The Final Push

Congress is set to vote this Sunday on the Health Care Reform Bill and it promises to be a showdown.

Your representatives need to hear from you!  They are keeping tallies in their office (see below from Representative Rob Wittman’s Office) as to how their constituents feel – literally adding one to Pro or Con as they receive the calls and emails.

You DO make a difference – if only 100 constituents call or email you represent 1% of their polling population! For more information on how to contact your representatives click here:  IFA Health Care Reform Information

If you feel passionate either way, don’t waste this opportunity to feel that you are part of the system, not just a victim of it!

Children of Divorced Parents

I am very fortunate in that I am not a child of divorced parents, my parents have been married 31 years and counting.

The “child” I am referring to is the American people.  Our “parents” are the Democratic and Republican party.  We are completely at their mercy right now and they are not fighting fair, nor are they looking out for our best interests. It is time for them to grow-up and start looking out for the people who elected them instead of the people who funded (and continue to fund) them.

Dear White House Administration and Congress,

We elected you to make smart and wise decisions on OUR behalf, so please get your priorities straight. If this were a real “divorce” the judge would have ruled that neither parent is fit to take care of us and we need to go to family counseling.  Counseling may be just what is in order – we could all get our true feeling and beliefs out on the table and move forwarded as a united family.

My parents set a great example for me – they didn’t always agree on how to raise or discipline me and my two brothers, but when a family decision was made, that was it.  We moved forward and didn’t look back.

Please try and get along, us “kids” are hearing all of your arguments – the name calling and slandering, and it really isn’t good for us.

Sincerely,

The American People

Fox Business Video – Will Obama Help Small Business?

My thoughts on the President’s State of the Union Address as told to David Asman.

To sum it up, “Put your money where your mouth is.”  Entrepreneurs are ready and willing to lead this economy to recovery, but we still need capitol and we definitely don’t need higher taxation.

The President’s State of the Union Part II – First Things First

So far I have been asked by several people today what I think about the proposed tax incentives for businesses that hire and promote employees.  I can put it pretty succinctly with, “First things first.”

I would love to hire more people.  I enjoy the process of bringing on new folks.  Even more than hiring, I really enjoy the process of helping them develop their strengths and find a career path.  So what’s the problem?  How can I hire more people, when I am sweating my payroll every two weeks?

Businesses hire and promote when they are GROWING.  At best right now most businesses are sustaining.  We are OK, we are getting by, but most of us will need outside capital in order to grow.

First – send that $30 billion to community banks while strongly encouraging them to lend to local small businesses.

Second – the small business owner applies for and receives a line of credit or a loan for expansion

Third – the small business hires new people to help them grow the business, and promotes current employees to help manage the new people

Fourth – a year later when the small business files their taxes, they get a little “gift” from the IRS and are able to – wait for it – put that money back into their business and hire more people!

Wow, magical isn’t it?  Tax incentives will work – but we have to shore-up small business lending FIRST.

The President’s State of the Union

For the record – I remain perched on the fence between Democrats and Republicans. I have not yet found a compelling reason to align with either party. That doesn’t mean however, that I don’t have very strong feelings when it comes to policy that impacts small business.

I have been asked to speak about my response to the State of the Union as a small business owner tomorrow on Fox Business. I just finished listening, and I am mixed on how I feel. I’d love to believe that $30B really will be directed to community banks, but I am finding that very hard to believe considering how difficult it has been to continue the funding of the very successful SBA Recovery Act.  I just can’t get past the fact that there now exists a “loan queue” for SBA loans.  I am not kidding, check it out for yourself here:   http://www.sba.gov/recoveryq/index.html (and I have to point-out that this queue is for already lender-approved loans) Due to the recent appropriation of approximately $130M more, we bought some time and it is predicted that this money will last until the middle of February. I am glad the vote was passed to add these funds to the Recovery Act – but really, $130M? Aren’t small businesses supposed to be “the way our economy will recover”? Hard to take these missives seriously when such a very small percentage of stimulus funds have gone to small businesses.

I say, put your money where your mouth is.  If small business is going to be the savior of the American economy let’s make some real financial commitments to help us accomplish just that.

More to come, I’m just getting started!

Eric Bolling Is A Pretty Nice Guy (AKA My interview at Fox Business News)

A few days before Christmas we traveled to New York City to see the sites but also for an interview with Fox Business News.  New York is an amazing city anytime of the year, but at Christmas time the city becomes magical.  Bryant Park was transformed into a Rockwellian ice rink complete with booths serving hot chocolate and cupcakes as well as craftspeople selling their unique wares.

But back to my interview and Eric Bolling.  I was asked to appear on his show to talk about Dogtopia – our journey from creation to a growing franchise with twenty locations across the country.  I have been to a few television studios in the past, but I was very pleasantly surprised by how accommodating and helpful the producers and staff had been.  While waiting in the Green Room Eric came in and introduced himself, even took a few moments to just chat, as well as meet the dog I was bringing on set who was available for adoption.

The interview was fun and went super-fast, as they always seem to do.  Afterwards Eric stayed for a few minutes so we could get a quick photo together and even mentioned that I should come do his Happy Hour show in the new year.  (I’m still waiting for my invite, but I am not afraid to bug him.)

All in all, a great experience.  Thank you Fox Business and thank you Eric!

Will Tax Credits Help Small Business? Your World With Neil Cavuto

At the last minute I was asked to speak about tax incentives for small businesses – and I was more than happy to oblige! It was quite an experience, and the first time I had ever been interviewed via satellite – rather strange when you can’t see the person you are talking to!

Bottom line – the Administration needs to allocate more funds to small business lending. The Recovery Act allocated funds to be used to provide 90% guarantees on SBA loans and drastically reduced or eliminated the fees associated with SBA loans. (In my case I saved over $11,000 in fees!) Let’s hope they can make this happen sooner rather than later and keep the momentum behind small business lending and job creation.

Here is the interview:

Amy Nichols on Your World with Neil Cavuto

PS I really enjoyed Neil’s waste no time, keep it moving style of interviews

Dogtopia in USA Today!

We are honored and excited to be featured today in the USA Today newspaper and online!

Here is the article:

Dogtopia in USA Today

And the video featuring lots of cuties from Dogtopia of Tysons Corner, VA!

Dogtopia Video on USAToday.com

I hope you enjoy them both – big thanks to Dogtopia of Tysons for being so patient while we filmed, and Jordan, Maria, and Liz for being willing participants!