Interesting Business Reads

Generally speaking, tonight’s speech was business as usual – tout the achievements of the Presidential party, affirm the success in the economy, the People’s “little Timmy” story, and some very public challenges wrapped up in an a litany of Dem. programs. But if you take a moment to look past the charismatic delivery, expected platitudes and bipartisan chatter, I think we can gain a bit of insight concerning the dedication of the Obama administration towards SME development.

Note: I don’t actually think the Obama administration has neglected small business development, I just thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at the number of times the term “small business” was referred to while delivering such a publicized speech. As you may or may not know, the State of the Union speech is a highly polished, meticulously analyzed script that takes months to prepare. With so much thought directed towards one speech, I think you’d agree that it’s not unreasonable to gather a few considerations from the word count and analysis of the text. Since this blog is directed towards a Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) audience, I decided to focus on the frequency of SME-oriented words to derive a perspective on the speech that’s not skewed by news, social media or other forms of media. Even though analysis of a “word economy” alone cannot account for the undertones and other forms of communicatory meaning conveyed by the State of the Union speech, I do feel that such an breakdown can provide unbiased, factual insights to be considered in the casual SME discussion. My personal thoughts are included below, but take from it what you will.

Topic: Small Business

Observation:

President Obama mentioned the term “business” 14 times throughout the course of the speech. Of those, two were tangentially related to the SME community, and one comment was directly addresses SME issues. (See SME text below).

(Below are excerpts from which the term “Small Business” was mentioned)

“Today, thanks to a growing economy, the recovery is touching more and more lives. Wages are finally starting to rise again. We know that more small business owners plan to raise their employees’ pay than at any time since 2007. But here’s the thing – those of us here tonight, we need to set our sights higher than just making sure government doesn’t halt the progress we’re making. We need to do more than just do no harm. Tonight, together, let’s do more to restore the link between hard work and growing opportunity for every American.”

“21^st century businesses, including small businesses, need to sell more American products overseas. Today, our businesses export more than ever, and exporters tend to pay their workers higher wages. But as we speak, China wants to write the rules for the world’s fastest-growing region. That would put our workers and businesses at a disadvantage. Why would we let that happen? ”

“Let’s simplify the system and let a small business owner file based on her actual bank statement, instead of the number of accountants she can afford.”

Contextual Message: Growth + Internationalization + Taxes

Thoughts:

SME’s are the backbone of American exceptionalism. From start-ups to family owned bakeries, every bit of economic growth hinges on the strength of the middle class and opportunities created via upward mobility. Since topics such as education and unemployment simultaneously capture the obligatory appeal to the masses while offering a glowing opportunity to “hashtag” SME’s, why only mention them three times? I don’t think start-up and SME’s were given their due frequency, even if they were indirectly implied in the lengthier mentions of education and health care. Considering the fact that SME’s comprise 99.7 percent of U.S. employer firms, I think that the emphasis, or at least frequency of direct mentions, given to small business should have been much higher.