National Small Business Week

    The last few years I’ve written Letters to the Editor during National Small Business Week. Again, it’s that time of the year, and once again, I would encourage everyone to think about their neighbors: the small business people in our communities.     When you go to work every morning, who are your neighbors? The last year has been difficult for so many businesses that are only now beginning to feel the affects, trickling down as they do, from the national banking crisis. Many people are nervous about so many issues which affect all of us: healthcare costs, taxes, credit, and the list goes on.
    The CCC&I has many loan clients who do their absolute best to improvise, “think out of the box” (perhaps such a cliché we should be asking ‘Where did the box go – it used to have my cheese in it…’), and continually are trying to tweak their daily operations to keep meeting their debt service. Often we hear we are a nation of entrepreneurs, and it bears repeating. Surely it’s true we are a country which has an economy that regenerates itself, is flexible, and adapts to opportunities, adversities, and challenges. We are a country bound by our entrepreneurial spirit, and drive.
    Please as you go about your business this next week, stop and congratulate just one small business owner for their contributions to our economy. Perhaps now more than ever, we need to celebrate those businesses in our community which are our backbone.
    Small businesses in the United States represent 99.7 percent of all businesses (500 employees or less). They pay 45 percent of all private sector employees. In the most recently documented year (2005) they created 979,102 net new jobs (or 78.9 percent). They produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms. Women own approximately 6.7 million of the 23 million businesses. Commercial banks and other lending institutions account for 65 percent of the credit to small businesses. Small businesses with less than 20 employees annually spend 45 percent more per employee than larger firms to comply with federal regulations. They spend 4.5 percent as much per employee complying w/environmental regulations and 67 percent more on tax compliance than large firms.
    Health insurance (cost and availability) has been an enormous concern of many small businesses the last several years. Research to date has shown that small health plans have not just higher admin expense, but employees of small firms are more than 50 percent less likely to have coverage of employees. 98 percent of those “small businesses” with 200 or more employees do have health insurance coverage. President Bush (during the 2008 National Small Business Week) said “Our nation’s strength lies in the freedom to pursue our dreams, and turn ideas into enterprises.”
    The CCC&I has just over 40 loan clients in Caribou: businesses – in business – doing business, paying bills, paying taxes and looking for ways to keep going. We have about 240 members, and we believe there are approximately 480 businesses in Caribou, Maine: including farmers, hairdressers, “crafters,” and daycare providers (those business people without “storefronts” if you will). So join us in celebrating another year — thank a small business person for their continuing courage, their spirit to succeed, and their contribution to our community!
    Wendy Landes, MPA, is the executive director of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce & Industry. She can be reached in person at 24 Sweden Street, Suite 101; by telephone at 498-6156 or via e-mail at wlandes@cariboumaine.net.