Dashboard: The State of Small Businesses

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard this week I'm joined by John arensmeier founder and CEO of small business majority a support group for and community of business owners welcome John good to be here Lauren great to have you so so John I want to try to catch up with you you know I know it's only January in some ways it feels like it's already been kind of a long confusing year uh there's so much going on um yep kind of can you I'd like to take your pulse a little bit what where's your confidence level uh you've you've built your own businesses you talk to business owners all the time you're talking to policy makers in Washington DC where do you think we are well look I think there's still um uh we're still coming out of the pandemic and there's still a lot of concern among business owners I think the the four areas that we're hearing the most are supply chain concerns uh Workforce concerns inflation and just general uncertainty about where the econom is going what's going to happen with Co Etc so those are those are the four things we're hearing the most from your constituents from business owners yes absolutely and do you have a sense I mean what's your reading on them I know you you you know there are a lot of people and people are all over the map but um are are people feeling and I A lot of people are exhausted and frustrated are they feeling beaten down where do you think their heads are at well I think it's a combination and obviously it depends on the particulars of the industry the of the business but it's definitely um it's definitely a mixed bag you know look entrepreneurs uh as you know as well as anybody are optimistic uh we're always looking to the Future and always you know having hand do attitudes so I think you know that continues um that that hasn't changed but I think that you know I just think it's a it's a case of uncertainty and it's a case of um you know having to deal with some issues that perhaps uh were not expected a few and then there's a lot of a lot of externalities that businesses don't really have any control over um particularly the co all right so let's pick one of those um we've had a chance for the Supreme Court decision uh on the uh OSHA vaccine or test mandate to to kind of sink in um many small businesses weren't affected directly by that because they have fewer than 100 employees and yet I think many were kind of looking for cover from larger businesses looking to see what they did how they handled it uh this means that businesses have to make their own decision instead of blaming somebody else or relying on somebody else what's your sense of how most businesses are approaching that well I think you're absolutely right businesses were looking for sort of a a guide uh businesses were looking to see what was going to happen with larger businesses um we've surveyed businesses on this and for two to one businesses support mandates for um public facing businesses um and um I think that would surprise a lot of people well um you get into that a little bit um more than half had a vaccine Mandate of their own or were considering one now we don't know how that's going to change with the uh with the decision by the by the court um look businesses don't want to be traffic cops themselves um they want the Mandate gives them cover uh that they U so they don't have to step up and and do something controversial and they don't want to wait into what is let's face it par is an issue uh so the you know the having an external mandate and a standard that um sort of our society or our economy was settling on I think would have been helpful you look you've got offsetting concerns among employees in businesses some many want to come to work in a a safe environment we've heard from business owners across the lot and know daycare providers um people in restaurants that they want to be able to come and work in a safe environment on the other hand there's no doubt certain employees who don't want to get vaccinated so um from what we've heard uh it tends to be the former Camp tends to be a little stronger than the latter camp but again it's putting business owners in a situation where they have to step up and be traffic cop and it would have been so much better for there be a standard out there that they could have simply relied on even if legally they weren't required and could have said look this is where the world's going and this is what we're doing tell me if you see this the same way I I sense that there's been kind of of a shift in in one sense which is that before Omron I think the pragmatic view or what was considered the pragmatic view for many businesses was not to mandate uh vaccinations because if you do you risk losing employees and we're in the middle of um a labor shortage and that's just from a pragmatic standpoint a really difficult place to be now with Omron and it's uh you know it's so transmissible I think there's some shift there and the pragmatic view is more we got to do anything we can to keep our employees and our customers safe so we can stay open because if Omron runs through the business there's just no way we can open the doors I think you're absolutely right I think that there was sort of hesitancy at first you know businesses don't as I said they don't want to be traffic cops they want they want to sell their product and service they want to keep their customers happy and of course they want to keep their employees happy and again businesses didn't know where this was going you we had ups and downs with the original uh beginning of the pandemic and then Delta and as you say you know omoc has kind of changed that we have definitely seen a shift toward businesses including in our polling but also anecdotally wanting to have a safe workplace um for workplace for their employees and a safe place U for their customers and and yes of course they are concerned that they're perhaps going to lose employees who don't want to get vaccinated had we had the Mandate even on businesses 100 employees or more there would have been a greater standard there would have been more of the economy out there that was requiring um vaccination and it would have put them in a much more comfortable position to to require it but right now uh they are they're facing a situation where employees are worried about coming in to a to a workplace where not everybody's vaccinated and I I think that uh you're absolutely right about the shift and I think now I think because this pandemic has gone up and down and up and down and now we see an Omicron here I think that they're ready to simp you know again this is not Universal but the majority really want to have some kind of standard and one kind of some kind of safety that they can um that they can rely on obviously few businesses have had a tougher time with this than restaurants I've heard some Rumblings that maybe there's a move of foot to try to replenish the restaurant revitalization fund and help out some more restaurants do you do you have a read on that situation yeah no I'm glad you brought that up because that is actually in the in the discussion right now um as you know uh there were um there 180,000 pending unfulfilled applications which is about 2/3 of total applications so it was about 300,000 almost 300,000 total applications and they got $29 billion do out the door but that left 23s of the uh applicants um you know without anything um so um and so and and on top of that the uh there was an attempt to prioritize applications from socially and E economically disadvantaged groups which in the first 21 days of R RF but that didn't go very well and soon there was a lawsuit and uh judge agreed with the lawsuit resending some of the approvals so um that also we ended up having the same sort of economic um and racial disparity that we saw in the PPP and