The Rules of Thumb blog from MoneyThumb would like to pose this question to our readers who are small business owners. What are you doing to celebrate National Small Business Week? If you are wondering about ways to do so, this article from Business News Daily offers some really great suggestions.
April 29 to May 5, 2018, is National Small Business Week (NSBW). Since 1963, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has sponsored this week, which recognizes and highlights the impact of small businesses across the US. What a wonderful time to show your appreciation for your own small business and your support of others!
Small Business truly is the lifeblood of America. Without small mom and pop stores, what kind of world would we live in any way? We think a pretty sad one. The quote below from the Small Business Development Center agrees with our sentiment that American small business is the true engine of economic growth.
A great read for small business owners is this article from the Small Business Administration, which tracks the history of that very important organization. Here is the first portion of that article:
"Early Versions of SBA
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), created by President Herbert Hoover in 1932 to alleviate the financial crisis of the Great Depression, was SBA's "grandparent"; The RFC was basically a federal lending program for all businesses hurt by the Depression, large and small. It was adopted as the personal project of Hoover's successor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and was staffed by some of Roosevelt's most capable and dedicated workers.
Concern for small business intensified during World War II when large industries beefed up production to accommodate wartime defense contracts and smaller businesses were left unable to compete. To help small business participate in war production and give them financial viability, Congress created the Smaller War Plants Corporation (SWPC) in 1942. The SWPC provided direct loans to private entrepreneurs, encouraged large financial institutions to make credit available to small enterprises, and advocated small business interests to federal procurement agencies and big businesses.
The SWPC was dissolved after the war, and its lending and contract powers were handed over to the RFC. At this time, the Office of Small Business (OSB) in the Department of Commerce also assumed some responsibilities that would later become characteristic duties of SBA. Its services were primarily educational. Believing that a lack of information and expertise was the main cause of small business failure, the OSB produced brochures and conducted management counseling for individual entrepreneurs.
Congress created another wartime organization to handle small business concerns during the Korean War, this time called the Small Defense Plants Administration (SDPA). Its functions were similar to those of the SWPC, except that ultimate lending authority was retained by the RFC. The SDPA certified small businesses to the RFC when it had determined the businesses to be competent to perform the work of government contracts.
By 1952, a move was on to abolish the RFC. To continue the important functions of the earlier agencies, President Dwight Eisenhower proposed the creation of a new small business agency -- Small Business Administration (SBA)."
MoneyThumb would love for our Rules of Thumb blog readers to chime in with a comment on this post, letting us know what YOUR small business is doing to celebrate Small Business Week. If you are looking for ways to make the financial aspects of your small business run more smoothly, check out our PDF Financial File Converters. They truly do save small business owners a lot of time and headaches, which gives you more of what you need the most, time to make your small business even more successful.
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