• NASE Participates in House Small Business Committee Stimulus Roundtable
• Senate Small Business Committee Hearing Focuses on Access to Health Coverage
• NASE Pledge to Protect and Promote American Entrepreneurship
• New Study Examines Women Business Access to Markets
• African American Women and Entrepreneurship

NASE Participates in House Small Business Committee Stimulus Roundtable

During a House Small Business Committee roundtable discussion earlier this week, the NASE testified to the need for a “micro-business” stimulus package with specific provisions addressing the needs of the self-employed and micro-business communities. NASE Director of Government Affairs Kristie Darien told the Committee that significant reforms are necessary to revitalize small businesses as the lifeblood of the American economy.

More to the point, she said, reforms to help the smallest of small businesses – the self employed and companies with less than 10 employees that have turbo-powered innovation and economic growth in recent years – stand to offer one of the most potent injections for our ailing economy.

“Despite the remarkable role micro firms have played in American enterprise and society, it is baffling that entrepreneurs continue to be strapped by unfair laws and policies that hamper their ability to invest in their businesses and in America’s economic recovery,” Darien said.

“While current stimulus proposals firmly acknowledge the importance of small business in regaining economic growth, I am skeptical that either of the partisan stimulus packages goes far enough in addressing some of the key issues that create a drag to growth for the self-employed and micro-businesses,” she told the Committee.

Instead, she proposed the NASE Micro-Business Stimulus Plan, which includes an increase in business expensing, clarification of independent contractor status, payroll tax relief, home-based business tax relief, self-employment tax deduction on health insurance premiums and health care tax credits.

The NASE believes that micro-businesses have been pillars of innovation, integrity and reliability, fueling much of what is great about America. Finding solutions that provide a more equitable shake for these enterprises not only is in the best interest of small-business owners; it’s in the best interests of our nation and its economy, as well.

Chairman Donald Manzullo (R-IL) convened the roundtable, and was joined by Committee members Reps. Bob Beauprez (R-CO), Jeb Bradley (R-NH) and Pat Toomey (R-PA). U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Hector Barreto and more than 15 small business associations took part in the roundtable.

For more information, read this press release.
 

Senate Small Business Committee Hearing Focuses on Access to Health Coverage

The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship held a hearing this week on small business access to affordable health coverage. Committee Chairwoman Olympia Snowe (R-ME) announced earlier in the Congressional session that the issue would be one she and the committee would focus on.

The hearing, The Small Business Healthcare Crisis: Possible Solutions, focused on the difficulty and expense of small and micro-businesses obtaining health coverage. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao; and Hector V. Barreto, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration testified at the hearing.

Much of the hearing focused on the small business community’s support of Association Health Plans to increase competition and reduce costs in the small group market. A report by the Department of Labor last year cited statistics from the NASE health care study. The study, Trends in American Micro-business: Affordability in Health Care, found that 70 percent of respondents did not have health coverage themselves or offer it to their employees. Almost all cited cost as the main reason.

The NASE submitted a statement for the record in support of AHPs and health care tax credits for micro-businesses.
 

NASE Pledge to Protect and Promote American Entrepreneurship

The NASE is asking all Members of the U.S. Congress to reaffirm their support for our nation’s self-employed and micro-business communities by signing the Pledge to Protect and Promote American Entrepreneurship.

During this difficult economic time, America needs the self-employed and micro-businesses to marshal their resources and grow the American economy by doing what they do best - create, innovate, produce, build and grow. Thus, the NASE is asking our nation's legislators to strengthen their commitment to actively advocate and promote legislation in the current and future legislative sessions that will assist the self-employed and micro-business communities as well as oppose any legislation that may be detrimental to the continued success of this crucial group.

Urge your Member of Congress to sign the Pledge by sending them a letter from the NASE advocacy page. Your letters make a difference – show Congress that this is an important issue to you.
 

New Study Examines Women Business Access to Markets

A new study released this week by the Center for Women’s Business Research examined the track record of women's business enterprises seeking entry to corporate markets. While women's business enterprises are earning a significant percentage of their revenues from Fortune 1000 corporations, the study found that these women's business enterprises only capture an average of 4 percent of the billions spent annually on outside goods and services.

The study, Access to Markets: Perspectives from Large Corporations and Women's Business Enterprises, was commissioned by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), Women Entrepreneurs' Connection at FleetBoston Financial and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The study surveyed third-party certified women's business enterprises and Fortune 1000 purchasing executives.

