What You Should Know About Starting a Small Business

According to the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) by the year 2006 there were nearly 2006 small businesses in America. Those businesses were responsible for sixty to eighty percent of new jobs created in the past ten years. The SBA also maintains that the majority of innovation in American business originates in small businesses.

There are a lot of benefits to operating one's own small business. Foremost for a lot of small business owners is the independence one enjoys. Many small business owners like the sense of camaraderie that exists amongst the staff in a smaller business.

But starting and operating a small business is not all peaches and cream. According to SBA less than 50% of small businesses survive for more than four years. The SBA website states that the problem of small business success is more know-how than external factors, and thus they stress advice and counselling and financing services for small business.

The chief predecessor of the SBA was formed for the primary purpose of helping small businesses survive the threat posed by the military-industrial complex - heavily funded by taxpayer dollars and the U.S. government - gobbling up the labor pool. It is somewhat ironic that the agency was formed to curb the greed of big business, and while the threat is worse than ever - and made possible by corporate control of the government - it now makes no mention of it.

To illustrate, we examine perhaps the biggest killer of small business in America over the past decade, Walmart. Walmart can sell such a wide array of cheap merchandise that it is not uncommon that dozens of small business go under when it moves into an area.

By strong lobbying efforts (and some would say bribery) Walmart is encouraged by the U.S. government to utilize what amounts to slave labor in China to produce its products at such a low cost, small business couldn't possibly compete. Aside from destroying untold number of U.S. jobs, it undercuts every mom and pop operation within miles that provides similar goods or services.

That is why it makes tremendous sense for someone considering beginning a small business to thoroughly study two websites in particular. First, despite the U.S. government's support of unfair competition by the likes of Walmart, the SBA offers a number of financing options and counselling services for small business. It is also recommended one study the National Small Business Association website. This organization is devoted to giving small business owners a voice in Washington, and is chock-full of useful information on the issues that are currently affecting small businesses, positively and negatively.