Small Businesses Are Not Always Small in "IMPACT"

[DPHOR]

Small businesses overtime has been impactful to our society in one way or the other.
Not every individual has the resources to deal with the large scale business owners.

Citing the example of a restaurant as to when compared to eateries, we find out that the small scale business owner (restaurant) tends to have its own customers from not just the lower class but also the rich patronize them sometimes. But the case of eateries, the common man may not afford to patronize them at all time because of the price rate. With this comparison, should the average or common man not eat? The answer is No, hence small business (the restaurant) has made its own impact to not just the common man.

What about traveling to areas that aren't developed, it is still this small businesses that strives to keep the area lively and accessible to people who'll want to get things for consumption, instead of moving far, they resort to this small scale businesses.

One major problem that may be faced overtime is if debts is been incurred, and there's no access to loan, it'll lead to the small business crumbling without financial strength.

[DabsPoorVersion]

Small businesses like restaurants, local shops, and other small enterprises play a huge role in every economy.
Individually they may seem small, but together they create jobs and keep the economy running. That’s why they are often called the "backbone of the economy".
However, these businesses often face big challenges like
- Limited access to loans
- Higher taxes
- Tough competition from big companies

This raises an important question: Should governments do more to support small businesses?

You're not the first person to ask this question, but do you have any actual suggestion on areas that the government could improve it? As this is a global forum it's difficult to talk about all of them equally, as there may be places in Europe or states in America that support their small businesses very well, and vice versa. Sometimes changes the government make can actually be detrimental, like raising minimum wage too much or too frequently, because it looks good but the smallest businesses might decide that hiring another person isn't possible due to increases in paying existing employees. In my country it seems that the government raises minimum wages at quite a high rate, let's say a 7% increase yet many businesses are only giving 2% raises to employees. This means the minimum wage catches up to other skilled workers and takes away the incentive or point of it.

This actually has a point. It differs depending on the country whether the government provides enough support for small businesses or not. And we will never know if a certain policy will work everywhere due to difference in labor markets.

But if we will focus on the first concern raised in OP, which is the limited access to loans. By providing loan guarantee, it's a small solution but will probably creates big opportunity for small businesses. Currently, small businesses around the world sees this as an obstacle when taking a loan. Most of the time, when taking loans it requires a collateral which many small businesses don't have. If ever they find other lender that does not require a collateral, the problem is it has a higher interest rate.

[Solokan]

The government should certainly pay more attention to small businesses Without this attention, they will likely struggle to survive or thrive due to the sheer number of competitors, as you mentioned, such as large corporations. However, if the government consistently provides loans with easy terms and large loans, there's potential for these companies to thrive. If the government doesn't impose high taxes on small businesses, it will certainly boost their growth If a company pays high taxes, it will likely hinder their growth

However, I believe the most important aspect of a small business is its management. If it can be managed well and attract buyers, it will certainly have the potential to thrive even with high taxes, because the profits generated are substantial

[letteredhub]

However, these businesses often face big challenges like
- Limited access to loans
- Higher taxes
- Tough competition from big companies

Limited access to loans and taxes especially multiple taxing is actually a big challenge for many of the small and medium businesses. But about tough competitions from big companies I just don't know how that is, because, at every level of any business there are customers to them and your competition revolves within those businesses that are at same level and not with those businesses at a different hierarchy. To have a high traffic of patronage in any business no matter what level there has to be quality service for customers to get value for their money. Every customer would always come back to where he got quality and value.

[Sobz]

This raises an important question: Should governments do more to support small businesses?

And the answer is yes. Every business demands support from the government,  from the bank. If big businesses and companies have the opportunity to get grands why small businesses not having the same opportunity,  businesses like this even demands support. Their should be some amount of money that small businesses like this can get loan, an amount that is not more their limits because the reason why small businesses collapse is because of lack of no support and this support even encourages people to go into business because where there is no support people understand the hard time in business and would not want to face it because they are aware they wont be able to handle challenge like this.

[Obulis]

Any economy that's not doing more to propagate small businesses is not really ready to grow. Small business ranging from agriculture to any other industry has played cornerstone roll in building the economy by providing affordable and direct service to the majority of the population. Government providing support like loan and training will help small businesses to grow and that's a help to that nation at large.

[Marvelockg]

This raises an important question: Should governments do more to support small businesses?

Absolutely yes. A government that's actually interested in reducing unemployment in her society will not joke with encouraging small and medium enterprise because they stand as the highest employer of Labour far above what government can even absorb.