Past research by the Center for Women’s Business Research has shown that the biggest market penetration gender gap in selling products or services is in corporate purchasing and not, as many might suspect, in Federal procurement. In 1998, just 30 percent of women-owned firms sold products or services to large corporations, compared to 49 percent of men-owned firms.

According to Access to Markets, 56 percent of the revenues of women's business enterprises with $1 million or more in sales came from large corporations, and 40 percent of the revenues of companies with revenues below $1 million.

While showing that many women are successfully selling to large corporations, the study also found that many challenges still remain. The top challenges cited by women entrepreneurs include: learning about opportunities (70 percent), reduction in the number of opportunities due to the bundling of smaller contracts into fewer large contracts (50 percent), and the increasing need for corporate cost cutting (45 percent).

“Despite the challenges facing them, women entrepreneurs are very optimistic about the corporate market,” said Jasmin Rodriguez, manager of women's entrepreneurship initiatives at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. “Fully nine in ten (91 percent) of the women business owners surveyed, both those currently marketing to Fortune 1000 companies and those who are not, expect to be doing business with large corporations over the next three to five years.”

For more information visit the Center for Women’s Business Research Web site.
 

African American Women and Entrepreneurship

Minority women-owned businesses are a growing force in the U.S. economy. Firms owned by women of color now represent 20 percent of all privately-held, majority-owned firms in the U.S. and they are growing in numbers at four times the rate of all U.S. firms.* In recognition of Black History Month, the National Women’s Business Council has compiled the following facts about African American women business owners:

• As of 2002, there are an estimated 365,110 majority owned, privately-held firms owned by African American women in the U.S., employing nearly 200,000 people and generating almost $14.5 billion in sales. *

• Between 1997 and 2002, the number of African American women-owned firms increased by 17 percent, employment grew by 17 percent, and sales rose by 7 percent. *

• Some 10 million American adults are involved in the process of starting nearly six million potential new businesses at any one time, with African Americans 50 percent more likely to start a business than whites. **

• More than one-third (35 percent) of all African American owned firms are owned by women. African American women-owned firms employ 25 percent of the workers in African American-owned firms and generate 15 percent of the sales. *

• Nearly one-third (30 percent) of minority women-owned firms are owned by African Americans. Firms owned by African American women now represent 6 percent of all privately-held, majority-owned women-owned firms in the U.S. *

• African American women have a higher propensity for entrepreneurship than white or Hispanic women, who are about equally as likely to attempt to start a business. **

• The greatest growth by industry in the number of African American women-owned firms from 1997 to 2002 has come in the services industry (29 percent growth). *

• Three-quarters (75 percent) of African American women owned firms are in the service sector and 7 percent are in retail trade. *

• The 10 states with the greatest number of African American women-owned firms as of 2002 are: 1) New York; 2) Florida; 3) Illinois; 4) California; 5) Georgia; 6) Texas; 7) Maryland; 8) North Carolina; 9) Michigan; and 10) Virginia. *

• The states where African American women-owned firms comprise the greatest share of all women-owned firms are: 1) District of Columbia (30 percent); 2) Maryland (16 percent); 3) Mississippi (15 percent); 4) Georgia (14 percent); 5) Louisiana and New York (tied – 12 percent); 7) Illinois and South Carolina (tied – 11 percent); and 9) Delaware, Alabama and North Carolina (tied – 10 percent). *

• Compared to other women business owners, African American women business owners are more likely to start or acquire their firms alone (72 percent), and to currently be the sole owner of their firms (80 percent). *

• Nearly half (47 percent) of African American women business owners say they have encountered obstacles or difficulties when trying to obtain business financing in the past, compared to 28 percent of white women business owners, 27 percent of Latina business owners, and 22 percent of Asian women business owners. *

• The impact of urban context varies for whites, African Americans and Hispanics. For white and African American men and women, the tendency to initiate start-up efforts is greatest among those living in more urban areas. But for Hispanic men and women, the highest levels of activity are in non-urban areas. **

*From Center for Women’s Business Research

**From the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, a report sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (http://projects.isr.umich.edu/PSED/).

For more information, visit http://www.nwbc.gov/.
 

Do any of these issues affect you? Do you want to be proactive in helping the micro-business community? Visit the NASE's Legislative Action Center and “Tell Your Small Business Story.” This will help the NASE understand - on a personal level - how key legislative issues are affecting your business and your bottom line.

For more information about any of the articles in Washington Watch, contact Maureen Petron, NASE public affairs manager, at (202) 466-2100 or mpetron@nase.org.