reply to post by SaturnFX
Good thread....I like your idea. If they're going to monitor this website anyway, we might as well give them something good to report back, eh?
Ok, so there are two things I would do:
1. Make it easier to start your own business
2. Make it easier to hire employees
Part of the reason why we are in so much trouble in this country is most people don't know where to go or how to start a 1 person business start
up.
I personally think the government should make it easier. And I mean, really, really easy. I know right now, they fund the "small business
administration" but that place is ridiculous. If a person wants to start their own business, after going to the SBA, they still have to go a million
places to get things done. I've stopped by the SBA and you have to take 1/2 an hour to park, 1/2 and hour to find the right person to talk to, then
you get a list of a million more places you have to go to get everything done, then you still don't get everthing you need...the SBA isn't much good
for anything.
They should create a one-stop building for EVERYTHING, like you have at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Just like you go to DMV to pick up a book on
how to drive, learn the proper laws associated with driving a car and a motorcycle, go back to take the test, take a picture, get your license....it
should be the same way to start up a business, in my opinion. One stop shopping, one building, streamlined forms.
It would be called the Department of Small Business Start-Up...the DSBS.
So, this is how it works. Let's say you're out of a job, and you decide, hey, I'm tired of working for other people....I'm going to start a
business on my own. You don't have a lot of money, but you have a great idea for a one-person small business that you think wouldn't cost that much
money.
You walk into the DSBS and you pick up a booklet. You read it. You learn the very basics, such as:
1. How to keep track of money going in and going out.
2. How to develop a business plan.
2. How to pay your taxes at the end of the year.
3. How to start a business bank account
the VERY simplest things...
You go back to the DSBS, you say, ok, I'd like to take a test. They give you a test, to make sure that you know the very, very basics of running a
business. If you pass it, you are awarded a NATIONAL BUSINESS LICENSE (which is only good for sole proprietorships), which is also your TAX ID (EIN)
NUMBER. The two are combined into one.
(Why go through this process? Because in addition to getting a national business license that you can use in any state, you also learned the basics of
running a sole proprietorship, and you also learned how to pay your taxes, so the IRS won't come after you later on. It protects you.)
When you pay your taxes every year, your NATIONAL BUSINESS ID is what you put on your individual state tax form for tax purposes. Whatever state you
happen to live in, if you move to a new state, you just carry that number with you. It is like a social security number or an EIN number...it never
changes....it follows you from state to state. You never have to register your sole proprietor business in each state.
Once you are ready to start up a one-person business, you are given:
ONE simple form to fill out.. You give this back to them with a fee. If you want to have several sole proprietorships under your own name, that's
fine. Just file each one with a separate small fee.
If you stop running your sole proprietorship, you go into the DSBS and tell them, I'm no longer running my business. They say, ok, thansk for letting
us know, we'll make a note of it, and you keep your business license and if you ever start up a new business in this state or any other state, just
go to your nearest DSBS.
2. Ok, so what happens when the person wants to hire another person?
Right now, if a person running a business wants hire someone, it is a NIGHTMARE. You don't know what you need, you don't know what to do....you
don't know how to pay taxes....so, most sole proprietorships simply DON'T hire other people.
Under this system, if you want to hire an employee, you go through the same steps you went through to learn how to open a business.....you go pick up
a booklet for HOW TO HIRE AN EMPLOYEE. Learn the necessary steps, the federal laws on discrimination, etc.. and how and when to pay taxes, ...then
after learing everything you need to know, you go back to the DSBS and say that you're ready to take the test to get an EMPLOYEE ADDENDUM.
You take the test, and if you pass, you are awarded an EMPLOYEE ADDENDUM NUMBER which is also YOUR EMPLOYER ID NUMBER. Now, the business owner
understands what paperwork is needed and the laws regarding hiring employees and paying taxes (which just protected him), and the PAPERWORK FOR HIRING
AN EMPLOYEE HAS JUST BEEN STREAMLINED. He/she can still operate under the rules of the SBSB with one employee.
3. Once the business grows to above 1 person plus 1 employee...then you have outgrown the SBSB. If you want to grow larger, then you have to do it on
your own without the government's help, but you just leanred how to start a business, how to hire an employee, how to pay taxes.....so the government
just created more jobs by making it easier for people to start their own business and to hire 1 employee. The government also served as a "business
incubator", too.
4. How to fund this? Create a symbiotic business relationship with the national postal system, which is floundering right now. The government is
currently closing down a lot of post offices in cities all over the country. So, use those closed down post offices as DSBS, and also put them in
existing post offices around the country, too. That way, if you want to start up a business, you do it at the post office. Everyone knows where their
nearest post office is.
By using the existing post offices and the post offices that closed down this year, we wouldn't have to build extra buildings, and the fees from the
DSBS licenses go to support and prop up the post office.
The DSBS and the postal departmnt become a SYMBIOTIC business relationship. (In fact, I think we could create symbiotic business partnerships all
over the government, to help save money...but that's another story.)
So, that's my idea. Right now, our country is in trouble, because nobody starts their own businesses anymore, because nobody knows how to start their
own businesses, and when they do learn how, it's ridiculously difficult to hire an employee. Make it easier for small business to start up, and make
it easier for them to hire employees.
-Nikiano
Edit to add: the SBA could be re-worked to take over the functions of the DSBS. Or, we could still call it the SBA, but we could call it the SBA-start
up division. Basically, the SBA, in my mind, is pretty much good for nothing. Make the SBA actually functional and helpful, or dismantle it and use it
to Fund the new DSBS.
[edit on 7-2-2010 by nikiano]