Small businesses are a big part of why South Dakota is such a great place to live and work.
The latest figures from the U.S. Small Business Administration shows that small businesses added 7,200 net new jobs in 2004 to South Dakota's economy, which is a big number in such a sparsely populated state.
According to the SBA, in 2006 South Dakota had about 79,100 small businesses, of which 24,000 were employer firms. They employed 63.5 percent of the state's nonfarm private work force. Also, diversity of business ownership is bringing more of the state's minorities and women into the economic mainstream, according to Jim Henderson, a regional advocate with the Office of Advocacy, an independent small business watchdog within the federal government. The data documents that South Dakota has 300 Asian-owned firms, 100 Black-owned firms, 400 Hispanic-owned firms, 1,300 Native American-owned firms, and 10 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander-owned firms. Also, women-owned firms total 15,600 and generate $1.5 billion in revenue (all in 2002, the latest year available).
Unfortunately, because these businesses are small, policy makers tend to overlook them when discussing and implementing regulatory, tax, and economic proposals. The result is that small business faces an uneven playing field. Just complying with federal regulations costs the nation's smallest firms $7,647 per employee each year, 45 percent more than the per-employee costs of their larger counterparts.
The Office of Advocacy's Regulatory Review and Reform (r3) initiative wants to help change that.
The r3 initiative seeks nominations from small business owners and representatives on the worst federal rules affecting small business that they think are ripe for review and reform. The "Top 10" rules will then be shared with the appropriate federal agencies to make sure they understand their impact on small business, Henderson said. Your help is needed to make r3 a success. Nominations are due by Dec. 31. You can make them by visiting the r3 website at www.sba.gov/advo/r3, sending an email to advocacy@sba.gov, or calling Keith Holman at 1-202-205-6936.
