Crisis gives opportunity to small businesses: Louis Decuzi

BRUNSWICK, Ohio – As a small business owner in Northeast Ohio, I understand that every crisis presents an opportunity. After seeing the challenges they’ve faced over the past couple of years, small business owners have come away with clear ideas about what it takes to support small businesses moving forward. We also realize the true meaning of community by coming together to ride the headwinds.

According to the US Small Business Administration (SBA), 99% of American businesses are small businesses. We are the backbone of our country’s economy, creating 65.1% of new jobs since 2000.

I’m proud to join more than 2,500 small business owners — including nearly 150 from Ohio — who are bringing energy and energy to Washington, D.C. this week for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Summit. In addition to hearing from top business leaders, we also engage with members of Congress to advocate for policies that reflect the modern economy in which we operate.

It is a call to modernize the SBA, which has not been reauthorized since 2000. It is to advance our policy agenda. I don’t need to tell you how business has changed in the last 22 years. SBA’s mission and policies should reflect these changes.

In fact, small business owners are always looking to innovate. Look no further than applications to start new businesses in the past year. Still amid the pandemic, applications rose to 5.4 million nationwide — a 53% jump from 2019’s pre-closure days.

I say this in a positive spirit at a time when inflation, supply chain disruptions and labor shortages are disrupting and complicating our balance sheet. A new survey of 10,000 small business graduates from the Goldman Sachs Business Education Program finds that while most owners (65%) are optimistic, these challenges continue to take their toll.

For example, in the same survey, 78% of small business owners said the economy had gotten worse in the past three months, and 88% of small business owners said broader economic trends — such as inflation and supply chain issues — were negatively impacting them. Business.

In my work, I made many adjustments to deal with the outbreak. As a manufacturer of electric all-terrain vehicles, a period of complete walk-out and the closure of some of our suppliers has thrown a wrench into our business. Instead of closing, we plan ahead and take a deposit for later delivery.

We were able to plan ahead and continue our work with support for Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 small businesses. Our business, like most small business owners I know, was unable to get the first PPP loans because we didn’t have a relationship with a big bank. Fortunately, Goldman Sachs 10,000 small businesses developed a program with small banks that finally allowed us to access PPP grants. This took the stress out of making a salary even when we had zero sales, allowed us to look ahead in tough times and kept us alive.

Collectively, Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 small business graduates represent more than $17 billion in revenue and 245,000 jobs. As we travel to Washington, we hope policymakers will hear our call to revitalize the SBA to get the capital we need to drive our growth, help our workers get safe and affordable, and ensure the government is living up to it. He pledged to open federal contracting opportunities to more women- and minority-owned small businesses.

Join us in calling on Congress to use this crisis as an opportunity to help small businesses shape the path to economic recovery in the short term and beyond.

Louise DiCuzzi is president of DRR USA, a woman-owned small business in Brunswick, Ohio that manufactures electric ATVs.

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