Consider yourself forewarned.

About this week’s lead article, I’m also expecting to have a bit of followup that I can post about Congressman Mike Michaud (D-ME) and his crusade to get more funding for the SBA Microloan program. This was information that I had tried to get on Friday but didn’t hear from the relevant staffer until this morning. So, I’ll let you know what I find out.

Also in this week’s podcast, Plain Language might come to the federal government after all, and we’ll try one more time to improve the Regulatory Flexibility Act and strengthen the SBA Office of Advocacy.

And, as always, this week’s Policy Matters column.

For more information:

• House Committee on Small Business
• Center for Plain Language
• Sunshine Week
• National Small Business Association
• SBA Office of Advocacy

It’s pretty typical of the questions I get asked by microbusiness owners, too: why is the government so quick to rescue the big boys but not us little guys down here.

The way the feds throw resources at already-resource-rich parts of the economy while leaving the rest of us to struggle on our own is what you might call the ultimate uneven playing field.

Then again, when you stop and think about things like that passel of idiot regulatory proposals targeting independent contractors and the firms, you start wondering if maybe it’s a good thing to be ignored by the federal government.

For more information:

• Friedman Associates
• Association for Enterprise Opportunity
• Independent Contractors [Survey] from the NASE Staff Blog
• SBA Office of Advocacy

This weekly ritual small business groveling that emerges from Washington every year is always a time of profound irony for me. It’s tough to take policy makers seriously when they spout off about the manifold wonderfulnesses of small businesses, when the actual economic policies they craft say something very different.

Or, to put it another way, if I had a choice between $787 billion and a proclamation from President Obama about how wonderful I am, I’d take the money. In a heartbeat.

There is good news for microbusinesses coming out of the Senate Small Business Committee, in the form of the open-mindedness of Chairwoman Mary Landrieu. Every time I have an opportunity to watch her in that capacity, she sounds as if she is prepared to do things differently, to seek alternatives when programs and services are not reaching segments of their target populations, to listen to innovative ways to get things done.

All of which is very encouraging. Granted, it’s not the first time I’ve heard stuff that seemed encouraging coming from the lips of lawmakers and I am usually disappointed. So, the jury is still out on Landrieu but … it does look promising.

For more information

• Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• National Small Business Association
• House Committee on Small Business
• National Association for the Self-Employed

It’s terrible to have to say this but I’m almost afraid to get my hopes up in thinking that maybe Senate Small Business Committee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu is different, less wedded to the idea that bigger is automatically better and that microbusinesses are worth nothing more than lip service.

I’ve been in this spot before and always wound up being disappointed.

I’ll have to confirm this but it looks like the lone real friend to microbusinesses that there was on the House Small Business Committee is gone — not bumped by losing an election but, presumably, senior enough to be considered by the leadership as wasted there. So, I’m not looking for any miracles from that end of the world.

And that’s why Mary Landrieu’s interest in microbusinesses, in discussing whether the SBA should have more precise size standards than “large” and “small,” in the pride expressed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq about what a difference microenterprise development made there and how much of a difference it could make here …

Well, of course, all that got my hopes up! I’m not made of stone, you know.

We’ll have to see how she does, won’t we?

For more information:

Roundtable Archive: Investing in Small Business: Jumpstarting the Engines of Our Economy
SBA Office of Advocacy
House Small Business Committee

As much as small business owners complain about regulations, that’s a real shocker. And poor Tom (Sullivan, former Chief Counsel of Advocacy) was so excited about what did sound like a great program … !

This is what happens when the guy with the vision leaves the implementation to others. And it’s a good example of the role passion plays in moving people to get things done.

Speaking of getting things done, there has been lots of yelling about including small business and microbusiness in the economic recovery bill but, without an advocate inside the Obama Administration, don’t hold your breath.

And we’re still waiting for word that prospective SBA Administrator Karen Gordon Mills’ confirmation has been scheduled. Stay tuned.

For more information:

Small-Mart.org
SBA Office of Advocacy r3 Initiative

Now, I’ll admit it. I have opinions. I take sides. And, I’m told, it’s pretty clear how I’m inclined to vote based on the things that I write.

Among other things, my admiration for Mr. Sullivan can serve as a refutation of those who have sometimes accused me of partisan bias. Not that I’m saying I’m not biased, because I am.

I’m biased in favor of microbusinesses.

As for Tom, he is smart as well as shrewd, and perhaps one of the most outstandingly qualified individuals who has served in the Bush Administration. The only down side is that what he has been doing is relatively obscure and un-sexy, and far too few people pay attention to it.

Yet, his work has impacted the bottom line of millions upon millions of small business owners, who have been able to save billions of dollars in regulatory compliance costs over the last seven years through Advocacy’s … um … advocacy.

And the research funded and published by his office in that time has accomplished a very great deal for our overall understanding of small businesses, of microbusinesses, and of how both groups make critical contributions to the economy.

And you wonder why I’m a Tom Sullivan fan.

Best of all things to you, Tom. We’ll miss you.

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Fortunately for both of us, however, there were enough last minute doings on the House Small Business Committee that I haven’t quite been left with nothing to talk to you about — at least, not yet.

This week, we have regulations and how to tame those federal regulating agencies, microbusinesses and gas prices, and another microbusiness profile for Microbusiness Profile Month.

For more information:

Hearing Archive: Regulatory Burdens on Small Firms: What Rules Need Reforms? (YouTube)
SBA Office of Advocacy
NASE Member Survey: How Are Energy Costs Affecting Your Business?
Microbusiness Profilee: FutureFiling.com