A common request from business owners is help from their government to make things easier.   What should governments do to help?  by Gary Shotton #000229

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Government Help

By Gary Shotton

                 Hello, My name is Gary Shotton. I’m here as a part of IBBTalks.com.  Inspiring Better Business and today we’re going to talk about the question why doesn’t the government help us. I’ve been talking with groups in mostly in East Africa in developing nations and we try to answer tough questions and that’s one of the questions that has come up for years. If the government would just do something to get us off going why don’t we get some help. I might bust that bubble or change your opinion when I talk about that so what the design of the government in my opinion has never been there. The purpose of the government to hand out money it’s not the purpose of the government to make business themselves they’re not going to buy your goods unless they have a need for maybe some paper and they’re using paper in their offices they’re going to buy some paper but they’re not going to help you get started. In that regard I have a lot of experience with this. I have my dad was in a position to get government help I have had government help in the United States so I’m going to talk about that when the government should really help but first of all I’m going to describe the role of the government what is the purpose of the government those officials that help the economy get better. I do believe that there is responsibility and my analogy is this I’m holding here soccer ball it’s a very nice looking football you had called it in most Western countries and you’re very familiar with the sport of football and I will tell you that the rules are pretty well the same all around the world that way we can play the World Cup tryouts in the World Cup playoffs from regions down to the final World Cup and I watched some of this this last year and you know the referees in that World Cup better know the rules pardon  they better know what’s offsides ,they better know what’s  bounds, they better know the details  so when something comes up they can call it correctly when there’s a foul, when to give a yellow card when to give a red card those are things that things that referee should know but the referees should never touch the ball during play. If a referee was in the wrong spot and the goal was accidentally bounced off the referee and it didn’t go on the goal I mean we would have an uproar that referee probably better move out of the country because there’s going to be some threats on that guy because he was in the wrong spot when it came to being a referee, the referees goal is to keep the game rolling to keep the game moving forward. For everyone to obey the rules and then to enforce the rules fairly well that’s what your government should do they should never be in business they should never actually create a business environment that gives one person and advantage over the other. If the government got involved handing out money to you where would it end how are you going to get the end of this line that gave it to some people and not the other that would be like playing a game of football when the referee wasn’t being fair so, the government is not designed to do that your government should be doing things that would help keep the playing field even keep the score the ability for you to score and keep it fair well we have some problems.

In developing nations a lot of times we know that certain officials inside the government they get their chance it’s kind of like the rainy day fund they’ve been in government for five years so they’re coming towards the end of the their term and I know this happens ,I know it has happened that  they better empty the coffers ,they better take all the money they can because this was the part of the payout of them winning the election and being elected and serving for five years. That’s not fair they should be paid a fair salary they should have some benefit a fair amount . The other thing  that’s interesting about the request for funds from the government is that I’ve asked this I said well you know you guys are wanting some help from the government how many of you pay or let me be fair here how many of the people that are in business do you think they pay a fair tax ,when I asked that question  I got  the answer that in one case well they figured maybe 20% paid their taxes fairly I know that taxes are not something I want to pay either but I pay my taxes fairly I and other governors in the United States they pay their taxes fairly.  The point in this discussion is how  the government going to help you. I want good roads, I want a good school, I want good electricity ,I want the water to run, when I want to call the police when  I need help you. Those things cost money so let’s be honest about it let’s talk about the United States and we’re not perfect in this but I will talk about my dad just a little bit. My dad was a farmer and rancher and he was asked and had opportunity to participate in subsidy farm subsidies at different times they would pay to set aside land and he they would they never gave him money because you’re a farmer that the idea was behind it. The government  could be in a position to make loans guess what a loan must be paid back if you don’t pay back the loan you might  be charged with a crime so your government could make clones well would they make the loans only  in our case that it’s done through an existing bank, an existing bank handles the procedures they have follow the procedures so that the government is loaning money in essence through the existing bank because the existing bank is saying to  the potential business owner say you know your business is just absolutely too risky for me I can’t do that I’m afraid you won’t pay it back.  The government says well  if they meet certain conditions maybe we could loan them some money and lower the amount of money that you as a business owner must put down, by the way as a loan from the government or loans from a bank never is a hundred percent you must come up or I must come up with a percentage of the money needed for the project and I will tell you that most of the time the loans are not for operating expense that means just to pay the bills the loans are for things like a building that something likes a piece of equipment.

In the United States the loans only come after you could present three years of business experience that means you’ve got to get on the stick and make thing happen. Without a startups are just not something people want to loan money for and so once you’ve got three years of experience you have some kind of a track record you’re able to pay your bills with the smaller scale then you might be able to apply for a loan through the bank that the government guarantees or helps with and then you could get have to put out less cash but you’ll still have to put always at least 10% that of the money for the project well. I have had several assistance from my government for loans we call it a Small Business Administration loan and here’s how it works it’s called SBA I had more than three years of experience in its most cases I had five to seven years of experience I wanted to buy some equipment and I didn’t have enough money to buy the equipment which I wanted to borrow the money to borrow for the equipment. The typical loan in the United States would   want  a person borrowing the money would need to be able to put out 30% of the money needed for the equipment or the land but in this case the government said you know let’s just make it a 10% down in other words I just had to come up with 10% and there’s different ways that the bank visit but in essence I only came up with 10% instead of 30% so let’s say I needed $100,000 project, I don’t actually have $30,000 but I can come up with 10,000 and I have 10 3 to 5 years of experience. I have track record, I have taxes, I have my accounting and here we go well. I hope this helps you, I hope you understand that the government should be a part of your business, I hope you have good governments, I hope you have fair governments, I hope your governments can make a difference and I hope you can have a good economy nationwide. Thanks for being a part of IBBTalks.com.  Thank you for Listening.