Supporting Our Communities: Small Business Saturday

Small businesses undoubtedly are a driving force in our communities and economy.  They generate the jobs and revenue that support families, cities and our nation.  The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy reportedthat Idaho alone has 147,973 small businesses that employee 272,033 workers, more than half of the state's private workforce.  Recognizing their important role and supporting these job creators means shopping locally and creating a competitive, national economy that better enables them to succeed. 

"Small Business Saturday," which falls between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, was created in 2010 to recognize the importance of supporting local small businesses.  Fellow Idaho Senator Jim Risch and I are original co-sponsors of a bipartisan resolution that designated November 29, 2014 as "Small Business Saturday."  In September, the Senate unanimously passed this resolution, which seeks to increase awareness of the value of locally-owned small businesses and their impact on our economy and encourages consumers to shop locally. 

The resolution quantifies the important role of small businesses as job creators in our economy:

• Small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all businesses with employees in the United States;
• Small businesses employ more than 48 percent of the employees in the private sector in the U.S.;
• Small businesses pay more than 42 percent of the total payroll of the employees in the private sector in the U.S.;
• Small businesses constitute 98 percent of firms selling U.S. goods in foreign markets;
• Small businesses are responsible for more than 46 percent of private sector output;
• Small businesses generated 63 percent of net new jobs created from 1993 through 2013.

In addition to supporting local small businesses by shopping locally, we must remove the tremendous burdens placed on job creators and strengthen policies that encourage, not stifle, innovation.  This includes cutting down on excessive federal regulation and fixing our broken tax code by simplifying the code and lowering rates for all individuals, families and businesses.  These are two of my top priorities.  Getting the federal government out of the way of small businesses, by removing the disincentive of high taxes and costly regulation, will better enable small businesses to create jobs and help grow our economy.    

The benefits of supporting local small businesses that are driving our local and national economy are realized in the jobs created and the strengthening of local communities.  SBA indicates that small firms make up 96.7 percent of all employers in the state, and more than 83 percent of Idaho businesses that sell goods in foreign markets are small businesses.  We can all do our part to support these job creators. 

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