Small business woes have big impact on economy

[defendandprotect]

Small business woes have big impact on economy
It may be the final days of business for the Scandia Bake Shop. After almost 60 years of serving treats like julekake and Oslo rye bread, the Minneapolis store is worried it may have to shut its doors within the week, felled by shrinking sales, rising flour prices and a downright dismal holiday season.

"They come out in droves and you make most of your money between Thanksgiving and Christmas," said 60-year-old owner Gary Arvidson, who took over the business in 1993. "And then this year I was really counting on that and the economy went into the dumper."

Times are tough for small business owners, those whom politicians tout as the backbone of America. As the recession marches on, it's those businesses — which employ about half of the country's private-sector workers — that are particularly vulnerable to the squeeze.

To cope, small business owners — from neighborhood plumbers to graphic design firms — are paying employee salaries before their own, trying to renegotiate leases and pleading for customers on neighborhood blogs. But despite their best efforts, the customers aren't there.

"It's all feeding on itself," said Raymond Keating, chief economist at the Small Business Survival Committee, an advocacy group based in Oakton, Va. "People are scared. They're not quite sure what to do."

Not every small business is facing impending doom. But the economic quicksand brought on by the longest recession in a quarter century is getting worse as the nation's unemployment rate reaches a 16-year-high and banks become more careful about lending money. That's consuming even local favorites like Heinemann's restaurant chain in Milwaukee, Olsson's Books & Records in Washington, D.C., and The Music Mill, a popular performance space in Indianapolis.

Small businesses — defined by the government as having 500 or fewer workers — are a key portion of the country's commerce food chain. They account for more than 99 percent of all employer firms, according to federal statistics, pay nearly 45 percent of the country's private payroll and produce almost a third of the nation's export value.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090111/ap_on_bi_ge/small_business_squeeze

[BlooInBloo]

1. The only thing I can imagine is that they couldn't figure out a way to do it...

without getting caught.

[defendandprotect]

2. This was a . . .

dupe -- someone posted the Iraq msg before me . . .

I agree with you -- in fact, I was hoping that he might have been growing a bit
fearful?

Thank heavens, whatever it was!


Unfortunately, there's no DELETE message feature at DU . . . !

[defendandprotect]

3. We have some of this happening in our NJ town . . . which will leave the BIG stores . . .

that I like to avoid . . .

[Hannah Bell]

4. And to those stats, we could add; take less in profit share than the majors.