3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: July 13
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?
1. Senate kills small-business tax cut plans. The U.S. Senate on Thursday rejected two small-business tax cut plans proposed by both Democrats and Republicans. According to Politico, Republicans nixed the Democratic bill by a 53-44 vote (60 votes were needed to pass it) that proposed a 10% income tax credit to small businesses that either hire new workers or give current workers a raise and allow companies to write off purchases on new equipment.
The Republican plan got through the House in April but failed with a 24-73 vote in the Senate. The GOP proposed a 20% tax cut for businesses with fewer than 500 workers. Even if the proposal had gotten through the Senate, the White House had threatened to veto it over criticism that the bill would benefit everyone from celebrities to hedge fund managers.
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The bills took a back seat to this week's fight over the Bush-era tax cuts, set to finally expire at the end of the year. President Barack Obama supports only extending the tax breaks that apply to the first $250,000 of income, which will leave many small-business owners, who claim income on their personal tax returns, left to pay the higher rates.
2. Does your business operate like an Olympics team? Is your team performing as best as they can? Or are they getting sucked into daily monotony, which can hinder a good business from becoming a great business.
With the Olympics coming this month, take a few hints from an event where competitors challenge themselves to reach the ultimate goal -- a gold medal (and probably lots of endorsement offers).
"If you are left unchallenged, you perform...adequately. ... You do what is enough. You excel intermittently, fail occasionally, but mostly, you just get by," according to an Inc.com article.
Yet companies can and do operate at a higher level than others, knowing their competitors are right at their backs. They "hone and polish their business model, reshape and retool their decision-making processes, practice their trade relentlessly, until they have it down, perfectly -- or as near to perfect as they can get it," the article says.