Why Business Owners Should Plan on the Obvious

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Just check out recovery.gov, fedbizopps.gov, grants.gov, and all the other feeling-the-government's-love-dot-gov Web sites. Why? Because thousands of business owners are already doing it. They're learning the ropes for bidding, working, and then collecting from the government (or the government's beneficiaries). Sure, many business owners believe in less government, the right to bear arms, and the freedom to listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd any damn time we want. But for now they're chasing down money from the obvious source: Uncle Sam.

Come to think of it, maybe they should be chasing Ryan Seacrest instead. He just did a $35 million deal with American Idol. Obviously their payroll costs, like many small businesses' costs, are going up. The minimum wage is already up more than 24% from three years ago. Social Security needs funding. People who thought they would retire…now can't. Oh, did I mention health care? Ask any business owner and they'll tell you that the most important part of their company is their people. But they're not getting any cheaper.

Real Estate is a Good Investment

Luckily there are a lot of smart unemployed people out there now. So they're outsourcing more work to them. And they're asking our own people to do more and more often, rather than hire additional workers. Smart business owners who plan for growth in 2010 are planning to do so with as few people as possible. And to invest their money wisely.

And one good place to invest that money is real estate, where the market has bottomed out. A lot of those empty storefronts you're seeing aren't because someone went out of business. It's because they've relocated to a better spot for less money. The recession has brought property values within reach of many of us and lowered rental rates at the same time.

Many business owners think it's obvious that inflation will go up and the value of the dollar will go down. So they're making their overseas bets. They're hiring agents in developing markets, like China and India. They're outsourcing sales jobs so they can identify more potential overseas customers. They're looking for low cost (and hopefully local) sources of supplies and locking in prices for as long as they can. They're building out their Web site and communications systems to handle the 24/7 demands of selling and servicing to markets around the world.

Ah yes, the obvious. Right in front of our eyes. Some business owners see it. Others don't. My wife and I saw the obvious a few years ago. That's when we decided to get a dog rather than having another pain-in-the-neck 2-year-old running around.

Gene Marks, CPA, is the owner of the Marks Group, which sells customer relationship, service, and financial management tools to small and midsize businesses. Marks is the author of four best-selling small business books and writes the popular "Penny Pincher's Almanac" syndicated column. He frequently speaks to business groups on penny-pinching topics. More penny-pinching advice from Marks can be found at www.quickerbetterwiser.com.

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