Don’t Let the Man Get You Down
According to the SBSI report, even though compliance is not a problem area, 54 percent of owners feel that government regulation is becoming more burdensome. This sentiment has also grown in the past year, raising the question of why small businesses have these concerns. One possible explanation for the perception of increasing burdens may be the economy and how it affects the behavior of governments. Local, state and federal agencies may be becoming more stringent in the enforcement of fines and seeking new ways to tax small businesses in an effort to make up for their own revenue shortfall. One example is real estate assessments, an area where local governments are often accused of exaggerating values when they need to raise revenue.
Protect and Serve….Your Data
The other side of compliance is keeping customer information secure. This does tie into regulations that might apply to some data (HIPPA, Sarbanes-Oxley) but overall companies are up on the technology and have implemented systems to secure and protect data. Where they feel the pressure is the aforementioned burden of government regulation. Currently, small businesses feel they can comply but are concerned that any more regulation might cause them to incur infrastructure and personnel expenses that they are not able to support putting them out of business.
Download the SBSI Report Right Now
If you are reading this on the web site, GrowSmartBusiness.com, you should see a link to the report or if you don’t or a looking at this in a feed reader, you can get the report at http://growsmartbusiness.com/wp-content/files/SBSI_February_2010.pdf.
Google+Web.com is now offering forums designed to support small businesses in cities throughout the US. Learn more about these forums here: http://Businessforum.web.com/
Tags: Compliance, SBSI
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