We celebrate small business entrepreneurs this week by giving them their formal recognition during National Small Business Week.
Congressman Jason Smith Capitol Report
Small Business, Big Impact
May 6th, 2016
We all like an underdog. The written off school team that still plays with heart, the whistle-blower that stands up to do the right thing, or the small business owner that takes a risk and bets on themselves. We don’t always recognize these “underdogs” in our community, but it is their resilience, perseverance, and ultimate success that forms the backbone of so many of our communities in Southeast and south central Missouri. We celebrate small business entrepreneurs this week by giving them their formal recognition during National Small Business Week.
Nationally, small businesses make up 98% of all businesses in the United States and 75 million Americans are employed by those small businesses. With 7 out of every 10 new jobs in this economy created by small businesses, it is important that Americans support them to help grow and strengthen the American economy. It is equally as important that local, state and federal government stay out of the way of those businesses, that they reduce the tax and regulatory burdens holding back investment and let those owners do what they do best, grow their business.
Closer to home, Missouri has over 500,000 small businesses who in turn employ almost half of the state’s private sector work force. Many of these small businesses often serve as the training ground for the next generation of engineers, accountants, CEOs and teachers. This starts with the high school kid who mows lawns, buses tables or chips-in on the family farm, all the while learning the valuable life tools of hard work, starting from the bottom, commitment and discipline.
As I traveled through our great district this week and visited with the owners of small coffee shops and restaurants, I was reminded why small businesses are so important beyond anchoring local economies – they also instill what many of us would describe as “American values”. They rise early, work late, and just want to provide for their family and community, free from fearing the next IRS audit or newest regulatory hurdle to climb. Small business owners know the dedication and sweat it takes to be able to sign not just the back of the check, but the front of one as well. They simply hope to leave their loved ones and friends better off than the generations before them.
However, I often learn the reach of many of these small business owners grows well beyond the walls of their business. Beyond creating jobs at home, many small business owners are community leaders, chamber presidents, rotary officers and often use their success to generously support nonprofit organizations, volunteer time to serve as mentors to other business owners or valuable role models to budding entrepreneurs. All of this is amazing for people who were once considered “underdogs” simply by betting on themselves.
So please join me in celebrating and saying thanks to these men and women this week, National Small Business Week. They all faced underdog odds, and were often counted out, but who are now the champions of our communities and the driving force of the American economy. Take time this week to visit the small businesses in your town, show them you care, what you will often find is someone on the other side who cares equally as much about you.