other programs all of that said there're now um 180,000 pending unfulfilled applications um there is a bipartisan effort in the Senate led by um Democrat um Ben Carden and Republican Roger wicker to um to get more funding into the program and actually to get even more funding than was originally in the program because over half of the applications weren't dealt with there is interest we're hearing that um there are many Democrats and and certainly certain number of Republicans who want to try to get something done there are a couple concerns here the first is that you know there there's a concern flying in the face of the narrative that we're moving on and we're moving out of emergency mode and that oh my gosh now we're doing another relief program and and you know we we kind of understand that from a sort of a messaging standpoint we want to be talking about moving forward but on the other hand um armon's here so you know that's the reality secondly you know there many of particular Republicans are looking for offsets um to cover the funding which is you know about $48 million a billion dollars if it goes through all the way there's not enough possible spending cuts to to get there and pretty likely you get 60 votes for a tax increase to get us there and finally there is a concern about inflation so um that said what we're hearing and the leadership in the Senate is interested in moving this forward there is at least meaningful Republican interest in this and it's one of the few things going on in the Senate right now that actually might get bipartisan traction and might and might get rolling I would I would say there look there's no guarantees right now but that uh they're going to try to do something I think interesting you said a couple things there that I wasn't aware of one of which is I I didn't realize there were 180,000 applications sitting there that had not been funded that that suggest that if they were able to do this would those applications still be viable and uh people could get money without going through that process again well I got yeah I mean we don't know I mean no doubt there's some of those 180 may not be viable anymore but I would say that and I don't have data on this I would say that's probably a fairly small percentage you 29 billion got out the door to approximately 100 100,000 so you've got almost double that waiting so if they can get you know something like 48 billion U that that you know should cover it and most of those um pending applications should still be should still be viable all right so you use the word bipartisan which is is always a little surprising to hear I I'm going to ask you about something else that allegedly has bipartisan support um although I I struggle to believe it here too a little bit uh and that's antitrust legislation uh we're seeing stories that there's there's movement there um am I right about that what what's your sense there is uh the um American innovation and choice online Act was passed by the um Senate Judiciary Committee passed out a committee the other day 16 to6 vote five Republicans joining um It Is co-sponsored by Democrat Amy kashar and um Republican truck Grassley it has definite support and co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle um I know here we've talked about two bipartisan um initiatives here um this one really is bipartisan and um you know you don't you don't get a 16 to six vote in a senate committee these days on very much so uh I think we should be um encourage that this is something that that may be able to move forward my sense is that the focus here is on big big tech companies that have their own online platforms where they tend to favor their own products at the expense of other usually smaller businesses am I right about that you're absolutely correct it's something called self- preferencing what you're describing and it's um it's one of many problems out there um where the sort of power of very large companies is being used to create an unlevel playing field um all small businesses one is a Level Playing Field um they don't want special treatment they want to be able to compete on a Level Playing Field and there's a whole host of of concerns out there but the self- preferencing is what this bill is um is focusing on I can get into some of the details on it but that's you're absolutely correct it is it is really about tech platforms having their own products that they then use use all the tricks of well I don't say tricks of the trade but the tools in their Arsenal to promote those products at the expense of of third party products being sold on on the platform it you know it doesn't make sense to get into the Weeds on the details here for a bill that you know has a long ways to go but can you give us some sense what you think the the solution we might be heading toward would be if if something were to come of this or are we talking about breaking the platform away so that you know Amazon has to give up its Market place or is there some other way to fix this problem this particular bill is is not designed to to break up uh um the companies themselves the platforms themselves it's it's designed to put in some rules of the road that are going to allow for More Level Playing Field you know it prohibits bias search results it prohibits requiring businesses to buy a preferred placement on a platform it it uh prevents using business data to compete against them or retaliating against companies that concerns to law enforcement and it gives broad enforcement powers to Federal Trade Commission to the Department of Justice and to State Attorneys General on this um so it is about setting rules of the road setting um setting up a system or at least improving on a system that creates a More Level Playing Field it's not this particular legislation is not about breaking up platforms or and anything like that but from the way you describe it I sense that you think it it could be meaningful and could make a difference to small businesses that are affect absolutely we hear all the time from small businesses that they are they feel really disadvantaged on these platforms uh and we're talking about big platforms here there's like only about six or seven that would be um five or six that would be that would be affected by this um yeah they feel they feel many of them most of them feel that they're that they're they have all sorts of impediments and in many cases these platforms are are working against them in some ways although they obviously are dependent upon the platforms to sell their products so um yeah I think that this is this is very squarely uh going to benefit small businesses do you have uh any suggestions for uh a business owner who is looking at this thinking about it and would like to lend some support encouragement to those trying to push the bill well sure I mean not to self-promote here but if anyone wants to um get get a hold of us at uh small business majority um .org um we'd be happy to um we we're talking to business all the time we're we're we are in fact you know engaging businesses out there on this topic uh we've just done I'll give you a little sneak preview here we've just done some pretty extensive research on a whole host of what we call Equitable competition issues of this this is one that we're going to be we're analyzing right now we have a lot of data we're looking at and we're going to be releasing that um you know either in chunks or Fair fairly soon so um and then we are we are you know regularly um talking to small business owners about this and we've definitely got businesses in our Network who have been affected by this problem John ainm is CEO of small business majority John thanks so much for taking the time great luren thanks for having me appreciate it have a great week everyone and we move we move forward here talk to you again soon John [Music]