Stimulus and SMBs

There is a great blog post today on US News & World Report by Steve King (no not the author of scary stories) that takes a look at the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and how it impacts/benefits small business. President Obama predicted that the stimulus package would create or save 3 to 4 million jobs. Steve King's research shows that within this number approximately 1.6 million of those jobs created or saved will be within the small business industry.

Already, there are 2,600 road construction initiatives being started as a result of the stimulus package and the majority of these contracts are going to small to mid sized construction companies. There is belief that the industries that will benefit the most from the package will be construction, clean and renewable energy and information technology.

Within the construction projects to be funded these are falling into broad categories including road and bridge, building and renovating, wastewater treatment facilities, military and other fed offices.

Within the renewable space, there is concentration on solar and wind projects.

And for info tech, the focus will be around infrastructure including broadband, medical records, education, etc.

There also is an area of the stimulus package that allows small businesses to take tax deductions on equipment purchases.

Finally, another way the administration is trying to jumpstart the economy and support small business is through freeing up credit.

So what does all this mean to marketers trying to sell products and services to small businesses? There are a couple things to consider, including:
1) Target small businesses that will be benefitting from stimulus money (construction companies, health care, etc) to sell your goods especially if you have services that will help support business growth, management, etc.
2) For companies that sell equipment, be sure you have knowledge of the tax deducations/credits your customers may be eligible for and make sure you have this information a click away.
3) Be patient. It is going to take some time for all the stimulus money to reach its destination.

Steve King, Barbara Weltman and Erik Page wrote a nice summary piece on the stimulus package and how it impacts SMBs. This can be freely downloaded at: http://myventurepad.com/submitform/stimulusebook50509/?reference=smt_sking


Steve King
blog: smallbizlabs.com
twitter.com/smallbizlabs