Big Help From The Little Guys

Stereotyping is an action of thought and perception, used to define discourse communities as a whole and individuality mostly in a negative way. It is an outsider’s perspective of what they may not understand or assumptions that are considered to be facts based on a few members of a particular community to be true for the entire discourse.  Stereotypes are not entirely incorrect. It is generally based on the occurrence of repetitive events that involves a particular discourse member or group. Stereotyping extends beyond racial perceptions; in every discourse community there are stereotypes describing them as a whole.  In the discourse of entrepreneurialism there are a few stereotypes that had cross my path describing small businesses and the self-employed.  The first stereotype that I heard was from a good friend of mine. We were conversing about our random thoughts at Starbucks one day and I said to him, “you should open your own business.” His reply, “I don’t want to open my own business because I’ll be its slave.” The second stereotype, being self-employed means sitting around in a suit and tie with bunny slippers. Also, small businesses do not make serious contributions to the economy; I strongly disagree with this particular stereotype. The self-employed and small businesses contribute heavily to our economy and community. Roughly 95% of all small businesses in the U.S. are self-employed entrepreneurs or micro-businesses with many that are run out of a home office.  The tough economic time and unstable employment has laid-off workers joining the self-employed discourse. In fact, start up business is growing in large numbers, hitting its highest levels in 2009. Although small businesses are vulnerable to harsh economic times they are very aware of economic conditions and policy changes. The self-employed businesses have grown rapidly faster than any other segments of the economy and have been historically a key driver of economic recovery after a recession. Figures from Small Business Administrations (SBA) shows that small businesses with fewer than 20 employees increased employment by 853,074 during 2001-2002. Also in 2004, the SBA estimated 23,974,500 businesses in the U.S. Of the 5,683,700 firms with employees, 5,666,600 were small firms. Kristie Arslan, executive director of legislative offices of National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) states, “Not only do the self-employed contribute nearly a trillion dollars to our nation’s economy every year, but their businesses allow them to successfully provide for their families and contribute to their local communities.” I would like to suggest to those who stereotype the self-employed and small businesses do not contribute to the economy to keep quiet.