A Big Boost for Small Business

Democrats push for microenterprise assistance

This week, Senate Democrats announced our package of legislation, “Big Boost for Small Businesses,” to help build Washington’s economy. Employing almost 17 percent of the state’s work force, small businesses are a powerful and often overlooked sector.

If small businesses are the workhorses of our state’s economy, then microenterprises are the Clydesdales. These businesses have five or fewer employees, start-up budgets no larger than $35,000 and financing from outside the traditional commercial banking sector.

Yet their contributions to the economy are enormous. For every $1 invested, microenterprises return $2.06 to $2.72. Nearly a half million people work for a microenterprise in services that range from housecleaning and hair styling to tax preparation and legal services.

The bills introduced by Senate Democrats would provide more tools to launch a microenterprise and keep one successfully operating. With half of small businesses failing in their first four years, the assistance is essential.

Senate Bill 6711 would let anyone with a computer and Internet connection access an online business curriculum, at no charge and available at the user’s convenience.

It’s hard to keep a new business profitable. Senate Bill 6712 would give small businesses with five or fewer employees an exemption to the state’s B&O (business and occupation) tax for two consecutive years in their first five years of doing business.

We’re giving those receiving unemployment benefits another road to sufficiency. Senate Bill 6713 would let recipients continue to receive benefits, for up to 52 weeks, if they pursue approved entrepreneurial training.

Entrepreneurs need access to capital, and training assistance is crucial to build a successful business. Senate Bill 6714 would set up a new state Microenterprise Development Program to leverage federal and local support.

Work Force Training Boards around the state are already helping small business owners and employees. Senate Bill 6715 would require them to integrate entrepreneurial education in their school-to-work transition programs.

We have bills, too, to provide incentives to banks that support microenterprises (Senate Bill 6716) and create Business Development Corporations (Senate Bill 6168) to promote economic development.

The “Big Boost” bills will give microenterprise owners the training, technical assistance and financial incentives that will lead to self-sufficiency for their families and a stronger economy for Washington.

The results can be dramatic.

One woman who spoke on behalf of the bills explained how start-up business capital transformed not just her but her children. When she took her infant children and left an abusive husband, she had little to recommend her to employers. But because of the modest assistance she received to buy the materials of her trade, she has a thriving massage practice today and mentors other young mothers facing the obstacles she overcame.

Another speaker knew how to weave colorful high-end scarves but had no business savvy. With her business failing and debtors literally at her door, she faced the prospect of losing her home and placing her disabled brother in state care. But through small business assistance, she could afford the entry fees to arts fairs around the country and turn her business around. She kept her house, paid off her debts, and was able to continue to support her brother.

One man spoke of how his lifelong love of trees – and advanced education in forestry services – led to abysmal failure in launching his own business, simply because he knew nothing about the basics of running one. Thanks to a small business assistance program, he learned the value of business plans and other basics. Today his enterprise is so successful that he expects to retire from it.

These are a few examples of what existing programs have done for microenterprise businesses in Washington. The “Big Boost” bills aim to provide an even wider range of benefits to those who need it most: individual entrepreneurs whose good ideas and courage are undone by a lack of capital or basic business skills.

The cost of the “Big Boost” bills is modest, but the results aren’t. The payoff is nothing less than the realization of the timeless American dream of growing a thriving business out of nothing.