The Small Business Do's and Dont's of Elections

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.

Outlining the Small Business Stance

FocuSME Editor, Kehlan Kirwan, replies to Fine Gael T.D. John Perry's recently released document on Small Business.

Hi John,

Interesting reading on small business report you sent me.

My own view would be that you have good general policies, but I think above anything you need to make promises that you will implement fully, even if you have to reduce the stats or funding. Small business has had to many broken promises, at to high a cost.

We need to increase the amount of tenders that small business gets from state and semi state bodies. Governmental bodies have an extremely poor record when it comes tendering out to small businesses. You can't say you support business and then ignore them in the most obvious of ways. An achievable goal would be get somewhere between 30%-40% of tenders going to small businesses. We must openly promote and provide for small business in a very public way. Instead of simply saying we have this plan or that plan, show people with tangible figures- ' Here look, this IS what we are doing for small domestic business' instead of ' This is what we COULD do for small business'.

We must find newer/different ways for investment to happen. This means getting existing big companies to re-invest profits back into the Irish economy. Currently multi-national companies have over €150bn in financial accounts at the IFSC in Dublin. We must encourage these businesses to invest some of that money into Irish companies through R&D or bolstering investment. The advantages of this are two fold- 1) Irish companies now have assured investment to work and strive for 2) The pressure is released on the government to provide money to small business, allowing it target other places for the money to go to.

Reform of the Enterprise Boards/Enterprise Ireland etc. is essential. For this to happen they must be given definitive goals and targets to be met. Give the Enterprise Boards a structure to adhere to. e.g. 40% of allocated funds for the year must go to manufacturing, 10% to professional services, a percentage to go to other sectors which must be considered the future of Ireland. Allow money from the enterprise boards to roll over to the next year. Money is being wasted on poor projects because they must 'get rid' of the money they have been allocated. Make the decision process with board members public- virtually eliminating conflict of interest problems that arise in the process.

Last of all the Banks- You must be better involved within the financial institutions. If it means physically putting people into the HQ of banks then so be it. The credit flowing to small business has been nothing short of disgraceful the past two years. Give them targets to lend and enforce it. Its been quite obvious that 'asking' banks to lend will not work. You must enforce your will on banks that we virtually own. It is simply not good enough to ask the Irish public to take the brunt of the damage through job loss and bailouts and allow the banking system to avoid investment in business and job creation.

Those are just some of my views. I appreciate you sending the document to me and I enjoyed reading it.
Remember that SMEs need action, not talk. If you give small business a chance, you'll get big results.

Regards,

Kehlan Kirwan

Editor, Focusme Magazine

Government Pressure on Banks is Coming to Late

Focusme Magazine welcomes the new injection of lending to Small Business, but asks if the government should have acted much sooner to curb Small Business closures and increase lending.

‘If We Succumb To a Dream World, We’ll Wake Up In a Nightmare’

Three years ago Ireland woke up from its slumber to realise that it was in a total nightmare. One of the worst affected sectors was that of small business. The seriousness of the task faced by SMEs was evident from the beginning. The collapse of the economy and the subsequent exodus of foreign investors, showed how over exposed we were and not just from the banking sector. The state of SMEs was frightening and it still continues to this day.

This week Brian Lenihan will announce a €12bn bank lending plan to small businesses that have been starved of credit. The minister is likely to announce the plan to release €3 billion each from AIB and Bank of Ireland to SMEs in 2010 and again in 2011. But is this all to Late?

For nearly three years Small Business has been ravaged by the economic downturn which has affected every part of this island. On average four firms a day closed under the tenure of Brian Cowen and his government. That is over 3600 small businesses which have been forced to close their doors forever. While we here at Focusme Magazine welcome the lending to SMEs, we cannot help but think that it has come far too late.

For to long the Small Business Sector has been the dog that has been tied up in the back yard, away from sight and sound. Left to our own devices, left to starve. Now we are being asked to be grateful to the master for bringing us back to health. Where was this stimulus package when business owners had mortgages to pay? Where was it when creditors and debtors were causing untold hurt?

There is no doubt that this news is a significant boost to SMEs across the country. But if the lending had been begun in earnest then maybe we could have been looking at the rapid expansion of businesses, jobs and an economy that has begun to turn a corner in reality and not in rhetoric.

Our own experience here at the magazine has been the same, it has been a battle. But last week we were approved for a loan from A.I.B. and now we can finally begin to get our business on the road to success. We’ve won the battle, but the war isn’t over. We know we’ve done a lot but there is still a long way to go. But we are living proof that maybe the banks, the economy and the government psyche are beginning to change.

With the right lending and this new encouragement to SMEs maybe we can begin to rebuild and progress. It will still be hard but now that the right people are getting behind us we can, not only begin over, but plan for the future.

Maybe now we can wake from the nightmare and fulfil our dreams.