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Thread: SO HOW ARE WE DIFFERENT FROM THE YANKS???

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    Diamond Member wynn's Avatar
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    SO HOW ARE WE DIFFERENT FROM THE YANKS???

    JUST INTERPOSE AMERICAN FOR SEFFRICAN!

    I like the fact that small-business owners appear to be a remarkably grumpy and pessimistic lot

    "The country’s business reporters got a dollop of bad news from the National Small Business Association, which released its year-end survey of economic conditions on Wednesday. The outlook, as their press release stated, is “not so good.” NSBA Chair David Ickert observed that “there are very few incentives to start or grow a small company” under prevailing conditions. Indeed, the survey shows that pessimism is rampant. Fifty-one percent of respondents say they anticipate a flat economy next year. Thirty-five percent foresee a recession, while just 14 percent anticipate that the economy will grow next year. By a 47-23 margin, surveyed small-business owners think the national economy is worse than it was one year ago. Particularly troubling to small business owners is “economic uncertainty,” which 69 percent of business owners cite as a significant challenge to the future growth and survival of their business.

    So are we doomed? Not really. Delving into the history of NSBA reports, small-business owners appear to be a remarkably grumpy and pessimistic lot. The number of respondents foreseeing a recession next year is the highest since July 2009, which might make us curious as to how the economy fared in the August 2009-July 2010 period. It turns out that July ’09 was basically the low point of the recession. Over the next four quarters U.S. output expanded by $357 billion. In other words, small-business owners predicted a recession just as the recovery was starting.

    The 47-to-23 ratio of respondents saying the economy is worse off today than it was a year ago is alarming. But six months ago the ratio was an equally alarming 48-to-21. In December 2011, it was 44-to-24 and six months before that it was 52-to-24. So has the economy been on a steady downward slide for the past two and a half years? Nope. Growth has been disappointingly slow in some ways, but the economy is clearly on an upward trajectory.

    So why are small-business owners so gloomy? I don’t know. But one plausible theory is politics. Owners and operators of businesses are one of the most reliably Republican occupational categories in the United States, so it’s perhaps natural for them to have a pessimistic bias. There is a president they don’t like in the White House, and they’ve consistently believed Obama’s policies are driving us into an economic ditch. Like most Americans, they don’t change their partisan commitments in the face of contrary evidence (I spent the entire five final years of the George W. Bush administration convinced war with Iran was imminent).

    Perhaps the most interesting indicator in the survey is that small-business owners take a considerably rosier view of their own business prospects than those of the economy as a whole. A healthy 47 percent of respondents anticipate their own gross sales rising, while just 23 percent say they’ll decline. If growing businesses outnumber shrinking ones 2-to-1, then it’s hard to see how the economy is going to shrink.

    This kind of broad pessimism mixed with local optimism occurs in non-business contexts, too. A fascinating Gallup survey on education last year, for example, found that just 19 percent of parents of public-school children think America’s public schools deserve an A or B grade. But 48 percent say the public schools in their own community rate that highly, and a staggering 77 percent say their own oldest child attends an A or B school.

    Realistically, business owners have much better information about the conditions they’re facing personally than about broad national conditions. And the self-reports are indicative of economic trends more or less in line with consensus forecasts: growth—not stagnation or recession—but hardly a boom. Policymakers should still pay attention to what business operators say is worrying them. The much-hyped “uncertainty” is by far the leading cause of concern, but it’s not clear what can be done about that. In second place, however, is worries about a “decline in customer spending” named by 39 percent of respondents—vastly outpacing concerns about lack of capital (17 percent) or lack of qualified workers (12 percent). That suggests the most helpful thing Congress could do for small businesses would be something simple like reviving the payroll tax holiday or just mailing some money to every American."

    Taken from Slate Magazine http://www.slate.com/articles/busine...e_economy.html
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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wynn View Post
    Realistically, business owners have much better information about the conditions they’re facing personally than about broad national conditions.
    That's the bare truth of it.

    Ask small business owners how things have been going, and you'll get a fairly accurate answer. Ask them where things are going... Heck, even qualified economists who crunch all the big numbers to the nth degree have a lower successful prediction rate than weather forecasters. What chance the small business owner who pretty much relies on a thumbsuck and instinct to give you an accurate forecast into the future?

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    Diamond Member Blurock's Avatar
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    I do not think Saffies are pessimistic or grumpy. Frustrated, yes. Gatvol, yes! (Does that relate to grumpy?)

    Talk to a SMME business owner and he will proudly show you his business and products. He will tell you the success stories and share information about the market, customers and competitors. Our frustrations stem from being stuffed around with red tape. Not having access to the funding that we require. Being lied to by banks and government.

    Every year we hear announcements about a new scheme to promote Small Business and efforts to create jobs.
    That's what they say, but try to access those funds and you'll come back empty handed nine times out of ten.
    Excellence is not a skill; its an attitude...

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    Darkangelyaya (13-Feb-13)

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    Silver Member Darkangelyaya's Avatar
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    Personally, I'm just tired.
    I love what I do... Having survived what I did in the past four years, is nothing short of a miracle. And for that, I literally have my own little business to thank. Which I built, with my own hard work, blood, sweat and many tears.
    I've trained staff so well that they left, affirmatively acquiring some of my machinery, and tried to become competition for me. Two of the people I speak of now are lucky to work one day in 14. With me, we always had work.
    I've just reached the point where I'm tired to my soul of being a kindergarten teacher to grown men. And they think they can learn 24 years' worth of knowledge in a couple of weeks.
    Don't even get me started on politics.
    I firmly believe that if you really are willing to work, you will always be able to earn enough to get by.
    And I also believe most people in larger companies get paid way more than they ever could be worth.
    Come and bleed and sweat with me for a month, take on the daily risk of countless lives and millions of rands of public liability, stay calm while people swear and scream at you, rub cream on your sunburnt skin and chapped lips, put eyedrops in your eyes damaged by the glare of the sun, and sawdust. Fight for your payments, daily, look at your empty fridge after paying tbe staff. And get up tomorrow and do it all over again. Grumpy? Negative? Mmm...
    I am not negative; I just think that maybe it's time for a holiday... It's been four years.
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    Justloadit (14-Feb-13)

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    Diamond Member Blurock's Avatar
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    Take a break. Have a Kit Kat.
    All work and no play...
    Excellence is not a skill; its an attitude...

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    Darkangelyaya (13-Feb-13)

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    Diamond Member Justloadit's Avatar
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    Hi Darkangelyaya,
    I can sympathise with you, whats more is this notion of entitlement. Just give it to me because... the fact you are not capable or even competent to do what ever it is is irrelevant. We then wonder why the financial situation in the country is on a steep downhill.
    Victor - Knowledge is a blessing or a curse, your current circumstances make you decide!
    Solar pumping, Solar Geyser & Solar Security lighting solutions - www.microsolve.co.za

  10. Thanks given for this post:

    Darkangelyaya (15-Feb-13)

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