New York’s small business owners’ concerns revealed in new survey

As voters prepare to go to the polls this November, small business owners are taking a close look at the issues and policies that are most urgent to them.

Thousands of small business owners in New York state participated in a survey ranking issues they say rank as the most severe for them.

The results are now known, including how the data compares to results from four years ago and how the state tacks up to the rest of the country.

“We do home energy assessments,” said the founder and owner of Wise Home Energy, Jeff Flaherty. “We will install the chosen items that are typically insulation, heating and cooling and indoor air quality products.”

The Rochester small business owner fights an uphill battle to operate his business in a state that he and his counterparts say doesn’t make it easy.

Flaherty has owned his business for 14 years and has two dozen employees. “I feel just as a small business we can get looked over, and certainly we are the engine of the economy,” he said.

Wise Home Energy is among 11,000 small independently owned New York state businesses in the National Federation of Independent Business, or NFIB.

“They’re just really taking the issues that we think about from a business standpoint and taking them to the politicians and trying to get appropriate changes to make business run smoother,” said Flaherty.

“Small businesses make up half of the state’s economy in New York,” said the New York Director of NFIB, Ashley Ranslow. “So, while that one pizza shop on Main Street, you may not think it’s a big deal, when you look at small businesses in the aggregate and all together, they are an important vehicle for New York’s economy.”

Ranslow explains the national survey, broken down by state. It’s called the Problems and Priorities Report, conducted every four years, asking businesses the questions that could lead to policy change.

“What for you as a business owner are the most critical issues that impact your day-to-day business and we give them a list of 75 things and they rank them as what is the most critical problem they have and what is the least critical problem they have,” said Ranslow.

Here are some of the key findings. The most severe issue ranked by small business owners has not changed since 1986 – the cost of health care. Cost of supplies and inventory bounces to the number two spot from 18 in 2020. Uncertainty over economic conditions is also much more of a concern than four years ago. State taxes on business income, unreasonable government regulations, and federal taxes on business income are also top concerns, And a newer increase issues considered severe – cost of natural gas, propane, gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, and electricity expenses.

As for concerns over interest rates, in 2020 that ranked at 47 then rose dramatically to 12th in its current spot.

“Going forward, what we really want to focus on and should be focused on in the state is really affordability and cost of doing business in New York – all things that Albany can and should get a handle on,” Ranslow said. “And how do we make sure that we’re keeping the lights on. And how do we make sure that we are doing everything that can to keep Main Street alive?”

“Those costs have to be passed on to the clients, but I think in terms of the employees, those costs are affecting them and that’s a part of the cost of business if they’re not being able to take care of their families, then that’s a giant weight on the business,” said Flaherty. “We have to make sure they’re being taken care of.”

It’s potentially a tall order based on this most recent data.