Nov 9, 2011

Business Owners Say Government Regulations Are Biggest Concern

[caption id="attachment_393" align="alignright" width="439" caption="Business Owners Say"]

[/caption] During challenging economic times, small-business owners face a host of problems. Although the biggest issue might appear to be a lack of consumer demand for products or a lack of consumer confidence, business owners who responded to a recent Gallup poll¹ said their biggest issue was complying with government regulations. Gallup conducted phone interviews with 604 small-business owners Oct. 3-6. Small-business owners were defined as those running operations that had sales revenue of no more than $20 million. Although business owners cited government regulation as a major problem, some evidence suggests that the actual fear of over-regulation is overstated. Bloomberg News,³ for instance, reported on statistics from the Department of Labor that showed that for businesses with 50 or more workers, only 18 of the 7,247 mass layoffs in 2010 happened because of government regulations. In the first half of 2011, only 11 of the 3,114 mass layoffs that occurred had to do with government action. For more information, visit: 1. “Government Regulations at Top of Small-Business Owners’ Problem List” 2. “Republicans, Democrats Disagree on Government Role in Creating Jobs” 3. “Obama Wrote 5 Percent Fewer Rules Than Bush While Costing Business”