Three out of four small businesses disapprove of the stimulus package.

We've been discussing over the last week that the stimulus package, including the Tarp bill from last year, does not seem to be very beneficial to our small business clients and all small businesses. Today we ran across this blog from the Dallas Morning News Survey: Many small business owners favor tax cuts over asset plan that revealed a survey done by a payroll service that confirms again what we've been discussing.

According to the survey by Surepayroll, "Nearly three-quarters of the survey respondents disapproved of TARP" - in fact only 3 percent thought it was effective at all. And, per the survey, almost 75% percent of the small business owners surveyed felt that the stimulus bill was not going to be useful to them. There were several comments on this blog that were interesting as well.

This information just further validates what we've been saying all along - that no business, especially small businesses, should expect much help from the government to stimulate their business in the short term through this recession, and that we all should attempt to be as self sufficient as possible in handling our own affairs. Business knowledge and acumen is the key. Don't get me wrong - we are not trying to hide our head in the sand and pretend that it is not rough out there. It is. Many people are out of work and those who are not are spending less money. But people are out there spending money and it is up to each of us, as small business owners, to be smart enough and self sufficient enough to not buckle under.

I mentioned in our last blog that I had interviewed one of our consultants regarding the economy and how it was effecting his clients and how he was helping them to get pro-active about it. He told me that "when 'the economy' became an issue, my clients commonly mentioned that it was noticeably tougher. But together we looked at the existing statistics and trends, spotted where the situations were, applied the appropriate actions, and got on with it. This has been a continual process, and for the most part 'the economy' is now rarely mentioned; it’s now simply a matter of doing what we know how to do. The fact is I rarely discuss 'the economy' when talking with my clients now. We know there is a situation in the environment, and it’s something we have to deal with and be better than, but we know that 'the economy' is not cause over their businesses. We just talk about ways to be more causative in developing the respective business."

This approach is working well with our clients who are growing at an average of around 10% or more while many of their colleagues are contracting at a similar or greater rate. Knowledge is the key. If you know the technology of how to do something, whether that is a medical procedure or a business procedure, you can be at cause over it. I'm a businessman and have not been trained to fill a cavity. Nobody would expect me to do so. But how about the dentist or the vet or optometrist or the M.D. or lawyer or builder who have never been trained to run a business but have a business to run? Without training in business management they will have a tough time in these tough times. That's why we train our clients in the basics of management and that's why they are generally succeeding in this environment.

Again, continuing our recent blogs and discussion forums, we'd love your thoughts on this continuing discussion. Please visit our discussion forum which can be found at: Silkin Group Facebook Page.

Larry Silver
President, Silkin


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