It shouldn't take a genius to understand how important small businesses and other entrepreneurs are to a national economy. Unfortunately, it seems that this is a lesson still being learned in Australia.
Last week, the government passed the Federal Budget; after much talk about making significant reforms in order to help small businesses make their corporate lives easier, it seems those changes didn't materialize.
Specifically, three initiatives that didn't make it are: minimizing the red tape so that small companies could actually understand the tax code, assistance incentives, and encouragement to increase offshore work.
While one can debate the merits of each initiative, there's one thing that we can all agree on: governments are not taking small businesses seriously enough.
Helping small businesses and one-man shops perform better and contribute more to the economy is crucial; it's up to governments to start doing more. Unfortunately, for Australia, you'll have to wait another year!
Its worse in the UK. Brown RAISED taxes for small businesses iin the last budget. So he's clobbering enterprise while blowing billions on unworkable IT projects, the money-pit NHS and armies of useless bureaucrats. I'm seriously thinking of moving my outfit to Ireland.