Jun 10

Jun 10 "Affect of the Election for Small Businesses"

By: Urban Freedom Guest Contributor

Brad Plothow, VP of Marketing & Communications at Womply

At Womply, we surveyed 5,000 small business owners to find out which political and policy issues are most important. This data sheds light on what’s at stake for small businesses in the 2020 election and beyond. A few key findings with analysis:

Small businesses love Trump, not Congress. 44% of small business owners voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, and 83% said they think he’s doing a good job of representing the interests of small businesses. So, unless Trump does things to really erode confidence, he’ll have a strong advantage with small business owners heading into the 2020 election. Not so with Congress. Only 13% of respondents in our survey said Congress is doing a good job of representing their interests, suggesting that congressional seats may be at risk of losing the Main Street vote.
Taxes are king. We asked small business owners to rank their top political and policy concerns. Taxes was the runaway winner, suggesting that Main Street businesses have really felt the weight of uncertainty around taxes in recent years. If the political winds shift toward tax reform that isn’t favorable to small businesses, optimism could wane.
Regulations and health care. Business regulations ranked behind taxes as the second-highest rated issue for small business owners, followed by health care. Obviously, the political environment can lead to significant swings on these issues, which are disproportionately important to entrepreneurs whose business profits are also their personal income. Small business owners will be more likely to vote for candidates who offer business-friendly plans on regulations and health care.
Pragmatism over politics. Some of the top political topics of the day—immigration, gun control, equal pay, and terrorism—barely registered on the list of top concerns for small businesses. If the election becomes a referendum on political issues, small businesses will likely lose interest and potentially lose out on seeing progress on topics that they care most about, namely taxes, regulations, and health care.