Good Politics are Most Important to Business Owners

Business and practice owners need to consider the most important thing for the continuing development of their business.  Customer service, sales and marketing, product and service development, and productivity

are all a constant but their effectiveness is not.  In the wrong political environment these constants are negatively impacted by slow growth, reduced number of customers or patients, low productivity, and worst of all, reduced customer service.  We are all front-line witnesses to this.

The most devastating feature of a negative political environment is ‘Trickle-Down Negativity’.  We may or may not want to believe in trickle-down economics but the effect becomes very real when our own business venture is impacted by increased regulation, increased taxes, and customers and patients who are less willing or unable to pay.  The environment is difficult and requires more time and effort, thus expense, to overcome the downdraft of a poorly run government.

Economic cycles come and go but political impact can be long lasting and indeed reduce the merits of small business for an extended period of time.  As business owners we must be cognizant of a situation in which this extended impact could be in the heart of our development and earning years, and its impact on our own families and livelihood, not just the success of our business.

We currently operate our businesses in an environment of increasing over-regulation, increasing taxes, withdrawn customer base, and dramatically reduced opportunity in venture.  Our own customer base is eroding, not because we are poor at business, but because the opportunity is poor at best.  When our best customers cannot afford us anymore, there is something wrong.  It isn’t our prices, since we actually feel the need to raise them in order to survive.  It isn’t service if we already feel we are giving away all we can afford.

The politics of our situation, this poor business environment, are not about party or personal feelings toward elements of the platform.  Our situation is about ideology.  We are currently under the thumb of anti-business ideology and an executive branch which seemingly wages war against our potential for prosperity.  Fix the current ideology, return to the belief that business owners and entrepreneurs are the fuel of our existence and opportunity, then we can worry about the platform issues later.

In short, the cost of our current political ideology is very expensive.  When this same ship had to be turned in the past it took 20 years to overcome in one case and 10 years in the last.  We have no way of knowing if the next leadership will be effective enough to keep that time at the low end of the scale.  Can we afford to wait 4 more years to see if the current failed ideology will change course?  If the impact deepens it will take even longer to turn back around.  Are you willing to wait 15 to 25 years for your prosperity to return to reasonable levels?  Start the change now.