Don’t Get Pushed Out By Big Business: What Entrepreneurs Can Do NOW!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're a small business or a growing business, how
do you possibly compete and set yourself up to compete
with a big business when they have all the resources,
they have the money, they have the technology. How do
we set ourselves up to compete and not be either
pushed out or if we want to be set up

(00:22):
so that yes, someday we may be acquired, but how
do we do that? How do we actually set up
our business? How do we actually be different enough that
not only can we compete with other small businesses in
our market, but actually compete with the big businesses. Welcome
to the Wealth of Ability Show, and we have a great, great,

(00:43):
great guest on this particular topic. And I love having
our current guest on the show today because he has
both government background and significant government background, and he has
entrepreneurial background, and that is a rare combination. So Howard Walke,

(01:04):
author of launch Pad Republic is Howard's book. Welcome to
the Walta Building Show.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Thanks for having me, Tom and.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Howard, if you would give us just a snippet of
your background, because it's such an interesting combination of government
and private.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Sure, I am lucky.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
I start out really as the son of an entrepreneur,
and that's probably my main defining characteristic.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
I grew up outside of Boston.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
My dad was an insurance agent and then he started
a motor club that grew to become quite a large company.
I was lucky to go to some good schools. I
went to law school. I was a lawyer in New York.
And then I had a chance to work as a
lawyer in the White House during the Clinton administration and
worked for Al Gore on reinventing government on that Vice
Presidential Commission. And then I came back to start working

(01:53):
with my dad shortly thereafter, because I really was inspired
by him and his dreams. And so he and my
brother around myself worked together for a long time and
built from his startian as insurance agency and this motor
club that he started work together and we've built you know,
five or businesses over the years that grew, uh, you

(02:14):
know into good sized companies. So UH. And then I
had a chance a few years ago to go back
to school to go to Harvard as a senior fellow
to UH and researched this book because I was really
struck by entrepreneurship. I think it's the most powerful force
in America, and I felt like it was really misunderstood
by people in the academic world, in the policy world,

(02:35):
and really in the general public. You know, most people
think of entrepreneurs, you know, a certain way, and they
sort of box them. But the truth is the dynamism
that entrepreneurs bring and and and and the way they
harness their energy to make the you know, challenge big companies,
challenge the status quo build I just felt wasn't fully appreciated,
and so I was able to have a chance to
write a book around that.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
No, I appreciate that, Howard. So we've talked on the
Wealth Ability sho over the last couple of years about
the war on small business, and clearly there's a war
going on on small business. Do you think that in
the end, big business and small business can coexist, because
it certainly has seemed like business has done everything that's

(03:16):
can't it? Can it either acquires a small business or
pushes them out? Can Is there a place for small
business in America?

Speaker 3 (03:25):
You know?

Speaker 1 (03:26):
You know?

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Actually, I have a chapter in the book which I'm
fond of the title that I made up called Gorillas
and Gorillas, and it really.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Is about gorillaz with a you know, g U E. R.
I L L.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
The gorilla like gorilla warfare and gorillas the sixty pound
you know, six hundred pound giants that tend to dominate industries.
And I really think that's an incredibly healthy battle. And
you mentioned the war on small business, but I think
the war between small business and big business is actually
an important part of what makes America successful. Small businesses

(03:57):
they have some advantages, there's no doubt about it. Low overhead,
close to the customer, ability to control their teams in
different ways, ways, to innovate more quickly, and sort of
general customer preferences in many cases for for for local people,
and being able to touch and feel and see and
shake the hand of people.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
So I think small businesses have some advantages. Uh.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
And more importantly, or just as importantly, I think the
dynamism that are that small businesses that move to that
next level and start to tackle, you know, bigger markets
and take on the big incumbents is actually important because
a lot of big you know, if we didn't have
small businesses challenging big businesses, we would have we would
have an oligarchy in all these industries, alligopolies and all

(04:41):
these industries and people would get complacent. So I think
this dynamism between small business and big business, whether it's
a small business, classically small business or VC backed small business,
is really really critical.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
But how do you do that? I mean, you think
about it. The big business really seems to have all
the cards in their favor from this standpoint that they've
got the government behind them very clearly. You see that
in the new tax bill. They've got the government behind them.
They you know, they have the technology, they have the resources.

