Jenny Liles: Edison: Econonmy inspiring innovation?

In a society where lay-offs are at an all time high, and jobs are hard to come by, people are looking for other means to pay the bills.  According to an article from, www.Mlive.com, a Michigan news sight, they state, “The bad economy is driving more workers in Michigan to start their own companies.”  I started looking around our local areas, and began noticing more little self-set-up shops.  People selling smoked mullet under a tent in San Carlos Park, or watermelons out of truck beds in Lehigh Acres. There are people, like my sister, attempting to start up their own business. After being laid off from her previous job, she started her own P.R. and Marketing company. It made me smile to see people who weren’t going to go down without giving it everything they had.  We tend to be so quick to just blame our external circumstances for getting us down; but it is those people who stand up, despite their situation, and decide to overcome it, that really make a difference. I also began to think that perhaps our current economic state is helping inspire people to be innovated and not rely so heavily on our big corporations. Indeed, resources are hard to come, especially for the little guy, however, I can’t help but to think that it might be a step in the right direction.  One thing is for certain, I’ll be attempting to support those little local businesses before I jump to the big superstores.  

2 Responses to “Jenny Liles: Edison: Econonmy inspiring innovation?”

  1. Thomas Grimes Edison State College says:

    I to am for small business development. But we must understand that small business regardless of what you hear on television is not always the best idea for a community. I saw in your comment that you saw people selling mullet and watermelons on the side of the road. Do you know if they had a permit to make sure that that the food they were selling was properly handled? Did they even have a tax id number for their business which would allow the revenue from that side business to help the county with its tax base? Small business can in fact hurt an economy in some cases and can put the public in danger especially when it is food related. The majority of small business in America do not provide healthcare insurance, 401K, pension and opportunity for advancement like the large corporations do. These are essential to raising a family and being able to retire. Many people who work for a small business even if it is their own will never have these things they could have received if they had worked for a larger corporation. So just remember statistically the little guy is going to stay little. Unless the small guy has something unique which is very rare these days. So before everyone beats up on the Wal-Marts ,Targets, Home Depots, and Publix’s of the world remember they have given an awful lot of people opportunities that a small business could not have given those who work for them. Even the owners of these business themselves often do worse independently than if they had worked for a larger corporation.

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