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Madison Deal

Malcolm Campbell

UWRIT 1104

April 1, 2019

Do Small Businesses matter both Economically and Personally to our society?

When you first think of small businesses, do you automatically assume that they get to

make all of their rules or do you believe that they have rules they have to follow? I know that I

always believed that they got to play by their own rules up until I decided on management being

my major. When I sat back and looked at the small businesses in my hometown it opened up a

lot of discussion questions within myself to analyze. I am someone who is very connected

through small businesses because some of my favorite places in my hometown are small

businesses. Small businesses are where I formed some of my favorite bonds with people. I have

worked for a small business since around 2012. The business was a dance studio and I got to see

for myself the impact that small businesses made on communities. I sit back and think about my

future because ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to be an entrepreneur and a small

business owner because getting to pursue my own career in a place so dear to my heart seemed

perfect. Even if that meant that having a small business was a side job to my day job, it has

always been a goal of mine. Questions started rising to the surface when I started deciding on

this for my Topic Proposal. The main question I had is what initiatives or protection should be

implemented to protect small businesses from economical trouble? A lot of times businesses

have a struggle with the startup but small businesses are important to different towns and cities

because they create authentic memories as well as tourism. Then I began to think about how

people take out loans and grants to start businesses. How is our national government helping out
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people with these loans and grants? Are they making it easier on them to pay them back or more

complicated because of regulations? I also then thought of things that entrepreneurs need to

know before dropping their livelihood to become an entrepreneur? What are some of the biggest

mistakes made by new business owners that could cost them money to fix or possibly get them in

trouble? These are questions that all started in my research and what I was going to explore

throughout my topic. I realized how much of an impact entrepreneurs and small businesses had

on me so therefore exploring different topics was very helpful.

I started off my research for this topic with the question of “what is a business plan for a

startup and why is it important to have one?” A business plan is what helps identify your goals,

start your firms resume, and precisely defines the overall impact of your business (SIU). The

government has a lot of rules about what can occur with small businesses. Therefore,

organization is key. A business plan for a startup is the key way to start on the right foot

especially when it comes to what the national government needs for regulations. I had said

before/knew before that when starting a business, you need a lot of OSHA, FDA permits as well

as many other permits. Throughout starting a small business, many people are

affected…sometimes in a negative way…sometimes in a positive way. It is a scary thing to do

because you never know where you are going to end up, which is why it is important to have

guidance and a structured plan. One example of how people are affected by this topic is the

government shutdown because this is something recent that has happened. That is something that

has taken a negative effect on people’s livelihood. People are affected with the government

contracts of their small businesses because of this. Overall small businesses can impact people’s

lives in a positive way. Yes, there are grants and loans you have to take out but if your business
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starts to become successful, paying these back is not a problem (SIU). It benefits a lot of people

because of major job security (SIU).

The information I have been finding out is all new information to me because I did not

put a lot of the pieces together. I had a series of questions and when I began to research it, I

agreed a lot with the information I found out. I have talked to many people throughout my time

here at Charlotte about small businesses and being an entrepreneur because it is something I

hope to do in the future. My dance teacher has made a major impact on what I have thought

about government regulation with small businesses etc. I have seen how it has affected her

business and the way she runs her business. The way she goes about ordering things for her

business, paying people, selling things etc. are all impacted by regulations and rules. I did not

know a lot of the rules and regulations she had to follow because for the longest time I thought

she got to make her own rules. Going through this process there is a series of questions that other

people have brought forward to me. I have had questions like “What is the concept of your future

business and will it be something that is still needed 20 years from now?”. This question really

got me into a deep thought about my topic because with government shutdowns, regulations,

federal associations, etc. if I started a business would the supply and demand effect always be

there?... I also got asked “Where would you want to locate once you graduate?”, “What would

your responsibilities encounter as a business owner?”, these are all questions my dance teacher

and I talked about because of the experience she has had under her belt (Levan). President Bush

said in a 2004 State of the Union address “Our agenda for jobs and growth must help small

business owners and employees with relief from needless federal regulation…”(Bush, Shane).

This is the statement that started all of my exploring because if a president felt this way, then I
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am sure business owners felt this way as well and needed federal relief to be able to somehow

feel as if they are getting their own rules and regulations into place.

