Our Nations Unemployment Rate: The Manifestation of a Sleeping Giant

Statistically, small business owners provide the largest percentage of jobs in the U.S. — yes an even larger percentage of jobs than all of those bail-out “worthy” industries. In spite of all of the bail out monies that were supposed to loosen up the purse strings of banks in order to strengthen small businesses in extremely tough times, small businesses have become ignored and have nothing to show for any of the so-called efforts on their behalf. In fact, even without the economic crisis that is truly upon us, historically small businesses get very, very little considerations, tax breaks, or other incentives to operate their businesses. As a result, the economic drain our nation is experiencing is merely a manifestation of a long time attitude apathy towards what really makes this country healthy. Is it any wonder that the job loss in the last 12 months has been the worst it’s been since the World War II era? Over 250,000,000 jobs were lost in 2008 and that doesn’t take into account the millions of individuals who were forced from full-time employment to part-time, nor does it take into account the self-employed individuals who have had to hang up their dreams and stand in the unemployment line with millions of others. In my opinion, the economic crisis could have been averted long ago, and even the Wall Street and mortgage disaster impact lessened had national and state leaders paid more attention to the needs of small business owners.

When a CEO runs a company into the ground, it’s an innocuous entity. The CEO is merely losing his regular pay check and other corporate perks. But when a true small business is run into the ground, chances are high that the life savings of the business owner, customers they’ve become friends with, and long-time employees they’ve connected with personally suffer through the carnage of such an event. By the time the doors are finally shut on a small business, great sacrifices have already been for its survival. Great personal financial risks such as mortgaging personal homes to the hilt, stripping it of all available equity only to find the value dropping far below the lien amount months later, and cashing in retirement and savings accounts just to last as long as possible in hopes that a life preserver will come their way. And yet for all of this sweat, tears and sacrifice, small business owners can’t lay claim to appropriate health insurance tax deductions, can’t get access to the same affordable health care packages that large corporations enjoy, and are inundated with paper work requirements while their larger counterparts have enormous legal and accounting teams to deceive their shareholders.

When a small business owner sees fit to terminate an employee who steals from them or conducts themselves inappropriately, the state still requires them to pay unemployment benefits unless such an infraction is specifically outlined in some kind of written form that the employee has manifested the receipt of.

Large corporations have money and staff to handle these items. Many such monies derived by secret government contract negotiations, unfair labor practices, political connections, and international outsource savings. In contract, small business owners are beat up every which way they turn. They pay sales taxes when they purchase items to make their businesses run better, or make their jobs easier, and then they are assessed additional taxes by their cities on those same items merely because they possess them.

Long ignored is the fact that small businesses historically pay better average wages than big corporations, and discounted is the fact that employees are typically more satisfied working for a smaller business. There is absolutely nothing done to throw a rope for small businesses in spite of their obvious strength to the economy which has been historically present for over a century!

We’ve heard the saying “money talks.” The current economic crisis is not as a result of Wall Street collapsing, a residential mortgage scandal, or the ineptness of the Federal Reserve. It’s an inevitable manifestation of ignoring the goose the lays the golden eggs. I wonder how much worse things have to get before the REAL talking money gets listened to.

Copyright 2009 Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved. You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Kellene Bishop.

Modern Day Warriors

Over the last year, I’ve had the immense privilege to work with many women who are presently in challenging circumstances. I’ve consulted them primarily in matters of self-esteem and their entrepreneurial path. These women come from various points of wealth, family life, nationalities, marital status and religions. Some have struggled with domestic violence from a spouse, parent, or even a child. Some have been overwhelmed battling destructive eating disorders or even fighting a terminal diagnosis’ which they’ve emerged from with a clean bill of health. Still some have struggled to raise their children single-handedly, manage intense depression, anxieties, or even struggling just to find their place in the professional world. While their backgrounds or present circumstances vary dramatically from each other, I’ve noticed a common theme among these modern day warriors. With little exception, they all have chosen to continue to press on. But after spending so much time with them, I still feel a sense of sadness for them as I realize they feel like their life is intended to merely survive, when I am absolutely certain that their lives are intended to be one of thriving. For some, they even have a hard time to acknowledge their problems to be what they actually are. Here’s an example: One woman whose son was physically abusing her, even threatening to kill her in her sleep, had the most difficult time even calling it what it really was. She just kept blaming herself for not raising him properly and trying to come up with the perfect parenting skill to make everything all better. It didn’t help that her husband refused to acknowledge that it was as serious issue as well. So here you have a wonderful woman who’s living a less than fulfilling life because her perspective of things is so skewed.

Now, to be clear, I’m certainly no therapist and I don’t have the proper education to clinically assist these women in any of the aforementioned matters. My exposure to them has come solely as a result of my business and marketing consulting. However, because of my belief that fixing the “head” is critical to one’s true success in the professional world, I attempt to address this aspect as well with all of my consulting clients. I believe that one of the keys to fixing your head is to remove yourself from the situation for a “moment in time” so that you can see your surrounding, your current circumstances with a fresh, more accurate pair of eyes. After all, it’s hard for us to really see things as they are when we’re so close to it and embroiled in the climax of the emotions. So, last fall I elected to take a few women to Walt Disney World. I did so in order that the women could experience a vastly different world from their own perceived reality, and thus, perhaps, view their situations in a different light. I’m happy to say that after 4 days with these wonderful travel companions, each of them expressed some alternative views of their situation, which I believe was much more accurate. Obviously, in order to overcome a challenge, we’ve got to know what the challenge is, right?

So my point in this message today is to encourage you to remove yourself in order to maintain better clarity. This is a wise practice implemented regularly by some of the most successful entrepreneurs.

Copyright 2009 Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved. You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Kellene Bishop.