"I ask Senate Republicans to drop the blockade," Obama said in the Rose Garden after meeting with his economic advisers."

Obama calls for passage of bill to help small businesses – USATODAY.com: ""

My Comments:

In general, I'm always in favor of greater access to capital for those who creates jobs in this country. The only problem I have with this Bill is it's about 15 months late and would have been more useful much earlier.

In the 1,000+ page health care reform bill, a new tax compliance burden completely unrelated to health care was snuck in unnoticed by the IRS. The full ramifications of this previously unnoticed paragraph is just coming to light the past few weeks.

Here's the deal.

The provision has to do with the 1099 forms that all businesses are required to file regarding payments over $600 to freelancers and contractors for personal services rendered.

This rule applies to sole proprietor businesses and excluded corporations.

The paragraph basically changes the definition from "personal services rendered" to "all services and goods" rendered from "all organizations" (including corporations)

Basically, this means anytime your company spends more than $600 with ANY other business, you will be required to file a 1099 form. The thinking is that by doing this your suppliers will be forced to report all of their income.

Unfortunately, the cost of this enforcement will be funded by you and me. Here's why.

It's kind of a hassle to get a W-9 form from a freelancer to request their Tax ID number. But most businesses, only have a small handful of these, so it's annoying but not the end of the world.

Now we have to do the same for every company where we spend more than $600.

For example, in my executive coaching business, I spend several thousand dollars a year with hotel chains like Marriott and Hilton. Now I need my bookkeeper to contact their CFO's office to request their Tax ID.

But wait, it gets better…

If I recall correctly, each Marriott location is independently owned and operated. This means that for EACH Marriott location I've stayed in for say more than 4 nights (where my bill would often be over $600), I need to have my bookkeeper contact their financial office and have each location send back a form with their Tax ID on it.

The same goes for the telephone company, Office Depot, Amazon, my web host, all of my favorite restaurants where I host business lunches or dinners, the airport shuttle service, the printer, Apple, Dell, AT&T, the Merchant Account, Hertz, the Attorney, the payroll service, the domain registrar, and more.

It's hard enough calling their customer service line to give them money, now I have to have someone call them to get a IRS tax form filled out?

I seriously doubt Marriott, AT&T or Hertz is under reporting the income they make from me — but now I'll need to take on the burden of a few thousand dollars in expense to go chase paperwork.

These are dollars that could have been spent with suppliers (helping them create jobs), or paying new or existing members of my staff (boosting their household incomes… and spending in their local economy), or to invest in marketing to get more new business (which in turn allows me to spend more with my suppliers and staff).

As a business coach, I have gone on record repeatedly to encourage clients and readers that the economy remains highly uncertain. The long term debt problem in the US in particular has not been resolved by the "recovery".

There are many unforeseen consequences that remain.

This is one of them.

And if by some small miracle enough people complain about the useless paperwork requirements before it takes effect in 2012, then I'm certain there will be another unforeseen consequence to take its place.

While I know many of you feel that the business environment has become hostile to businesses both economically and politically, I actually do think it's a mistake to let these external changes get you riled up emotionally.

Are these kinds of headaches a problem? Yes, absolutely.

Is it worth more than a passing moment of your time and focus? Definitely not.

Is it excuse for delivering sub-par financial performance this year? Heck no.  That's a total cop out.

As a CEO Coach, I tell my clients that good leaders deliver the numbers no matter what.

And keep in mind that your competitors face these paperwork burdens as much as you do. So while these kinds of these are a total pain, at least they are equally painful to everyone.

So take small mental note of these recent events, and continue to stay focused on your customers, your company, and your competitors — and generally in that order — and you'll do fine.

Department of Labor June Employment Report Over all, the nation lost 125,000 jobs, according to the monthly snapshot of the job market released by the Labor Department on Friday"

(Via NYTimes.com)

Victor's Comments:

This recovery, which may be a bit of a misnomer, is going to take a while. The key takeaway here is to truly plan for an extended mediocre economy and make sure your business can do well despite the circumstances.

In addition to working with existing clients many of whom are having record sales years, I've been working with several new clients getting them ready for having a big year in 2010.

In addition, I've been doing the road warrior thing giving speeches across the country. I started a month ago in Baltimore, then moved on to Dallas, Las Vegas, Seattle, Boston, New York City and I'm off to San Diego in about an hour.

Business owners everywhere are concerned about the economy and how to do well in it. I suppose it's good to be the "recession guy" in the middle of a recession. (There is a really big lesson in that last sentence if you read it very carefully a few times. Hint: I was NOT the recession guy BEFORE the recession.)

What has been interesting to me is to get feedback from business owners across many different cities in America.

In my speeches, I talk about the importance of finding the overlooking opportunity in your business that is growing despite the fact that it is being ignored and under-resourced.

