Does the SBA Do a Disservice to Would Be Entrepreneurial Start-Ups in Their Free Seminars

The small business administration gives away free seminars for those people who’d like to start a business and they often bring in experts from the local community to comment and speak. I have been asked to speak at these seminars and I must tell you it is quite fun to see all the entrepreneurs in the audience that are very interested in learning just how to run a business and get it done. I like to speak about local marketing because that is something I’m really good at and something I enjoy doing and talking about.

However, when you sit through one of these SBA seminars that are run for entrepreneurial startups you get the idea that they are trying to prevent people from starting businesses. It is almost as if they’re trying to dash their dreams. The SBA brings in people that tell them about all the bureaucracy, the licenses, and the rules and regulations. They bring in accountants who are dry, poor speakers and IRS representatives, and all these people to scare them.

If we want America to fly again we are going to have to reduce the regulation on small business and not make it so tough and expensive for people to start their own companies. But that is another topic that no one seems to address including the Obama administration and even the new SBA administrator. 10% of the people in America own a small business you’d think that they would wise up and fix these problems. No such luck.

The SBA should spend more time explaining how entrepreneurs must include business planning, and marketing and customer service and not just all the rules and regulations and paperwork that one must fill out every time they turn around. In my professional opinion and I’ve thought a lot about this over the years for a least three decades; I believe that the SBA has always done a disservice to would be entrepreneurial startups in their seminars.

I’d like to see this problem fixed and I would go so far as to write the syllabus of what goes on in the seminars to prevent them from discouraging people away from their American dream. Please consider all this.