Economic Help for Small Business
I have a serious proposal for using the economic stimulus to help small business.
As the owner of a small business, two beauty salons, I employ eight people who would be in desperate circumstances were they to become unemployed. About half of them have husbands who work in construction (and who are currently underemployed) and the other half are single mothers. Before this economic downturn I had thirteen employees, but I have had to cut to the bone. One of the malls where a shop is located is losing tenants at an alarming rate. Every time a tenant leaves it reduces foot traffic which further reduces my business.
With the current business income, every month after expenses are paid, mostly labor and rent, I am left with $1000-2000 that I subsidize out of my own pocket. I am an attorney and have other resources, but the way things are going I may have to close the shops. I'll keep going until I run out of money, but I'm currently unemployed too.
Small business is the biggest employer in our economy. Every other small business owner I speak to is in the same condition or worse. All of us are struggling to stay open and millions of jobs hang in the balance. If the auto industry and the banking industry are too big to fail, we are too small to help.
Tax credits are worthless. Tax reductions are worthless. If you lose money you don't pay taxes, there is nothing to reduce or credit back.
My suggestion: Find some way to give people like me a rent subsidy. Give us a tax credit for employees even if our own taxes are zero. Otherwise we will all just keep going out of business until our employees are left without jobs.
As the owner of a small business, two beauty salons, I employ eight people who would be in desperate circumstances were they to become unemployed. About half of them have husbands who work in construction (and who are currently underemployed) and the other half are single mothers. Before this economic downturn I had thirteen employees, but I have had to cut to the bone. One of the malls where a shop is located is losing tenants at an alarming rate. Every time a tenant leaves it reduces foot traffic which further reduces my business.
With the current business income, every month after expenses are paid, mostly labor and rent, I am left with $1000-2000 that I subsidize out of my own pocket. I am an attorney and have other resources, but the way things are going I may have to close the shops. I'll keep going until I run out of money, but I'm currently unemployed too.
Small business is the biggest employer in our economy. Every other small business owner I speak to is in the same condition or worse. All of us are struggling to stay open and millions of jobs hang in the balance. If the auto industry and the banking industry are too big to fail, we are too small to help.
Tax credits are worthless. Tax reductions are worthless. If you lose money you don't pay taxes, there is nothing to reduce or credit back.
My suggestion: Find some way to give people like me a rent subsidy. Give us a tax credit for employees even if our own taxes are zero. Otherwise we will all just keep going out of business until our employees are left without jobs.