When I mention this idea, the initial reaction is often "Ha! like I'd overlook that kind of gift."

Towards the end of my talk, I often ask people in the room how many have some portion of their business (often it's a small portion of the business) that is either growing or has not been negatively impact by the economy as much as other parts of the business.

For some businesses, it's a particular product or service line. In other, it's a particular customer segment that continues to buy despite the economy.

But what I have noticed is that in EVERY audience I speak to, about 10% – 15% of the businesses owners in the room, when prompted, acknowledge that this phenomenon happens to describe their business.

Then I ask the "killer" question… the one that "shames" people into action… I then ask, "Over the past 12 months, have you increased your personal focus, staffing, or funding to further develop this particular revenue stream?"

And 95% of the team the answer is a very sheepish, "No."

The owner of a very successful business up in Seattle said it best, "Ya know, I'm almost ashamed to admit. But you know, we actually do have this one service that has been growing month-over-month for the past 15 months in a row."

"It's a service that I think is kind of lame. I personally find it annoying. But, when I think about it our customers must really like it because it continues to grow despite our best efforts to ignore it.

We originally offered it on whim, but customers keep buying each month. And ya know, we haven't done anything with it at all. Geez… that's just so embarassing."

This is reaction is extremely common. Many very successful business owners overlook these growth areas because the growth does not match their mental model of their own business.

If they think they are in the business of selling "Product A," they interpret any growth in Product B as an accident… and they're slow to recognize it as an opportunity.

One of the reason I insist that all of my clients look at their dashboard numbers regularly and for making major strategic decisions is to use facts to blow away any assumptions they're holding about the business.

The facts describe reality. What you choose to do with it is an entirely other matter.

For example, I also met a former General Motors executive who was probably one of the top 50 in all of GM. He described to me how GM would look at their monthly sales figures and compare them to Toyota regularly.

They noticed that monthly sales had shrunk steadily 240 months in a row (that's every month for 20 years). During that same time, Toyota and Honda sales grew steadily 240 months in a row… in the exact opposite trend of GM.

How did other GM executives interpret these market facts?

They concluded that Toyota didn't know how to make "real" cars. They didn't know how to "push iron" like the folks in Detroit.

Geez 240 months in a row of declining sales for GM vs. 240 months in a row of increasing sales for Toyota. There is a message in dashboard metrics if one is willing to look at it objectively.

See the real problem was DENIAL. GM was unable to accept the brutally harsh reality that Toyota was doing something right–at least by customer's standards. It never occurred to the executives at GM to deal with reality and to learn from it.

This is a mistake. Don't let happen in your business.

Business metrics tell a story… if you care to look. If your business stinks, it stinks. Deal with it. But whatever you do, don't just stick your head in the sand and deny it.

Similarly, if the runt of your product line is selling well… don't deny and discount it's successes. Often times, you will stumble upon doing something exactly right in your marketplace. When you do, it's important to be smart enough to realize you just got lucky, and capitalize on it.

Of course, it helps a LOT to be deliberately experimenting with new ways of generating revenue. Lots of disciplined trial and error will eventually allow you to stumble upon an opportunity.

The trick is then to realize you just got lucky and to capitalize on it.

This is how you find growth in virtually any business. It's the process I used with all of my clients to find ways to grow their businesses when their competitors are shrinking.

The idea is that voters are irritated at the idea that these executives are making a lot of money and getting paid with tax payer dollars.

While this may the politically acceptable solution to bad publicity, it's a pretty dumb move.

Let me ask you, if you're really good at what you do for work and your "boss" gave you a 90% pay cut, what would you do?

Duh… I'd quit.

Now think about who in the world would be dumb enough to want a top 25 job at say a major bank that's really in terrible financial shape?

You're assigned "mission impossible" and you get paid pretty nothing.

The only kind of person who takes this kind of job is one who has no other choice. You can be sure it's not someone who's really good at what they do.

This seems like a pretty lousy way to protect the government's investment in these banks. Yes, lets give someone $100 billion in bailout money, and then find the least qualified person to manage it.

I generally don't talk all that much about politics. But, this was such an short-sighted decision that it's absurd to anyone with any business sense.

I got back late last night from New Orleans where I gave a keynote speech for Fortune Magazine's Small Business Sales & Marketing Summit.

Conventional "wisdom" says that when an economic storm comes in, you're supposed to hunker down and ride the thing out.

• Sales of dvd rental services like Net Flix is up 23% versus last year.
• Sales of romance novels, science fiction, and fantasy are all up versus last year
• Sales of brew it yourself coffee beans are up 5% from last year
• Sales of seeds (like the kind you plant in the ground to grow your own vegetables) are up 25%