … and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat.”

Do you buy it? Obama wasn’t referring to the entrepreneur working alone for the first year, or the newly self-employed worker running a one-man shop from her kitchen table. When “small business” is commonly defined as ten employees or less and under a million in annual revenue, companies of one, earning less than $100,000 a year, are often overlooked. Yet 70% of the nation’s businesses are what the U.S. Census Bureau classifies as “personal businesses” [1] – companies of one without a payroll. These businesses cannot get a business credit card without backing the loan with their personal social security number. (The credit card may have the name of your business on it, but it’s still personal borrowing to fund your business.) Do you have confidence that banks, even small community banks, will use Obama’s $30B to issue your business a line a credit it needs to grow?

I couldn’t help juxtapose this with another game-shifting statement, made on the same day by another one of our leading cultural creatives. Contained in his announcement of Apple’s “revolutionary new device,” iPad, Steve Jobs said, “It’s like holding the internet in your hand.”

Do you buy it? Sure, the iPad’s cool. It’s like a jumbo iPhone, an extraordinary evolutionary device for accessing micro publishing. But to be truly revolutionary it should provide a way for the micro business person to create and make money from their micro publishing.

I’m a huge Obama fan and a huge Apple fan and this week I was disappointed. Twice.

Does it ever feel like, as one of the smallest of small businesses, the company of one, the microprenur, the free agent… you’re being overlooked?

To be truly revolutionary, people focused on “small business” need to pay more attention the needs of the solo entrepreneur, and the self-employed working alone – businesses that rely on hiring fellow solo contractors – businesses that fill the pages of Biznik.

[1] From Intuit’s Future of Small Business Report a research project conducted in partnership with the Institute for the Future, published January 2007.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 2:03 pm and is filed under News, The Biznik Way. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.