Do Small Business Associations Achieve Anything Tangible?
A Home Business Article Contributed by Christopher Kyalo
Do Small Business Associations Achieve Anything Tangible?
Do small business associations achieve anything substantial? That is the most common question that doubting small business owners will always ask.
The answer to that question is that small business associations have in fact played a significant role in advocating for the interests of small business and have been successful in playing a big part in fending off legislation that has been against the interests of small business.
If we can take the example of the American Small business association, and take a closer look at what they have achieved in recent times, this can be a useful pointer to what one can expect from small business associations.
The American Small Business Association Gives You the Power of a Huge Company
The American Small Business Association represents many small businesses across the nation with the collective buying power of a huge company. This means that ASBA is able to negotiate substantial discounts on products and services that most small businesses need. Naturally only members are able to enjoy majority of the benefits.
This puts any small home business owner in the unique position where they are able to enjoy the huge and increasing benefits of being a small business and yet at the same time reap the rewards that are the reserve of only really huge companies that pay the price of colossal overheads to enjoy the benefits.
Advocacy Achievements of the American Small Business Association
Recent advocacy victories of the American Small Business Association on behalf of small business owners over the last two years alone are impressive. They include pushing for the restoring of home office deductions, getting estate tax cuts (including the creation of a special exemption for small business).
Other benefits that small business owners have gained through the powerful lobby of the group include increased health insurance deductions for self employed persons to 100% over the next 10 years, reduction of capital gains tax rate (including an exemption of up to $500,000 for the sale of a principle home. Other achievements include many successful fights against proposed legislation that would have impacted negatively on small business.
The American Small Business Association is the Only Organization Focused on Really Small Businesses
Although there are numerous other associations that represent the interest of small business, the American Small Business Association is the only organization focused on fighting for the interests of really small businesses. That is businesses with less than 10 employees.
With the rapid rise of ecommerce enterprises and computer technology that allows for the existence of tiny but extremely successful micro enterprises, this is a sector of business that is rapidly rising in numbers. All indicators point to the continued rapid rise of these kind of enterprises, which means that ASBA will continue to rise in prominence and power.
Thus it makes a lot of sense for any entrepreneur to join this particular small business association not only to join their voice with thousands of other entrepreneurs across the nation, but to also enjoy the numerous other benefits that accrue.
