As a recovering political junkie, I try to stay away these days from anything that suggests partisanship or political debate. Still, I’ve been struck by the rise of the Tea Party movement, and I wondered how it was viewed by practical, hard-working entrepreneurial types.
Fortunately, as contributing editor for SmartBrief on Entrepreneurs, I had a forum for asking that very question. Last week we polled our 35,000 readers, asking if they thought the Tea Party phenomenon was good or bad for small-business issues.
The results were unambiguous: 57% believe the movement is a good thing, compared to just 23% who see it as a negative. To me, the blowout numbers were shocking. I expected to see a much higher percentage of “not sure” responses, given that the Tea Party is relatively new, amorphous and untested.
Why are so many entrepreneurs drinking from this particular cup of tea? I think it’s largely a loss of faith in the current leadership of both parties, who are falling all over themselves to “help” their core constituencies with lavish, expensive government programs.
Case in point: Washington wants to help stimulate investment in small businesses, so what does Congress do? It passes a $3.5 billion incentive allowing investors a 100% exclusion on capital gains when they purchase stock in entrepreneurial enterprises.
But only if the stock purchase is made between March 15, 2010, and Jan. 1, 2012.
And only if the company is organized as a C corporation.
Oh, and if the business provides a service — think consulting firm, restaurant or inn — it doesn’t qualify.
Entrepreneurs all across the country will respond to this “stimulus” with a weary shrug, just like any number of SBA programs and tax incentives that came before. Who has time to jump through all the hoops required to qualify for the government’s “help”? We have business to run, sales to make, products to ship.
Government is about strings; entrepreneurs are about bootstraps. If they really want to help us, they need cut the strings and get out of the way so we can do our thing.
In its rhetoric, at least, the Tea Party movement seems to get it. Tea Party candidates promise to restore fiscal discipline, and entrepreneurs listen. Washington promises to help us, and entrepreneurs shrug.
Come November, things could get very interesting.
or #1 first contacted me, it seemed like a perfect fit with plenty of upside. Still, I have a firm policy: Any time I get potentially good news from one customer, I hedge my bets by consciously going after another. So, even as I started work on a deal with Distributor #1, I identified and made contact with Distributor #2 — the very same day.
The point is this: If you’re a small-business owner who’s still on the sidelines because you think social media are too self-involved or self-referential, just remember that it doesn’t have to be that way. Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook — they’re all just tools that can be used any way you want. And the fact that 75% of your competition is not using the tools? That just means more of a head start for you in building a successful businesss.