23% of Small Business Owners Report "No Pay for a Year"

Townhall.com ^ | June 13, 2012 | Mike Shedlock

[SkyDancer]

Wow, so the CIC is really wrong about the private sector; or was it the economy. Not sure if his teleprompter got either one correct.

[gorush]

Business is to Obama what Jews were to Hitler.

[ReformationFan]

But Chairman Maobama said the private sector was “doing just fine”? I’d hate to see how it looked if he ever said it was doing terrible.

[Focault's Pendulum]

I just got back, not two hours ago, visiting a friendly competitor. He had not paid himself all year. He's basically giving the business away to a trusted colleague.

[Sequoyah101]

I hate inconsistency in reporting statistics. It can’t be right can it.

“Notice the success stats on the above graph do not add up. If 44% of new firms survive 4 years, by implication 56% don’t. Yet somehow only 49% fail in 5 years.”

Rearranging a bit this is what the chart says:

44% of new firms SURVIVE four years
49% FAIL within five years
31% SURVIVE at least 7 years

Now, putting it all in the same frame of reference it should say:

44% of new firms SURVIVE four years
100% - 49% = 51% Survive at least five years
31% SURVIVE at least 7 years

Wrong or just new math?

[Dubh_Ghlase]

My wife and I opened a small business shortly after zero got into power. Been looking up at the bottom ever since...

[afraidfortherepublic]

As a small business owner, I can identify with all of the above — less pay, more hours, using own money to keep business afloat.

[dinodino]

Same here. Built and sold two companies, doing another startup right now. Obama doesn’t have a clue how free enterprise works.

[cableguymn]

When Obama was elected I owned a saltwater fish store. Obama all but killed that market. Hobbies are the first thing to go.

So I went back to my roots. Renewed a few certifications and got back in to the tech sector. The type of work I do is needed regardless of market conditions. When things don’t work, they need to be fixed in the area I specialize in.

I’m turning work down I am so busy.

[Fred Hayek]

My business imploded when Dear Reader took office. 2009, 2010, and 2011 were decreasing income, withe total business receipts in 2011 being less than $1000. Yet I am called by Dems as one of the greedy one percenters, not hiring anyone out of pure greed, and sitting on a pile of money like Scrooge McDuck. In 2011 I got out of Minnesota and took a job on the Houston Ship Channel. Small business owners are the kulaks to this Regime.

[rockinqsranch]

bflr

[kearnyirish2]

“Hobbies are the first thing to go.”

Anywhere people used to spend discretionary dollars in the “before-times” are getting killed. High-end restaurants, shopping malls, etc. - all getting crushed. Here in northern NJ we have a brand-new mall, completed a couple of years ago (complete with an indoor ski slope) that never opened. It is absolutely creepy; this isn’t a strip mall, but the real deal (right by Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands).

[backinthefold]

Hubby and I own a small HVAC company... no one has money for repairs. Been the worst summer for our business in 10 years.

[justa-hairyape]

The only way to survive this economy as a small business owner was to dramatically cut costs and expenses. You basically needed to do the exact opposite that Obama was recommending. He wanted people to go out and spend as if the economy was not weak. That advice was absolutely horrible.

[KarlInOhio]

Hubby and I own a small HVAC company... no one has money for repairs. Been the worst summer for our business in 10 years.

I've needed a new central air for a while, but I've made do with a bedroom window AC and just sweating during the day. Every paycheck might have been my last and I would rather have food and mortgage money in the bank than a working AC.

[vicdoc]

Ditto.... Business is really slow. This year worse than last. If revenue doesn’t go up, no new hiring. Plain and simple. No matter what incentives given to hire. You can only do without paying yourself so long.

[mission9]

I have been in small business for 35 years. When the economic catastrophe hit in 2008, I said, “what is so bad here?” They said, “if we do not bail out the banks, this will not be just a Wall St. crisis, it will be a Main St. crisis.”

“How so? tell me more”

“Businesses will not be able to get the credit they need to expand and hire new workers. They will have to lay off people. Their suppliers will go out of business. We must bail out the banks....” they said.

“Oh really? I have been in business 35 years. Sounds like another day at the office. Welcome to MY world.”

The politicians gave the banks their bail outs, every horrible consequence that they predicted would happen if we did NOT bail them out, happened anyway.

[cableguymn]

I went in to a field that is mainly all labor. I did need some basic hand tools and 3 very high end tools. The rest is just me selling my time.

I used sites like slickdeals, craigslist and fatwallet to get the hand tools and ladders. I used e-bay for the high end tools. I got them for 10-20 cents on the dollar from company liquidations.

We are going on our first vacation in 8 years tomorrow. We’re driving not flying, we’re camping not staying in hotels. I got discount coupons for all the attractions we want to go to..

While we are at our destination (grandma’s house) I am doing a 2 day project so I am able to deduct the travel costs and some of the expenses.

[LibLieSlayer]

38 years... two businesses... and this article is the absolute truth... only it paints a rosier picture than the reality of the state of small business in America today.

LLS