Across every street, you find hundreds to thousand of business that takes in at least two regular stars each. To even put things into context, small businesses takes 1 is to 40th of what government absorbs and that's a figure that shouldn't be played with. The regular government jobs might have a longer retention capacity for workers but because of how few they are, smaller firms and small and medium enterprises remains the bedrock to the overall development of any society and the sure means through which unemployment can be easily corbed.

[Freeveto]

Small businesses like restaurants, local shops, and other small enterprises play a huge role in every economy.
Individually they may seem small, but together they create jobs and keep the economy running. That’s why they are often called the "backbone of the economy".
However, these businesses often face big challenges like
- Limited access to loans
- Higher taxes
- Tough competition from big companies

This raises an important question: Should governments do more to support small businesses?

If you check almost every developing or underdeveloped countries, you will find out that the number of rich people in that country is always far lower than the poor masses, and if these poor masses don’t have jobs at hand, the countries economy will not be on the rise because the government will have to take their responsibilities, and if they failed, these citizens can start disgracing the countries by doing unlawful acts like theft and so on.
If they have small scale business, they will face their business to find way for themselves and the country’s economy will benefit from that also, if government support the small scale business and ventures, it will increase their revenue generation which will help their economy.

[Porfirii]

Small businesses like restaurants, local shops, and other small enterprises play a huge role in every economy.
Individually they may seem small, but together they create jobs and keep the economy running. That’s why they are often called the "backbone of the economy".
However, these businesses often face big challenges like
- Limited access to loans
- Higher taxes
- Tough competition from big companies

This raises an important question: Should governments do more to support small businesses?

In my country tourism is the sector that contributes the most to GDP by far and balances the trade balance. And although it is true that a part of this income is generated by hotels, museums, airlines, etc., the truth is that they are an engine for the local economy in practically its entire extension, and restaurants, and small shops and businesses, also contribute a considerable share. That being the case, where I live there are already help mechanisms for these small businesses, because there is a lot at stake for them to do well.

[abhiseshakana]

In my country there are millions of MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) but we categorized it based on it business capital, micro enterprise max 1 billion, small enterprises 1-5 billion max and medium enterprises 5-10 billion max. Each MSMEs i think need different economy policy perspective, can you imagine street stalls compared to food producers industry, botch can categorized as small business but each need different treatment. Small food stall especially owned by family need small capital access, digitalization help, simple protection plus huge public or community support, another need big investment on technology, certification, export market access and skilled worker, this kind of small business need government support.

Based on my observation, we as an individual need to give support to small business near our residence first, because it making the economy revolve around us. We can help them not only by buying their product but also give input, consultation and mantoring for improvement based on our competence. Our small purchase mean their family today meals.

I suggest government support small business that work or labor intensive, with small capital it can create big job opportunity. Government must put attention on company that focusing on maximizing local supply chain which have high productivity and business that can be scaled up. In the end i hope small business can be scaled up and give back support to society.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

This is true accross OECD countries (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.), and based on what I have read, small and medium-sized enterprises generates about 50–60% of value added in those countries but in some of those countries, their government are actually trying in terms of giving grant to qualified SMEs, while some government in other country are not even doing it very often, even when they do it, corruption makes it impossible for those qualified SMEs to not get it. In my country, there was a grant of about $723k announced in the month of April but up till now, no entrepreneur or small business owner has come out to say they got the money. I am guessing that the authority in charge must have siphon the money and just distributed it to ghost SMES.

So, the government actually needs to support the small businesses because they also contribute to the economic growth of their country, if a grant is being released, they should make sure it gets to the qualified business.

[snowpega]

Small businesses like restaurants, local shops, and other small enterprises play a huge role in every economy.
Individually they may seem small, but together they create jobs and keep the economy running. That’s why they are often called the "backbone of the economy".
However, these businesses often face big challenges like
- Limited access to loans
- Higher taxes
- Tough competition from big companies

This raises an important question: Should governments do more to support small businesses?

You really have raised questioning concern in this topic, and yeah, I agree with some of your concerns that small businesses are playing a very positive role in any country's economy. I can really understand that there are always some difficulties in the starting phase while running a new brand or a small business. But if we compare it to previous times, a lot of things have changed that give a lot of businesses an easy way to grow, which is digital marketing. Digital marketing is really helpful for the best growth of any new business.

Just create a good ad and run it on different social media platforms like Meta, TikTok, or any other. And after this moment, you will notice good growth in your business. I personally have seen a brand started by a person living in a small city in which i also live. He grew his brand using digital marketing and today he makes a lot of sales and growing his brand empire.

[Stepstowealth]

This raises an important question: Should governments do more to support small businesses?

