Celebrating America's Small BusinessAmerica is neck deep in small businesses and as Martha Stewart always says, it is certainly a good thing. The catchphrase of the day is entrepreneurship. While there is so much grumbling about the state of the economy, small business birth rates have exploded in the past three years. According to the Small Business Administration, there have been far more new companies created since the dot-com crash in the late 90s. The demographic for these enterprises is no longer confined to your tech-savvy geek. Small business set-ups have been launched by teenagers, senior citizens and enterprising immigrants. The power of this kind of business is such that it has boosted economic components like tax revenues and spending. According to tax experts, a business referred to as "small" is more likely to report accurate returns for its tax obligations. Their diligence and honesty in fulfilling their tax obligations deserves both praise and admiration for shattering the stereotype that capitalism is most always greedy. In terms of spending, a small business would most likely be active in spending for resources and tools that would make its operations and systems easier and more efficient. Last year alone, American small business went on a technological shopping spree in excess of $130 billion dollars confirming the fact that while these services are not largely the dot.com types, the are basically tech savvy. Experts say that the proliferation and growth of small businesses has been largely due to technology itself and how it has expanded services to an extent that it has created a domino effect of opportunities where you have big services being served by slightly smaller ones, and so on and so forth. The small businesses boom has especially been beneficial to certain segments of the population who never thought a generation ago that they could be entrepreneurs. So now business opportunities have now descended on house-wives, college students adept with the ins and outs of the internet and immigrants who have discovered that technology has provided a business bridge from their home culture to their new one. This surge of entrepreneurial activity among a new class of businesspeople (no longer confined to last decade's profile of the small business owner as someone simply escaping the hassles of big business) has radically changed even social mores and attitudes. Most of these business owners have more time for their families. They have even re-worked old business set-ups in such a way that they even maintain their day jobs and indulge in activities that the businessman of ten years ago would not even dream of doing. And yet in comparison with the entrepreneur of the 90s as exemplified by the dot.com disaster, all the negativities and materialism of that era have not carried over. As had been said earlier, today's entrepreneurs are conscious of fulfilling their tax obligations. Records also show that today's entrepreneurs are even more generous and giving in terms of contributions to charities and community causes of which they have been most active. |