Recently in the Public Policy Category

We have never had information before that relected the overall economic impact of women-owned firms.  Today we have it and it reveals the magnitude of importance that small business plays in the overall economy.

Women-owned firms produce employment for more than 23 million people in the United states, or 16% of our 2008 workforce.*.   This means that approximately 8% of the total labor force work directly for a woman-owned firm.  This is astonishing news.

But what really is remarkable, is that that 80% of the women businesses are NOT employer firms.

What would this mean to our national economic recovery if we increased the number of "employer" firms to 25%? To 30%?  How many more people would join the ranks of the employed?   

It is time to start focusing on strategies and policies to make this happen.  WIPP is asking these questions and addressing these issues directly.

*US Department of Labor, November 2008 national employment figures.

WIPP, The Center for Women's Business Research, The National Women's Business Council and Walmart announced exciting new data at the Economic Summit on Friday, October 2nd.

• If women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have the 5th largest GDP in the world, ahead of countries, including France, the United Kingdom and Italy.
• If women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have a greater GDP than Canada, India and Vietnam COMBINED.
• Women-owned firms have a total economic impact of $3 trillion, including creating and/or maintaining 23 million jobs, 16% of the total workforce.

The economic impact analysis explains the direct, indirect, and induced economic impact of women-owned businesses nationwide.  Moving well beyond the traditional number of women-owned firms, industries, and revenue levels, this research takes things to the next level by analyzing the economic ripple effect of the women-owned business communiety, i.e. what their direct spending is in addition to subsequent spending by their suppliers and employees.  

The survey data provides:

• industry specific data that can be used for programming and public policy;
• data that can drive private and public investments; and
• data that can illuminate the true production capacity of women-owned firms.

The objective of this important research was to broadly quantify the economic contributions of women-owned firms and is unprecedented.  This is the first time that this type of analysis has been undertaken for women-owned firms in the nation and the results will have significant and wide-ranging impact for policymaking, economic development, and private investment focused on women business owners and their communities.  Please go to www.cfwbr.org and www.wipp.org for further information and SBTV.com for a video recording.

  Chatter is beginning to heat up on the push for an open internet.   It sounds good - no question about it.   WIPP's small businesses definitely need more choice, higher speeds and lower prices, no doubt about that either.   However the focus must first be on building high speed networks and managing them properly so that we can access them.   With a network not properly managed, it will soon be very difficult for a small business owner to use technology to manage and grow their business because they will be competing with continuous video streaming and clogged networks.   I don't want that to happen - what I want is to be able to select the right product for my business needs from a provider that will provide me the best speed, security, reliability and value.   For sure, that is not either a highly regulated internet, nor an internet that is totally free and open and not managed properly.   Allowing the providers to manage their networks and meet consumer and business needs is the best strategy in the long run.

Usually government websites are dreary, outdated and hard to navigate.  WIPP says not so with the new website the White House has dedicated to tracking the stimulus money.  www.recovery.gov contains an incredible amount of information which allows small businesses to track the money to the states and to each individual agency. 

Check it out - it's not business as usual.

Card Check is an important issue for so many businesses.

I wanted to share with you one story sent to us by a WIPP member:

Small business owners are losing sleep. Partly to blame is the current economy, but there is also a more alarming concern on the horizon, and that is the Employee Free Choice Act. We are concerned that should this bill become law, we will not be able to compete, continue to provide for the well-being and lively hood of our employees and their families, or grow our companies.  We treat our employees as family and believe fully in sharing the wealth. We know that if this bill becomes law it will create a rift in the family and will only discourage growth and soon a broken business. We will not be able to hire and may even have to reduce our current workforce, adding to the sky rocketing unemployment rate. Most of all we want to protect our employees' most fundamental right...to work. Unions hinder growth and are not the answer.

In 1962 in the small town of Rogers, Arkansas, an entrepreneur opened a retail store. The store was founded on the principle of providing quality products at fair and reasonable prices. This small store grew to be one the largest retail chains in the United States, employing tens of thousands of people in its stores, and distribution centers across the country. 

 In 1975 another entrepreneur worked with a handful of like-minded individuals in his parent's garage as they set out to create a system that would take computing from large warehouse machines to ones that now fit in your pocket.  This company grew rapidly over the years and now employs tens of thousands of people and has forever changed the way the world does business.

Who are the two companies? Wal-mart and Microsoft.  Sometimes we forget that very large corporations all started out as very small and entrepreneurial business.  In the early days of Microsoft, the company could not even make its payroll; instead it offered its employees stock certificates. There was no public offering of the company stock at the time; the certificates weren't worth any more than paper.

Yet these two companies today are responsible for creating an economic engine that helped to spring forth support companies, suppliers, warehouse companies, and manufacturing plants. Who among us cannot contribute some part of our current lively hood to one or both of these companies?  How many thousands of people are employed and their families taken care of because of these companies?

No one can deny that small businesses are the backbone of this country. The great ones grow up to affect change and economic growth like Microsoft and Wal-Mart.  The good ones provide for stable employment and a tax base for local communities.

One may ask, why do we not encourage more of these small businesses? Aren't they the ones responsible for creating a solid middle class in America and all of the opportunities surrounding that?   We do encourage small business. That's what makes our country great. However, the Employee Free Choice Act that is being pushed through congress by the Unions will discourage small businesses.

Unions want this bill because they are losing membership. Currently the unions only have 6.5% representation in the private sector workforce. The union cries out that corporate America has become too greedy, but they don't look to their own history of greed and corruption that ran rampant during the days of high union membership. Mr. George Santayana said it best when he said, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

How will the unions intimidate? They want to remove the fundamental right of the secret ballot. Their answer is replacing it with a card check program.  If 50% + 1 of the company's employees publicly sign a union card, then the workers are organized. This creates an environment ripe with corruption and intimidation. People have a choice, go along with the group, or find yourself another job. In the end there are two losers, you and the company.

Now imagine... what would have happened if Microsoft or Wal-Mart were unionized in their early stages? Would there be a computer on just about every desktop? Would there be hundreds of thousands of people employed both directly and indirectly by both companies?  Would our country be as strong as it is today?

Unions had their place in our history and they did help to build America. But those days are long gone now. Unions know their time is past, therefore they want to rob the worker of the fundamental right of a secret ballot and bully their way back to the glory days.  The Union wants to create a system that levies heavy fines against a company that is providing for its employees well being.

If a group of workers feels that a company is not treating them fairly, well we do have free choice in America, and those workers are free to go work for another company. If enough people do, then eventually the bad company will fail, as no one will want to work for them.

Here it is, the demise of small business. We are selling America into the Greatest Depression.

Lisa Pineiro

Jeff S Ray

Technical Services Inc

Durham, NC