Today I’m stepping outside the typical “how-to” article and focusing on entrepreneurship. 

We’ve heard a lot of talk lately about “the role of the Entrepreneur” in leading the world out of this global economic maelstrom. We hear that “small businesses employ 90% of Americans” (true) and that “entrepreneurs will drive jobs growth and the economic recovery” (also true).  But most of this talk comes from politicians and policy-makers who have no idea what it really means to be an entrepreneur, and, frankly, I’m tired of hearing from our nation’s political class talk out of both sides of the mouth.  When I see U.S. taxpayer dollars going to fund big enterprises with terrible business models - think GM - it makes me wonder if the folks in Washington really wants to help small businesses, or simply want to talk about helping. It makes for a good sound byte when you support small business, I suppose.

This year my company will celebrate its 5th year of doing business. I’m proud of that accomplishment, but it’s been the most challenging five years of my life. Over the course of the last five years I’ve had the pleasure of meeting hundreds of fellow entrepreneurs on the front-lines of the economy, and this year the battle is tougher than ever before.  Contrary to what you’ll read in the newspaper, I’m here to report back that America is going to be just fine.

There’s a lot of uncertainty being communicated in the media. It’s not so uncertain for entrepreneurs. We don’t have a choice - we must succeed.  So, we will.  But, in the meantime:

We neither want nor expect taxpayer help.  We move fast.  We try fast, fail fast, fix fast, and try again.  If we’re losing money, we restructure our costs.  We’re nimble.  The last thing we want is the government stepping in with some other citizen’s money and giving it to us as a handout with strings attached.  That’s anathema to everything we stand for.

The government,  its quest to make things better, is going to make it harder for us to achieve success.  If the current administration lets the Bush tax cuts expire, it will amount to a massive tax increase on small business-owners due to the current tax treatment of S-Corporations and LLCs.  How can entrepreneurs be the source of the light at the end of the tunnel, and then be villified as “fat cats” and “the rich” when we successfully create wealth in the process?  Does anyone realize that without the incentive to keep our profits, we won’t keep taking these gargantuan risks with our personal net worth?  

Our house is already at risk.  Has been for years.  Most of us pledged the sum total of our personal assets to get that bank loan.  If our business fails, we lose our home.  So yes, we feel empathy for people who are upside-down on their home mortgages.  But it’s not the same thing.

Our biggest hurdle to hiring more employees? Payroll taxes.  The stimulus does nothing to actually drive employment within small businesses.  If government reduced our payroll tax obligation, we could hire more people.  These new employees would pay income taxes, and would buy goods and services from other companies.  Which means that those companies could hire more people who would then do the same thing.  Which means more than enough tax revenue to offset the cut in payroll taxes.  Duh.

We’re eternal optimists.  If we weren’t, we wouldn’t be able to deal with the overwhelming odds that are perpetually stacked against us.  So we don’t care what we hear on TV. We know it’s going to get better, because we’re going to make it better.  What, you think we’re going to to just roll over and die?  When there’s so much opportunity out there?

While the rest of the world laments the current situation, the entrepreneurs are siliently toiling to make a buck.  In the process, we’ll create jobs and help fund our government.  Someone else will take the credit for “fixing” the economy, but, then again,  we’re not really all that into getting the credit.

We want to succeed.  Lifting all boats in the process is a really nice bonus.