Small Business Boomers

I read today about a small business owner in Texas who had been a good customer at a bank, and who wanted a loan to expand his business. Yet the bank wanted him to have $1 million in the bank in order to borrow an additional $1/2 million (doesn’t make sense, does it?). These kinds of stories worry me, because they affect not only the business owner but the entire U.S. economy for the future as well.

Small businesses are the key to economic growth. Look at this one example:

• The businesman was going to hire 45 more people; that means 45 more jobs and 45 fewer people out of work.
• He was going to build more retail outlets; that means more construction, equipment, supplies, all that stuff.  Good for the local, and national, economy.
• He will be using more professional services, too, like architects, attorneys, and financial advisors.
• He will also be buying land, possibly in areas where economic development is needed (this is in Houston, where Hurricane Ike left lots of homes and businesses destroyed).

Sure, building homes and feeding people is important.  But if we want our economy to grow long-term, small businesses will have to be able to expand without undue restrictions.  How we do that will be a problem for our next president and Congress.  I wish them luck.

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