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I’m an optimist. I think to be an entrepreneur, you have to be. You just have to dig in during the tough times and work hard to make your business work, and you have to believe it will.

We all know we are finally starting to see the sun after some pretty dark years in the world economy. We were just starting to look toward what comes next, and now we are being told in all sectors that things are going to get bad again. Rising oil prices due to revolutions happening all over the Middle East, food shortages due to crazy weather this winter, and the value of the dollar dropping are all contributing to this feeling of impending doom that is leveled over the country by the media.

Now, I know all these things are happening, and yeah, it’s a little scary. But I have to look on the bright side. Maybe all this trouble over oil will finally force the administration and Congress to address the matter of drilling in our own country. We have massive, massive amounts of oil in the Dakotas, let’s take advantage of that, bring some jobs, create some capital.

As for the food shortage, I think when there is a possibility that people won’t have enough food available, maybe we shouldn’t be making fuel out of corn, and use that food for …food.

So, the bright side of things. That’s really not as tough as you might think after all that. Things are looking up, even with the higher gas prices and some talk of food shortages. According to a recent article on Fox News, business owners all over the globe are beginning to see an uptick in business. They are starting to hire.

A poll by the Young President’s Organization revealed that (direct quote): “61% of CEOs feel conditions are improving (up 46% from the last quarterly survey) and 67% of respondents believe conditions will continue to improve in the next six months.”
Read more: http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/legal-hr/2011/02/10/optimisim-businesses-applicants/#ixzz1FlHxJkY7

This is a survey taken all over the globe, with all sizes of small business. I think if the guy in Sri Lanka thinks things are looking up, certainly the folks here in the US are going to be finding jobs and getting back to work in the near future.

One really interesting point made in this article is that many times, people don’t think to reach out to small businesses. They go to the big job sites and think that they can find everything there. Not all small businesses use those sites, and if you have listened to any news reports in the last couple of years, you know that 70% of all jobs in America are with small businesses – so check out the small business sector! We’re here, we’re successful, and we need people.

Out of Business

Some things about big government, and this administration in particular, really tick me off make me angry. A report released just this week by the White House says that the administration has begun yet another program aimed at destroying business. Of course, small business in particular could be especially damaged – most don’t keep attorneys on retainer.

The new program set up by the Obama Administration provides workers who hate their boss, or have some complaint about their boss with a hot line number to the American Bar Association! Yeah. You read that right. Are you kidding me? The Department of Labor can’t handle it, so we redirect these people to LAWYERS???

Lawyers tend to make a big, expensive mess of everything. This seems to be a somewhat underhanded way of making life for small business, especially, even more difficult. The administration says out of one side of it’s mouth that they want to help small business because they are counting on us to start hiring. Then they go and put a roadblock up.

If you are any kind of disgruntled worker, I think there are several things you should do. Number 1 would be talking directly to your supervisor, even if he or she is the problem. If that doesn’t resolve it, follow the chain of command. Even if it isn’t resolved there, how many people are going to go and track down the Department of Labor? How many would even know to do that? I think most people would have to be pretty upset to go that far (and I am not saying that there are not instances where it is necessary), but a free hot line with advice from a lawyer? I think this is asking for a wave of calls, and a lot of money, and a lot of aggravation. It just screams ‘frivolous lawsuit’. Especially if the only way these lawyers make any money is by suing businesses. This is a bad, bad idea. I really, really hope that businesses don’t end up like so many medical practices – too many lawsuits, too many lawyers fees and insurance rates going up. But, that’s what happens when you get lawyers involved.

People get disgruntled, it happens. What do you do when an employee has a complaint? Refer them to HR? Have a sit down with the employee and hear them out?

Unless you’ve been trapped under some kind of large land mass, you’ve heard about the protests in Egypt, the fact that the government has tried to shut down all access to the web, and the fact that it is now targeting reporters, including Fox Business Network’s Ashley Webster, and Fox News’ Greg Palkot and Olaf Wiig, who were attacked and detained in Cairo by pro-government supporters.

This is certainly a major concern, and I am not up on foreign affairs enough to weigh in on the whole mess. What I did want to comment on was Google’s attempts to keep information coming out of the country, amidst government shut downs of web access. They formulated a system where people can call a hot line and leave a voice mail message that would then be tweeted.

