Obama Gets Entrepreneurial Earful

President Barack Obama attends the entrepreneurship breakout session with SBA Administrator Karen Mills at the Winning the Future Forum on Small Business at Cleveland State University.

Image: Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy

Today was small businesses’ day in the sun on President Barack Obama’s Win the Future tour.

It didn’t matter that it was cloudy and cold in Cleveland, a site chosen for the president’s Forum on Small Business because the Rust Belt city is reinventing itself as a biotechnology and clean-energy center. Obama brought along Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, three other cabinet members, his top two economists, and Small Business Administration chief Karen Mills to Cleveland State University for breakout sessions with small-business owners. Also on hand was AOL founder Steve Case, who chairs the new Startup America Partnership and will serve on the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

“I did not come to Cleveland to talk,” Obama said. “I came here to listen.

“We want your stories—your successes, your failures, what barriers you’re seeing out there to expand, what you’ve learned along the way. What would make it easier for you to grow? What would make it easier for you to create new jobs? How can America help you succeed so that you can help America succeed?”

To get these answers, Obama administration officials hosted breakout sessions on the following five topics: inspiring entrepreneurship, accessing capital, training workers with the new skills they need, accelerating a clean-energy economy, and growing exports.

Those are important topics, especially for entrepreneurs, but they aren’t necessarily what’s top of mind for most small-business owners right now. A recent National Federation of Independent Business survey found that small-business owners say their biggest problems are weak sales, taxes, and government regulations. NFIB members, however, tend to be Main Street businesses that employ a handful of workers, not the fast-growing entrepreneurial companies that the president’s Startup America initiative is focused on.

Research by the Kauffman Foundation shows that most of the nation’s net new jobs aren’t created by small businesses in general, but by the small subset of young, innovative companies that grow rapidly. That may be true, but “plain vanilla” small businesses are important as well. We won’t have a healthy economy if entrepreneurs in hot new industries are thriving, but the corner grocery store is going under. Just take it from Obama:

“You’re the anchors of our Main Streets, small businesses built by folks who live and work in the community and look out for one another that end up determining success or failure of cities and towns,” he said today. “They’re the cornerstone of America’s promise, the idea that if you’ve got a dream and you’ve got the work ethic to see it through, you can succeed.”

Most small businesses aren’t looking to export their products or develop new technologies. They just want their sales to be higher than their expenses so they can take home a little profit. That’s why the Obama administration, as it shoots for the stars, must also pay attention to the comparatively mundane concerns of small-business owners just trying to scratch out a living.

Today, the White House announced plans to hold eight roundtables around the country to hear from entrepreneurs on how to reduce regulatory barriers that get in the way of business growth. That addresses one of small businesses’ top concerns, but these roundtables appear to be targeted more toward entrepreneurs than small businesses in general.

The first roundtable will be March 3 in Durham, North Carolina, followed by a trip to Austin, Texas, for the South By Southwest festival March 12. That festival is known for its hip bands and independent films, but it also includes a focus on emerging technologies. Other sites on this Startup America: Reducing Barriers tour include Boston, Silicon Valley, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, and Boulder, Colorado.

Feedback from these sessions will be included in a report that will be published later by the administration. Small-business owners and entrepreneurs who can’t attend these sessions are invited to submit their comments online through the Startup America site.

Obama is smart to focus on high-growth entrepreneurship as a way for the U.S. to win the future. But he shouldn’t neglect the less-sexy small businesses that are just trying to survive the present.

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