In most countries considering the amount of available jobs and the number of unemployed people it is very impossible for the number of available jobs to accommodate every unemployed person, in such countries it is very important for the government to create an environment where people can be encouraged into business and supported to ensure that they can be profitably self employed. People who own small businesses are still contributing to the economy of the country and if the governments can have an environment that supports the growth of small businesses the economy of that country will indirectly be affected positively.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Every time the government tries to "support" the little guy, it usually just results in 50 pages of new compliance paperwork and a new tax to fund the department of said paperwork.

The absolute best thing the government can do for the "backbone of the economy" is to just get the hell out of its way. Oh, and maybe stop printing money so the local mom-and-pop bakery doesn't have to price a loaf of bread like it's a luxury asset?

[demonica]

In my country, micro, small, medium enterprises hold 99.5% of businesses here. They may seem small with less contribution, but the fact that 99% of the businesses in my country are from MSMEs, it just means that they bring so much contribution in running the economy. I may not be that familiar but there are already several laws protecting and programs to help MSMEs. I'm not sure if that's already enough for the business owners, but I highly agree that they deserve more support from the government.

For a developing country, it's expected that the biggest percentage of business owners are from MSMEs because it's way too difficult to run bigger businesses and is not accessible for the lower class. Consumers also highly rely on these small businesses. And I think, one of the programs that could help the business owners are by teaching them the basics needed in starting a business and how to improve their current business.

[Cgrexp]

Any economy that's not doing more to propagate small businesses is not really ready to grow. Small business ranging from agriculture to any other industry has played cornerstone roll in building the economy by providing affordable and direct service to the majority of the population. Government providing support like loan and training will help small businesses to grow and that's a help to that nation at large.

Small businesses also play an important role in building the foundation of a country's economic development. In the fields of agriculture, food, retail, technical work and various local services, small businesses directly meet the daily needs of the common people. They make essential services easily available to people. At the same time, they create income and employment opportunities at the local level. A large organization may invest a huge amount. But small businesses can spread to different parts of the country and create livelihood opportunities for many people. For people who do not get job opportunities in organizations, small businesses can be a real path to self-employment. The activities of small entrepreneurs can help increase the flow of money in the economy and keep the local market active. Many small entrepreneurs do not have sufficient knowledge about business management, accounting, marketing, use of technology and market analysis in addition to capital. Therefore, if government support is provided in the form of loans, practical training, technical assistance and market access, small businesses can develop more sustainably. Supporting small businesses is not just a matter of helping an entrepreneur. It can also have an impact on the larger economy. A successful small entrepreneur can increase his own income and create employment for others in the future. If the government can ensure financing, training, and an easy business environment, small enterprises will become stronger and will also contribute to economic growth.

[free-bit.co.in]

The government's support should not matter whether the business is big or small. But most of them, big businesses are more prioritized than the small ones because they bring bigger revenues to the government when the government itself should make a fair and balance treatment.

But you know what? Without small  businesses, I don't think big businesses will come to exist as majority of them still start from being small and when people patronize them and give them all out support, that's when they start to expand and form into a bigger business. There is no big business without a small one. That is why the government should not be biased, as much as they support the big ones, then the more they should show support to the starting ones as they will be the future bug businesses in the market.

Large businesses can create more jobs, pay more taxes...So I dont think it is unfair for the government to prioritize them in some cases.

Small businesses are important to the economy too, but as you said, many large businesses started out small. If those businesses were able to grow and succeed without much government support, why should small businesses today receive more priority or support simply because they're small? In my view, small businesses must first demonstrate their value and potential, as there's no guarantee that they will achieve strong growth and development solely through government support.

[viljy]

The government should support small businesses, but... It’s easier for the state to interact with and collect taxes from large companies and monopolies than to deal with thousands of small entrepreneurs, who are much harder to control. This is similar to how, in ancient times, kings would entrust the collection of taxes to tax farmers, who would immediately pay the entire tax (albeit a smaller amount) to the kings from their own funds, and then would be ruthless on the ground, taking the last grain from the inhabitants. Of course, such a system (the dominance of monopolies) doesn’t exist in all countries, but it does in some.

[Bryan jessy]

The best way the government can support or encourage small scale businesses is by making loans available for them and also creating opportunities for skill acquisition and employment, every big business today started small and also contributes to the economy as they also pay the necessary dues, I work in a small scale business I am aware of the payment my boss made to the government some are monthly others yearly and that is not all, they still make some payments to the community, this business also makes impact not only in the economy but also in the community.

[Female King]

There are small business one can start that are very lucrative the food business you mentioned is one it, the fact that people must eat daily makes it very lucrative, many people has earn a living selling foodstuffs and also cooking it and selling out. Many people has been self employed starting a small business this has help them become independent even in a harsh country economy, actually there is need for government to support small business by either grant or loan to help enlarged their small business since they can't everybody employed.