I’m not one to give lots of props to Google. I do think they come up with useful and innovative products, but this one time, I’d like to give them props for being able to go old school a little to give a country a voice when it is needed. We’re still getting pictures and news out, so the government hasn’t been able to completely shut down the media. The in country media has been almost entirely eliminated, so while we see what is happening in Egypt, many of it’s own people would not be able to if not for cell phones and this hot line set up by Google. Score 1 for Google. Perhaps in the coming days, more ideas such as this will be needed as many foreign journalists have been rounded up and ousted from the country. I think we all need to say a prayer for Egypt.

Well, you all know by now that I’m not much of a fan of the current administration. That being said, there were some fairly decent moments in last night’s State of the Union address.

I will say one thing right off the bat – not much of it was about our current state of the Union. The speech itself was much more about the future. President Obama spoke a lot about what he wants to do, plans to do, and so on. A lot of it sounded good, great even. The skeptic in me wonders how much of it is sincere, and how much of it is a calculated move to the center as he begins to campaign for the next election.
A few points that I am a little leery of:
1. The renewable energy plan – how does he plan to pay for this technology? I’m thinking I see some big dollar signs on future energy bills.
2. Not extending the tax credit to those in the top 2% tax bracket – you know, the job creators? I think this has been debated to death, but if it were you getting your taxes cut, would you trim your personal spending back, or just not hire a few people?
3. Amnesty – the prez. alluded to amnesty without coming right out and saying it. How would his plan work? He made mention of students of illegal immigrants who are excelling – do we just keep the honor roll students and kick the rest out? Somehow, I don’t think that’s what he had in mind, and the subsidizing and entitlements are not going to come to a roaring halt.

However, the president made some points that made sense. I hope he meant them, and will follow through with:
1. Cutting back the size and scope of the federal government. He mentioned how ridiculous and inefficient it is… here’s hoping he follows through and gets rid of even a small percentage of the bureaucracy.
2. Bringing America into the 21st Century with high speed rail, high speed internet, a solid infrastructure, and new innovation (wondering how to pay for it all, but it sounds good). – I love to hear the president sound so utterly American. “We are the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook. In America, innovation doesn’t just change our lives. It’s how we make a living.”
We are the country who innovates and creates. I think these things should be rewarded, and it was good to hear that he thinks so, too. Hopefully he’ll back it up with action.
3. Education. Period. I hope that his new plan to make sure that America’s math and science meets the standards and levels of other countries actually works. I like that he is encouraging people to become teachers. I like the idea of raising standards and not accepting excuses from bad teacher. Hope it works.

Overall, while he certainly didn’t leave his left wing roots far behind, this was the first time I remember him really backing innovation, free enterprise, and bowl me over – tort reform! If only this isn’t just a move to the center to engage more of America. I hope Obama means a lot of what he said last night, and acts on it. We’ll see.

I’d like to offer a prayer for those who were hurt or killed in Arizona on Saturday, most especially the nine year old girl who was killed, as well as Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who is in intensive care. Please pray for healing of the hearts of the families left behind, as well as the well being of those injured.

It’s a terrible thing, something no one ever expects, a gunman at any sort of public gathering, let alone a political one. It’s just not what happens in America. Except that it did. Now many are pointing fingers, trying to place blame on one person or another based on comments made in previous years, previous campaigns and what have you.

I just want to say this: It’s no one’s fault save the guy with the gun. He is a nutjob. Jared Loughner spends his time making crazy, inflammatory videos and reading the works of Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler. He is thought to be mentally unstable, and so, shooting up a bunch of innocent people on a Saturday didn’t seem like a bad idea to him.

Now, some are trying to tie this awful event to politics, because it was a political gathering, because it involved a Congresswoman from a district that Republicans hoped to gain? Utter nonsense, and a slap in the face of victims of the tragedy that occurred in Arizona on Saturday morning. Shouldn’t we be focused instead, on the lives of the people affected, and the state of Arizona, rather than pointing irrational, ridiculous fingers?

The sheriff of Pima County has gone so far as to say that perhaps people should not speak their minds so freely, if a crazy person is going to take what they say to heart and follow words with terrible deeds. No one EVER meant any harm to come to the Congresswoman, or any of the people in the crowd. Again, the focus needs to be on prosecuting Jared Loughner, not one political group or another.

Do we need to be respectful in our political discourse? Of course. Have we, in many cases, gotten so far away from respectful that we, as a country should be shamed? Quite often, my answer to that would be a resounding “yes”. So, what do we do about it? Where do we go from here? I say we pray for Arizona. We do what we can for the families and those injured, and we make an effort to be kinder, more respectful, in our political discussions. BUT, we must never be afraid to make our voices heard. We cannot allow madmen to create an environment of fear where we can no longer have discussion, even heated, vehement discussion about politics and matters of state.