Small business carrying us out of the pit

By Mass High Tech staff

Video Gallery

Local Motors: Open source car maker

Terrafugia Transition First Flight

How is the economic crisis affecting tech companies?

Survey: Connecticut lacks skilled technical workers [February 27, 2008]

Russian venture firm puts $100K into MassChallenge 2012 [February 10, 2012]

MassCEC, MTTC awards $120K for clean energy projects [February 8, 2012]

Verizon and Coinstar team on Netflix-like venture [February 6, 2012]

While the nation is focused on the Obama administration’s plan to rescue big business from the current economic troubles, it is — and always has been — small business that is the engine that drives the economy, particularly the innovation economy.

One area traditionally associated with big business is international trade. Yet nearly 89 percent of all businesses sending goods and services to foreign markets from one New England state — Connecticut — were small to midsize businesses, according to a recent report from the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. Those smaller businesses helped drive the Nutmeg State to an 11 percent growth in exports in 2008 compared to the previous year.

While the largest sector exporting goods from Connecticut was industrial machinery, other key, tech-heavy sectors included aircraft and spacecraft parts; electric machinery; optic, photo, and medical instruments; and plastics.

But every effort coming out of Washington is not focused on the big economic players — just last week, the administration unveiled new rules under the Consumer and Business Lending Initiative. Those rules call for the Treasury Department to make direct purchases of securities backed by Small Business Administration loans to get the credit market moving again for small business.

With small business already driving what little economic good news there is these days, such moves can only help, and the sooner the administration acts on such efforts, the better for the economy.

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.