The election is just about a month and a half away. Seats in the Oval Office, Congress and in various state capitals will be won, and we’ll have plenty of things to delight and despair in. But what does the election mean for small business?
We can’t know how businesses will be affected until the election happens and the legislation begins churning, but we do know what’s important to small businesses in America. According to Fox Business, a recent poll from George Washington University found that the issues that are consuming the most attention amongst small business owners are the economy and jobs:
In a new study from the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, 40 percent of small-business owners named those two issues as the most important factors in choosing a president. Ethics, honesty
and corruption in government were also of significant importance.
“Small businesses are deeply attuned to the effect of politics on job creation and the economy,” said David Rehr, the study’s lead researcher. “Entrepreneurs are feeling squeezed by the tight lending environment and want their political leaders to curb the influence of money in politics.”
This polling indicates a strong preference for candidates who will make economic growth and joblessness reductions the two key planks of their campaign. This election was supposed to be a referendum on those two issues, but as we’ve seen countless times over the last few months, politics has a habit of wandering off into the reeds. If you want to appeal to small business owners in America, leave the foreign policy and health care talk at home and bring the goods on the economy. Period.
Interestingly enough, the poll also found that only about 3 percent of small businesses identified taxes as a major issue deserving of their attention, despite the outsized attention taxes receive from media outlets and politicians across America. While clearly it’s still an issue that resonates with small business owners—nobody loves more taxes, after all—it may be time for campaigns to re-calibrate their messaging heading into the electoral home stretch.
What issues are most important to you? We want to hear from small business owners and see how closely you track with this poll.
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