A Letter To The President

Normally I don't write letters to politicians, but I felt this letter to the president was worth sharing with anyone in small business.  Feel free to copy it and send one yourself.

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing this letter to you in response to your selection of Jeff Immelt to run the Jobs Council.

Selecting the man that built GE, Jack Welch, might make sense, but his replacement doesn’t.  Mr. Immelt like many bankers and large corporate leaders have been quick to accept help from the government and slow to work towards the goal of a better country.

It is the small businesses that the country depends on, not those who are chosen to be members of the S&P 500.  Your thoughts of working with businesses to solve the problems of the country are on the right track.  A council of small business owners are what you really need.  Big banks and big business need to be disrupted from time to time in order to prevent a larger melt down. 

The choice is minor revolutions that look like evolution in history, or an outright revolution as the USSR experienced leading to its demise. It is the little businesses that make big change.  Apple didn’t even exist when GE first made the S&P 500 and the Fortune 500.  Look what Mr. Jobs and Mr. Wozniack have done in so few years, or Mr. Gates.  Both creating whole new industries and Microsoft being one of the country’s few major exporters.

It is time that we as a nation stop asking for our banks, our unions, our employers and our government to take care of us.  What makes this country the greatest in the world is the Freedoms we are guaranteed in the constitution.  With liberty and freedom come responsibility and risk.

Since most small business owners can’t afford to take time off from their business to write to you, I would like to offer a few quick thoughts as one of them:

1.    Reduce the burdens on small businesses.  Businesses under 100 employees are the bulk of the nation’s business and therefore tax base.  As an example, a small company with two employee’s has the same payroll tax reporting requirements as a company with 50. 

Growth as a small business is the most difficult because of the government’s requirements on all levels, Federal, State and Local.  These requirements create non-producing jobs like bookkeepers and accountants.  While I appreciate the work these people do, it does not lead to a gain in productivity.  In small business this is time and money lost from production.  Accountants should be offering advice on where the company makes the most money, not whether there is a form 940 or 941 due or how often.

Let’s say the business owner uses an online payroll solution.  The W3 and W2 forms for this owner can run over $60.00 at the local office box store.  This is simply more time and more money taken from building great things to accounting for things.  This should be a one line on line report for any sized business.  Why do we as small business owners care if we are paying futa taxes or medicare taxes.  It is all money and time account for it that is taken from our ability to produce.

2.    Simplify the hiring process - I am all for verifying that a person who wants to work in the US has a right to do so.  I don’t think any small business owner wants to break the law, we just want to get the job done and pay our bills.  Since we have to verify who we hire, it seems only fair that we verify who we give benefits too as well.  E-Verify is a good start and maybe E-Verify can be used both ways, to verify employability and benefits eligibility.

3.    Simplify the Termination Process - If an employee isn’t working out for any legal reason, the employer should be allowed to relieve them of their job and give it to someone who wants to work.  All work should be at will.  If you don’t like your boss you can quit and compete against him the next day.  Why is it your boss can’t fire you without worrying about paying unemployment while you goof off at home?

4.    Be Proactive – For most small businesses to get paid we have to send an invoice and a reminder to our customers.  We know they are busy too.  The government on the other hand expects a busy small business owner struggling to make payroll to know what is due and when.  The only other legal choice is to pay money to someone else and hope they know. 

5.    Spread the Word - There is a very cool web tool for electronically filing W-3’s and W-2’s and printing them for free.  Also the IRS provides these forms for free.  Most small business owners are convinced by the big box stores and software companies they have to buy expensive forms to meet the IRS requirements.  When the government does do something good, spread the word.

Small business owners don’t have the resources to create big lobby’s.  We don’t get big handouts to save our businesses.  The owners of small businesses that weren’t “too big to fail” had to give up their homes to pay back the banks what they could.  The banks made the decision to be partners in these small businesses.  They should have taken some risk with it.  Small business owners will bounce back, hopefully smarter this time.  The big businesses haven’t learned a thing, making the entire economy more at risk of greater failure.

Somehow all big businesses are created because someone started a little disruptive businesses.  AT&T grew so big that a judge had to break it up, just a few years before mobile phones would have done it anyway.

Some disruptions take longer than others.  Asking big business to help create productive disruption is like asking the wolf to guard the golden goose that might put him out of a job.  The government should promote disruption as a means of growth, not hinder it.

You started your campaign with the idea of change.  Small business is where the change is.  Small business is where the change for the future is hiding.

Respectfully,

Scott Bourquin

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