Do's
Do question your politicians intently about what they will really do for small business.
Its time to separate the wheat from the chaff. When canvassers call to your door we must begin to ask the intense questions that are need for businesses to get some real answers. Its easy for anybody to stand on the soapbox and spout all the in form rhetoric, but what will they really do. We must challenge our would be politicians about not simply telling us what we want to hear. We must accept only the finer detail, anything other that is worthless.
Do Open Up To New Ideas.
Its been clear for some time that the old ways may not good enough to provide a new future to this country. We must expand our thinking to new radical ideas that provide a balance of business progress and secure employment while at the same allowing us to compete in a realistic way in a global free market. We must sweep the cobwebs from Government, the Banking system and the view that we are destined to remain an economy in hiatus. New ideas have been floating around in the air for some time now. Some from ordinary business owners, others from Nobel prize winning economists. We cannot dismiss new ideas as fairytales simply because it suits us to. Remember 3,4,5 years- we were in a fairytale then too. There was no happily ever after.
Do talk to your politicians about the problems you are facing.
Change won't happen unless you ask for it. Talk to your politicians and convey the problems that you are having in your own businesses. Finance, bureaucracy, Employment etc are things you must let your politicians know. We start believing that we are the ones in control, the politicians work for us. So they must work for changes that benefit us as a nation, not just the ones in their area.
Dont's
Don't accept face value statistics
Anybody can make up statistics to suit there needs, 76% of all business owners know that...you see. Ask your politicians where the numbers came from. Probe for answers and information. These are the people we are putting in charge of country, so it is imperative they have the answers and open up the small print on where they got their information and how they came to the conclusion of those numbers that they love to throw around. Make our politicians accountable for the things they say, make them deal in facts not rhetorical fiction.
Don't make time for any politicians who say 'Its the only solution...'
Any business manager will tell you that one of the key factors in making decisions in options. If a politician says ' Its the only solution/option...' they are lying, pure and simple. Their are always options. Anybody who believes that their is only one option for anything has not done their research nor have they bothered to seriously receive the opinions of others. Everything has multiple options.
Don't accept anything but change.
If Red Tape and attitudes don't change towards SMEs then this election is simply a showcase for the word 'maybe'. We know small business is good enough and bright enough to lead us into a new future of progress. But we need the forces that be to allow us to strive towards that, without tying our hands at every possible turn, increasing taxes and VAT rates or allowing young graduate entrepreneurs to look upon starting a business in Ireland with disdain. We must change for the better or forever accept average politicians from all parties treating SMEs as a money making scheme instead of the progressive strategy that this country needs.
