For far too long, America’s entrepreneurs have been standing on the sidelines waiting for a sign that it’s time to launch or grow their businesses. With tax reform and a drop in business-killing regulations -- that time has come.
Economist Kevin Hassett told The Wall Street Journal that “Business capital spending was really, really bad over the last few years. Now, business pessimism seems to have waned and capital spending is heading back up, and I think that has something do with optimism about tax reform and something to do with the president’s regulatory agenda.”
This country can tap into this optimism by demonstrating that it stands behind America’s entrepreneurs – our job creators. Make 2018 the Year of the American Entrepreneur.
CNN’s website puts it succinctly: “U.S. Economy won’t grow fast unless we unleash our entrepreneurs.”
Writing for the Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation, Jason Wiens points out that entrepreneurs are known to be the primary source of net new job creation. Their innovations challenge existing firms to improve and contribute to economic dynamism, which results in a faster growing economy that provides greater opportunities for upward mobility.
The entrepreneurial creation of new products, systems, and processes breeds new efficiencies. New businesses are also especially important when it comes to the job prospects of young workers. Young companies employ younger workers more than older firms and these workers enjoy higher incomes.
On top of all of this, experienced entrepreneurs often act as mentors to aspiring business owners, creating a reinforcing loop of inspiration and instruction that generates more of the new ideas our economy needs to grow.
According also to the Kauffman Foundation, virtually all net new jobs created in the U.S. between 1980 and the middle of this past decade were created by firms that were five years old or less -- about 40 million jobs.
Now as companies reduce their tax burdens, they will be able to reinvest and hire more employees.
Of course, it's hardly a secret that new and small businesses pay a heavy price to comply with ever-changing government rules and regulations. Regulatory compliance is estimated currently to cost small businesses $1.88 trillion — or about $15,000 per family.
The first-ever Small Business Regulations Survey, conducted by the National Small Business Association, found that 44 percent of businesses spend at least 40 hours a year dealing with federal regulations, and 29 percent spend at least that much on state and local rules. Three-quarters of business owners say they have spent time studying proposed rules. About 40 percent of respondents claim that they have held off making a new investment because of a regulation at some point in the past.
The Trump administration has vowed to reduce regulations significantly as part of tax reform.
An equally important part of tax reform is the gutting of Obamacare, which has been a nightmare for small businesses in terms of deciphering regulations and watching insurance rates skyrocket while coverage drops. Taking the yoke of Obamacare off the nation’s entrepreneurs will bring immediate financial relief and a steep rise in job creation.
As a manufacturer and exporter, the key to tax reform for me is lowering the corporate tax rate so that American companies can compete on a level playing field with other nations where they have enjoyed much lower tax rates.
This will drive American manufacturers operating businesses overseas back to the United States. It is estimated that the profits that U.S. corporations have sitting in foreign subsidiaries currently totals around $2.5 trillion. Think what this tax infusion will do to the American economy.
The Wall Street Journal writes that Independent research suggests the tax plan could reduce the trade deficit by half, or about $250 billion a year and deliver 1% or greater boost to annual gross domestic product.
And the most beautiful thing about tax reform is it redistributes financial resources away from the most unproductive part of economy, our government, and puts them to work at the most productive part of our economy, our nation’s entrepreneurs, small businesses, inventors and risk takers.
For the first time in 30 years – since Reagan--America has a pro-business president who knows and appreciates America’s entrepreneurial power. Things are moving in the right direction and entrepreneurs are taking notice.
To quote Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote; "There's lots of bad reasons to start a company. But there's only one good, legitimate reason, and I think you know what it is: it's to change the world."
Neal Asbury is chief executive of The Legacy Companies.
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