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SBA an Important Advocate for Small Business Owners

Some people seem to have an almost Pavlovian reaction to my columns and blogs (on other sites) when I mention the Small Business Administration (SBA). They’ll rant and rave in the comments sections about how the SBA isn’t really serving “true” small businesses; or wonder why, in a capitalist system, the government is helping small businesses in the first place; or bemoan SBA programs aimed at helping women, minorities, and other “disadvantaged” business owners. A select few go so far as to declare that the agency consists of a bunch of government bureaucrats who know nothing about business in general, and small business in particular.

And then there are the countless existing and aspiring U.S. politicians, who while running for office last summer constantly droned on about how this policy or that program was “bad for America’s small business owners.” Depending on which candidate was talking, we learned that things like the “death tax and health care reform were likely to destroy the small business infrastructure in the United States. You would have thought we small business owners were their top priority, that we had the entire Congressional delegation at our backs, ready to help us save America.

Well, you’d be wrong. Since those new Senators and Congressmen were sworn into office in January, some of those very same people who were so worried about our probable destruction promptly called for deep cuts in the Small Business Administration’s budget. Words like “bloated” and “unnecessary” were (and still are) being thrown around with abandon.

I have a message for both groups, but don’t think the language is appropriate in this venue. So I will more politely say, “Shut up!” Yes, I realize in this nation we treasure our right to say just about anything we want. But this is all so hypocritical and counterproductive.

If you are a small business owner and you happen to think the SBA is useless, that’s certainly your right. Don’t use SBA services. Don’t ask for advice from a SCORE mentor or Small Business Development Center (SBDC) counselor. Don’t sign up for any of the dozens of classes and workshops the SBA, SCORE, and SBDCs offer. Don’t try to take advantage of government contracting opportunities.

But just because you don’t want to play, doesn’t mean you get to tell me and countless other small business owners that we shouldn’t be able to get in the game either. It’s a free country, remember. You don’t get to make the rules for the rest of us.

As for you folks in Congress, please stop using us as props in your campaigns. If you were really worried about small business owners, you’d do something about the ever-rising (yes, still) cost of health care we’re shouldering for our employees. If you’re so bent on cutting taxes, why not take a look at the payroll taxes we small business owners have to pay? Or provide us with genuine incentives to hire people and create jobs?

I will not pretend to be an objective observer here. I have worked with people at the SBA, SCORE, and SBDCs since the late 1980s. Most of them are dedicated to helping us learn more, do more, and grow more. I am not being a blind apologist either. I know the SBA is not perfect, and certainly there can be, and should be, improvements. But the unwarranted criticisms and threatened budget cuts really make me angry when I see, up close and personal, the good works the SBA does.

I just gave a presentation at the SBA Southern California 8(a) Conference. Over 300 small business owners were there, learning about marketing, taxes, cash flow, and sales, and meeting with corporations interested in offering subcontracting opportunities. The entrepreneurs I met at this event represented entrepreneurs from anywhere in the country. Some were struggling, others were thriving. But all were grateful for the networking and educational opportunity the SBA presented them with for a very nominal fee.

There weren’t any Congressional representatives there. No one to see how well done the program was, how eager and excited the business owners were, how hard the local SBA staff worked to put this event together.

Now that I’m a business owner myself, I’m even more sensitive to being bandied about as a pawn in someone’s political game. Helping small businesses grow, giving us the tools, helping us see the opportunities, avoid the pitfalls, and just being there for us is what the SBA does. And I think it’s worth every damn cent.

Tags: Business, Small Business