Do you have what it takes to be your own boss?

At times the idea of becoming “independent” sounds like something that interests us and we envision ourselves starting our own business. Dreams of earning better pay as a business person is very stimulating, as well as the idea of building a business with rules to give it that personal touch that makes it a unique enterprise. These things are motivating, but the most important aim of a company should be its role in the community as a provider of quality products and services. It also should be seen as an economic stimulant with the creation of employment for yourself first and subsequently employment for others.

The businesses that acquire better positions in the market are those started by entrepreneurs that have become experts in their own product or service. Whether it’s auto repair, baking cakes, or in the commercial activity of buying and selling products. The owner of each one of these businesses knows the secret of their product or service. In our Hispanic community this is what we have most of, men and women who have done their job for years, and have discovered the love of doing what they do. They have put their personal touch to the product, service, the sales process or maybe even to the customer service to that which they do. That particular activity that makes you dream about a business could be a hobby that you may have practiced for a long time and doing it really brings you joy. It could be a sport, child care, almost any moral activity with conformity to the law can become an enterprise. Once the entrepreneur discovers and develops its technical abilities they must add a second very important factor that sometimes we forget to consider: the administrative abilities. Those are important because we must be able to put the idea of a business into a plan. That plan must include marketing, financial and operational goals. It may seem intimidating but it really isn’t. In one way or another we all have planned to save for a car, to upgrade our home appliances, we have delegated the house work, we have promoted the best of ourselves to landing a job or even to enamor a loved one. All these are administrative abilities that may be learned.
Another determining factor to be successful in business is self-motivation. At the beginning the entrepreneur might run into an array of challenges during the learning, establishment and operation of the business. On top of producing the services or articles that the company sells, almost invariably he will need to play administrative roles. He must at some point become the laborer, assistant, sales manager, buyer and many other duties in the micro enterprise. All these abilities will be learned many times through trial and error. To dream is the first step to start your business. To put it into practice you simply have to have a good plan, the disposition to learn and to admit when you are wrong. Most of all you must have a great time doing all the functions that your business requires of you. The entrepreneur is a mix of a stubborn adventurer, counselor and a moderate optimist of himself and of his own business.

Job Creation

In job creation activities I can see two big fields:

1.         Micro and Small business

Micro and Small business are local economy boosters and asset builders. The principal need for these businesses at a local level is client base building and retention, and infrastructure is needed to a lower extent. Micro and small businesses are slow pace tax contributors and macro economy builders; however they are strong asset builders for low income to middle class families.

Boosting Micro and Small business creation is important for the local economy. This creation helps low income to middle class families with asset building, as an income generator, and with tax base creation at a slower pace.

Small and Micro Businesses are mostly in the service, construction and farming sector. One of the biggest challenges they face is the new blue collar employees they need to hire. Since these job sectors are mostly performed by immigrants currently unable to be hired because of the lack of documentation, an employer who wants to bring employees legally would need to wait up to 7 years.

For startups, the support is needed in Technical Assistance, Business and Financial Literacy Education, and access to capital.

2.         Big factories and corporations

The big factories’ principal need at a local level is infrastructure and handwork to establish their facilities in the state.

Retail corporations need both infrastructure and a big client base to establish their facilities in the state.

They are income boosters and big payroll tax payers at a local and federal level, and big property tax payers at a local level. However, in most of the cases, they are not very efficient in helping low income and middle class families build their own assets. High tech factories, due to the lack of high tech young engineers in the state, are bringing a good percentage of high tech employees to take care of their current job needs. Due to the current immigration laws, new employees are only temporary employees that can’t become permanent residents, which helps to share their expertise and experience gained in the field.

Boosting the establishment and retention of the big factories and retail corporations would help build the state macro economy. However this could become a risk for local small and micro business. Though they are big tax payers in the short term, at the long term level they could be a risk for the asset building of low income families and the middle class.

I believe that for supporting the wealth creation of low income families and the middle class, both Big Business and Small Business are very important as job creators.  The government should provide a balance in the support provided to both kinds of businesses, and should provide this support in the unique way each kind of job creator needs.

A third job creator sector is healthcare and education. I believe this sector should be considered as a high long term ROI INVESTMENT not expense. To make money, our state needs to spend money. To create jobs, Oregon needs to hire all those immigrant blue collar workers that the market demands now.