NFIB Focus – Jack Faris

Small-business entrepreneurs are dreamers and problem-solvers. They tend to create opportunities where others see only challenges. They have an innate ability to uncover niches and plant enterprises in corners of the economy that others bypass without hesitation.

There are currently more than 25 million of these free-enterprise movers and shakers. They can be found from coast-to-coast. Half of all private-sector jobs are of their making. Consumers love them. Politicians embrace them as the backbone of the nation’s economy.

But there should be many more. Why aren’t there 30 million? Or 50 million?

Although the United States has more small businesses per capita than any other nation, it should have many more. What’s holding American entrepreneurs back?

The cost of health insurance for one thing. The cost and availability of liability insurance for another-and workers’ compensation costs, rising energy expenses and federal taxes on business income.

According to “Small Business Problems and Priorities,” the sixth edition of a study conducted by the NFIB Research Foundation and Wells Fargo, many of the most serious problems facing small-business owners are politically generated, rather than spawned from free-market competition.

Health insurance, liability insurance and workers’ compensation are clearly identified as the top three problems for America’s small-business owners. All three could be solved in Washington, D.C., if only those who say they love and support small business out on the political stump would do so when it comes time to cast their votes in Washington and in state capitals.

Health-care costs have been the top-ranked problem for small firms for nearly two decades. In this year’s study, sixty-six percent of respondents ranked health-care costs as the “most critical” problem facing small businesses – the highest percentage of small-business owners to do so in the history of the study.

Maybe the message is finally getting through. In mid-May, the U.S. House of Representatives passed three bills that could open the way to affordable healthcare through tax-free savings accounts for health expenses, medical liability reform and Small-Business Health Plans.

This is the seventh time the House of Representatives has approved Small-Business Health Plans and the president has made it known he’ll sign the legislation. But some in the U.S. Senate who tout small business as the greatest thing since sliced bread are only willing to offer half-a-loaf.

Liability insurance skyrocketed to second place on the list of small-business concerns, a three-fold leap in just four years. This is likely driven by fears of getting sued, researchers believe. And workers’ compensation costs jumped from the seventh spot to the third since the group’s 2000 survey, reflecting the cost of medical claims caused by job-related injuries. Energy costs, which include not only gasoline but also natural gas and electricity, rose from the tenth to the fourth spot in the new study. Federal taxes on income was the only issue in the top five that moved downward, but still remains a major deterrent for small firms. All are politically generated problems.

Why aren’t there more small businesses in America? That’s the exact question voters should ask when they hear politicians proclaim their love and support of the little firms that are so crucial to this nation’s economic survival.

Jack Faris is president of the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation’s largest small-business advocacy group. A non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 1943, NFIB represents the consensus views of its 600,000 members in Washington, D.C., and all 50 state capitals. See on-line at www.NFIB.com.