The MerchantCircle Blog

The MerchantCircle blog lets local and small business owners know what's going on in their marketing world. Whether it's online marketing solutions, yellow page directory statistics, business video solutions, or general merchant musings, we make sure you're informed.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

How Many Business Owners Would Be Affected Under Obama's Plan?

As the economy becomes the focal point of this Presidential Election, Joe the Plumber is still making headlines all over the place. He has already decided to endorse Senator John McCain. We've previously written about how Joe Wurzelbacher might have trouble trying to buy the business from his employer, but even if he were able to, he would join less than 2% of business owners making more than $250,000. That's the threshold of increased taxation under Senator Barack Obama's plan. According to a CNNMoney.com Small Business story:

"....even using the broad definition of small business that McCain likes, very few owners would see their own taxes rise. That's because the lion's share of taxable income comes from a small number of wealthy businesses. Out of 34.7 million filers with business income on Schedules C, E or F, 479,000 filers fall into the top two brackets, according to an analysis of projected 2009 filings by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The other 34.3 million - or 98.6% - would be unaffected by Obama's proposed rate hike."
A recent Fortune/Zogby poll showed 45% of small business owners were 'worse off' than they were three years ago. This falls in line with our recent MerchantCircle poll showing more than 55% of business owners seeing a 'moderate' to 'severe' decline in sales and revenue over the last year. Even with those results under the current administration, many small business owners seem to have separated from blaming one party or the other. 54% of members surveyed said they would vote for Senator McCain, compared to 36% for Senator Obama. Small Business owners around the nation also weighed in on CNN:
"I'd really love to see major change in the government. I don't think the problems are going to be solved in the next four to eight years, but at least we have to start somewhere."
Read what our small business owners are saying here. In an article on Politico.com, the author argues that raising taxes under Obama's plan would mean less businesses would be interested in expanding, thus less new jobs produced.
"The economic law that 'taxing something more and getting less of it' would apply. Fewer Americans would be interested in opening or expanding small businesses. Tax evasion and legal tax avoidance would spike, as tax shelters would once again become a booming industry."
The argument on both sides for who will help out Main Street America the best, is nearing the home stretch. Less than six days remain until election day. Sincerely, Kevin Community Relations

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Friday, October 17, 2008

Say it Ain't So Joe the Plumber!

JoeWell turns out Joe the Plumber's going to have a harder time buying A Newell Plumbing Repair than we thought. First of all, he isn't even a licensed plumber, which is needed for him to work in Toledo, OH. That's easily attainable, but is he even in any position to buy the company he works at? According to court documents, he owes nearly $1,200 in back taxes. When he asked Senator Obama about the $250,000 tax threshold, maybe he meant in the long-term future. To top matters off, his actual first name is Samuel and his middle name is Joe. Check out the back and forth discussion on our comment board from small business owners weighing in on Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama. While the conversation is predominantly pro-McCain, the plumber's union does support Senator Barack Obama. Sincerely, Kevin Community Relations

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Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Presidential Election Survey Results: Small Business Owners Support McCain over Obama by a Large Margin

Total Even as new polls suggest Barack Obama is widening his lead over John McCain amongst likely voters, 53% to 45% supporting Obama according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation, small business owners surveyed in a MerchantCircle study overwhelmingly support McCain. The survey was conducted from September 25 to October 6 to over 4,300 small business owners in all 50 states. MerchantCircle is the largest online network of local business owners in the nation with 625,000 members.

The surveys were conducted voluntarily from business owners via email. Over 96% of the responders intend to vote in November, although 10% are still unsure which candidate will help small businesses the most.

10 questions were asked, shown below:

Q 1 - 2

Q 3 - 4

Q 5

Q 6

Q 7 - 8

Q 9

Q 10

Here are some interesting stats from breaking down the results:

  • Of those (1602 surveyed) who rated that the current administration has represented the interests of local business as “not well at all”, 75.3% indicate they will vote for Obama, 8.7% McCain, 11% don’t know; and 4.9% other.
  • 55% have seen a “Severe” or “Moderate” decline in sales and revenue over the past year; 49.4% of McCain supporters versus 40% for Obama supporters.
  • McCain had the largest margin of support from businesses with 21+ employees – 64.7% to Obama’s 27.8%. Businesses that identified themselves as having one employee had the closest margin of difference – 47.9% indicated they would vote for McCain to 42% who would vote for Obama.

For individual state break downs, or special requests for specific data, please email Jennifer Roberts at Support@MerchantCircle.com.

Sincerely, Kevin Community Relations

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