Throughout seeing how things connect to my own personal life, experience and

knowledge. I started to do in depth research on the thing I did not know. Some people love

government regulations of small businesses, and some do not. There are many things that happen

when the government has a hold on your business. Tax codes are a big thing for small businesses

(Wood). There are a lot more to the tax code of small businesses then just paying them and

getting them out of the way, sadly. You have to know which business taxes you have to pay,

when you are set up to pay them, and how to set up your business account for your taxes

(Wood). There are 4 different main taxes, which I did not know about. There is income tax,

estimated tax, employment tax, and excise tax. Another major thing is Employment and Labor

Laws. There are different acts in place for things like this to allow workers to get fair time, pay,

and benefits. A few examples are OSHA, which is the Occupational Safety and Health

Administration. FLSA stands for Fair Labor Standards Act. EEOC stands for Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission and there are also many others that businesses have to encounter when

they are starting up. These laws protect workers’ wages and hours, workplace safety and health,

equal opportunity, non-US citizen employees and many other things (Wood). Another big thing

is state licenses. Government regulations allow a business to know they are doing things the

proper way to where legal issues do not happen (Wood). Licenses can come from state and local

government levels and sometimes they have different requirements to where you need to get

approved by both. But then I continued to research and realized the headaches government

regulations gave small business owners. One big thing I found out that I never thought would

have been a headache for small business owners were overtime rules. An example of this is when
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a worker makes up to $55,440 a year could possibly be eligible for overtime pay if they were

proposed under the correct rule (Hoover). A big thing that our world now a days is buzzing about

is equal gender pay and race pay. This is hard for small business owners because some do not

have as many male workers as female workers and vice versa and if you had the wrong person

try to cause a problem with it, then therefore the government regulation and worker protection

laws could have a problem with it and make it a big deal (Hoover). The Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission wants to require employers to report how much they pay their workers.

They want it to be broken down by ethnicity and sex so therefore they can see comparison. Small

business owners do not like this type of government regulation because it can get them in

uncaused trouble just by small misunderstandings. This data is said to often be misleading and

cause many pay disparities so this is a big down side to government incentives and regulations.

But a lot of time these could be due to legitimate factors like training, management, and seniority

(Hoover). The other big reason that sticks out is the limit on carbon emissions by power plants.

This is by far a case where small businesses feel a negative impact because of the electric

utilities they might need. EPA is what is causing major companies to reduce their carbon

emissions which takes a negative effect on the small businesses who are open as much as

corporate plants but do not require as much energy (Hoover).

Overall all of the new information I found out really helped me explore a different side of

my topic. But talking to different small business owners at meetings etc., throughout my time

here at Charlotte and working at a small business has helped me see the physical impact. The

most persuasive thing I found out that made me believe government regulation is bad, is the

evidence of the unnecessary drama it creates. For example, the ethnicity and sex law, because

this can go many different ways with as touchy as that subject is for our world now a days. Most
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people do not like government regulations because there is no positive incentive because it just

causes harmful stress and a dapper to any thriving business. Overall, I feel that if the small

business community continues to grow, then maybe one day they will be able to have their own

rules to where they feel less stressed and that their goal is being achieved. I was excited about the

information I found out and I allowed myself to gain more knowledge about broad as well as

detailed topics for small businesses. Throughout starting this topic, opening my mind up with a

lot of questions was a smart way to get detailed information about my inquiry question because it

allowed room for both my personal side and factual side.

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Work Cited

Frequently Asked Questions., Small Business Development Center. SIU.” Small Business

Development Center, sbdc.siu.edu/frequently-asked-questions/.

Hoover, Kent. “10 Regulations That Give Small Business Owners the Worst

Headaches.” Bizjournals.com, The Business Journals, 28 Apr. 2016, 1:38,

www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/washingtonbureau/2016/04/10-regulations-that-give-

small-business-owners-the.html

Shane, Scott. “Small Business's Problem With Government Regulation.” Small Business Trends,

27 July 2013, smallbiztrends.com/2011/01/small-business%E2%80%99s-problem-with-

government-regulation.html.

Wood, Meredith., “Government Regulations on Business: What You Need to

Know.” Fundera Ledger, Fundera, 14 Dec. 2018,

www.fundera.com/blog/government-regulations-on-business.