General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Millennials don't want to be coddled, they want jobs! [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I tried to start a small business and soon realized that I could not realistically do it within the time frame I had. My business was not one in which I would not make enough profit to afford to hire other people to help me out for a number of years. I knew that by the time I built my capital base so that I could hire someone, I would have to retire. There just wasn't time.
One of the reasons that our economy and our businesses in the US are so efficient is that we divide tasks among people with different talents. Having tried to run my own business and also, at other times, having worked for small businesses, I would say that it is not government regulation that is the hindrance to the success of the beginning entrepreneur (and I was in a business that was mostly rules, rules, rules, rules, rules, laws, laws, laws, laws, laws) Rather the challenges are finding investment money (not all that important in my business, but usually the biggest hurdle) and competing with better capitalized, more experienced, better known businesses in the same field.
In fact, a smart businessman in my field learns the rules better than anyone else and then uses his knowledge of the rules to get an advantage over the competition.
So, my suggestion to those who feel that the rules are an obstacle to their success is to learn the rules and understand them better than anyone else. Play them like a musical instrument.
The rules are there to help you, to even the playing field between your business and those of others. If you know the rules of a sport so well when you go out on the playing field that you know how to gain technical advantages over your competitors, you will make the game much easier for yourself. You still have to be the best player, but you will have an advantage over those who do not know the rules as well as you do. So many people who complain about the regulations got into a problem because they violated some obscure regulation. It's the job of a businessperson to know the regulations just as well as they know the technology in their field. A bigger business has a huge advantage in a regulated industry because it can hire lawyers and specialists to learn and work with the regulations.
So, rules are our friends. The better you know them the less they are a hindrance. And most of the rules are there for a reason. That is especially true of building codes, environmental restrictions and rules that are intended to prevent fraud.
One thing I have noticed is that a lot of people, small businessmen in particular, complain about government regulation and focus their complaints on the federal government when in fact the regulations that they perceive to be bars to their success are local. Zoning regulations are a good example.
You can change local regulations. There are many ways to do it. Your local politicians want to be elected, and if you can get the support of other voters, you can petition a local politician to take up your cause and change regulations you don't like. It is harder on the state and federal levels of course. But even there, others who share your problems with certain regulations can work with you to change them.
Good luck.