Nurtured small businesses create 10,000 new jobs

By YANJIE WANG
Capital News Service
LANSING – With an unemployment rate at 9 percent in July and the loss of 500,000 workers in Michigan since 2001, the good news seems to be the creation of nearly 10,000 jobs in small business across the state since January.
The new jobs reflect a situation improved by the business tax reform, regulation revision in the state, as well as an increasing sense of entrepreneurship, experts say.
Business tax reform exempts most small business from business taxation, providing a financial advantage for people to step into small businesses, and a strong co-business attitude helps individuals understand regulations and laws, Rob Fowler, Small Business Association of Michigan president, said.

Allen Cook from the Michigan District Office of U.S. Small Business Administration said starting a business often is an economic decision by individuals who can’t find a job in large company to. “People are looking to take control of their own economic destiny,” he said.
Fowler said, “They have seen that working at a big firm business won’t guarantee job security any more.”
Jobs created by small businesses are beneficial, Fowler said, because “they are more sustainable, they represent from-the-ground-up economic recovery and they support community prosperity across the state.”
Small businesses in Detroit accounted for 38.5 percent of the 10,000 jobs reported to the Small Business Association of Michigan.
Detroit has a strong network of business incubators and trainings available to entrepreneurs, Emily Doerr, manager of Small Business and Urban Initiatives from Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, said.
D:Hive, a company that help individuals prepare for their own business, provides a class named “BUILD” which supports entrepreneurs in the process of turning their ideas for a program, project or business into action. Participants focus on sustainability, durability, scale and potential replication; hear from community experts on entrepreneurship; and create a business plan in a collaborative environment.
Thirty-six potential entrepreneurs graduated from its BUILD business planning class, Doerr said.
TechTown, another incubator which helps with business plans, start-up funds, low-cost space, etc., has participated with 678 small businesses, Doerr said.
Michigan is a place with a lot of working opportunities, and IT and computer services are going to become a strong job incubator for small business, Fowler said.
“A lot of company who are attracting workers from California. They come to Michigan because they may not make as much money as they do in San Francisco, but the cost of living here is so much more reasonable than it is on the West Coast,” he said.