CLEVELAND — The largest-ever gathering of small business owners is wrapping up in our nation’s capital. The 2022 Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses summit hosted more than 2,500 small business owners across the nation, including about 150 from Ohio.
Chris Fluharty, owner of LC Fluharty Construction LLC located on the east side of Cleveland, is attending the summit for the first time.
“I've come up here with 25 other business owners,” he said.
Fluharty says his business, like many others, has suffered due to inflation, supply, and workforce shortages.
“Some of us are having to make decisions that affect our employees. On annual reviews. Opportunities to benefits or performance bonuses,” he said. “My team is only able to go so far before we are literally handcuffed by the lack of availability to get our hands on the products, to complete the job, in which of course we'll go on to the next job.”
Rhoni Thompson, owner of R.L. Cole Enterprises, is facing the same battles. Though she says employee retentions have been an immediate burden on the trucking business based in Warrensville Heights.
“They affect my bottom line. If your truck is down too much and the employee isn't working, then you're talking about retention. The employee then starts to ask, do I want to be with this company?...and even though we may have the work for the employee, if my equipment is down for longer periods of time than a day or two, then that employee is not making money. So that's affecting their household,” she said. “The biggest strain for me…would be…hiring appropriate staff to drive my vehicles and even administrative staff. I was out of administrative personnel for about five months, which was a significant amount of time.”
Small Business impact by the Numbers
The latest Goldman Sachs surveypoints out that 78% of small business owners say the economy has gotten worse and 93% of them are worried about a recession coming in the next year. As far as whether the U.S. is moving in the right direction, 67% say yes, while 61% say no. However, 65% of those surveyed say they’re still optimistic.
Push for Congress to Act
Both Fluharty and Thompson are joining thousands of other small business owners to advocate for change. The two have the opportunity to share their perspectives and plea for help with Ohio lawmakers including, Congresswoman Shontel Brown, Senator Sherrod Brown, and Senator Rob Portman.
“It lends us the opportunity to further dive into areas that either we may not have thought of or just again, areas that we need some reinforcement,” said Thompson.
Discussions at this year’s summit are centered around access to capital, childcare and government contracting, and more. Though, the goal is to continue to call on Congress to do something it hasn’t done in over twenty years: reauthorize the Small Business Administration to meet the needs of today’s small businesses. While hiring and keeping employees remains one of the biggest challenges, many small business owners have not been able to get specific loans approved because of a lack of funding.
“This creates a terrible inefficiency for us as owners, trying to keep our teams busy and professionally working,” said Fluharty.