(05:12):
So kind of walk us through a little bit about
how do you see you know, besides the obvious, the nimble,
we're close to the customers. But how do you actually
set up your small business so that Amazon or Walmart
can't just come in and push you out.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, I mean it's been tough. I mean that that
is a challenge.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Although there were a lot of technology platforms that are
actually trying to enable the small businesses in their war
against the incumbents, in the war against the big businesses.
So there are a lot of productivity tools and things
of that sort, ways to get access to customers and
things of that sort that actually will I think inerted
the benefit of small businesses, and it doesn't quite level

(05:54):
the playing field, certainly, but it gives them a little
bit more access to technologies, and some of the advantage
is a scale that the bigger companies have.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
And then I think you also have other issues.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
I mean, certainly during it seems to me during COVID,
you know, the virtue of small businesses and the local
context was you know, it was sort of an awakening
I think to a lot of people because small businesses
were able to come back actually pretty well, and their
value in terms of being in the communities, being in
the neighborhoods, knowing their customer base, being able to be nimble,

(06:24):
you know, really proved itself out. But it is it
is a constant battle because the big companies, the big
incumbents that certainly the big tech the tech platforms are
getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and they see a
category that seems successful and they're not afraid to jump
in and take over, either take over the category or
just extract rents in those categories that make it tough
and tougher.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
So it is a battle.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
But I also think in some ways the small businesses
can use those platforms to advantage in the sense that
you know, if if they get a customer, sometimes they
can you know, maintain that customer relationship directly and and
sort of preserve some of that customer value that they're
so initially they may come in as a supplier to
any Amazon or big platform, but they can they can

(07:05):
use that as a low lower class acquisition tool over
time if they're smart about connecting with that customer and
staying there and building that relationship thereafter.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, that's an interesting relationship because you're almost talking about
that brand relationship between the customer and the small business.
The challenge is building the brand, but at the same time,
you've got that personal connection with the customer that the
big business doesn't have. They may have the brand, but
they don't have that personal connection with the customer, you know.
I mean, you've got a few few brands that actually

(07:34):
the big business actually seems to succeed in that, say
BMW for example, that they have very loyal customers. People
want that's what I drive. I drive a BMW right
or some of these other brands. But then you have others,
like you know, like the big food services like Cheesecake
Factory and those and you know, nobody's loyal to that brand, right,

(07:58):
It's just it's just cheap food and a big menu, right,
is really what it comes out being. But as a
small business and then you're trying to grow, et cetera.
One of the fears always I think of an entrepreneur
is that they're going to It's a weird dynamic because
we want eventually the attention to the bigger business because

(08:22):
there are acquisitions that they're going to be the ones
to buy us out, right if we want to sell.
On the other hand, they can they sometimes they buy
us out. Sometimes they'll just push us out. Yep, okay.
I mean Amazon's been very well known to do that.
Microsoft has been known to do that. Walmarts does that.
That's their business model, frankly, is to push out small business.
And so how do you set yourself up so that

(08:45):
you're so that you're both attractive but you're not threatening.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, I think in some ways you've got to look
across depending on what industry you're in, and figure out
where you're going to be able to compete and really
really have a hard look on what industry you're in,
what's your bargaining power or value proposition? To the consumer
visa via the big player. What's the industry going directionally?
And how am I going to compete? It seems to

(09:15):
me in industries we're the personal touch matters, and I have,
for example, we have a business in our in my
professional business the world, I have a home warranty company,
which is which which is like an insurance company that
sends out plumbers, electricians, appliance, heat and air conditioning. Now
you might someone might look at and say, wow, you
have this company and you have control all the shots

(09:35):
because you kind of have the relationship with the customer
and then you send out the jobs and assign the
jobs to the contractors out in the field. Well, from
where I sit, nothing can be further than the truth
I need. I need good contractors. And by the way,
when we send out a good contractor who does a
great job and builds that customer relationship, that customer wants
that contractor, they don't really care about us, and next
time they call us they want that contractor.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
So so anything that has this.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Human touch, that's one of the areas where I think
local small businesses have a distinct advantage that they can leverage.
Certainly in food, it's tough to compete with the big
brands in terms of costs, uh and and and some scale.
But you know, people have their preferences for sure, and
restaurants as an area where it's a tough, tough business
as it is, there's still places where, for sure, small

(10:20):
businesses can compete. Some industry is like insurance, that's a
little bit tougher. That people really like the human touch
and that's valuable. But you know, you have to figure
out one industry and how you're going to compete that way,
because you know, people do like the human touch, but
you still have these big platforms. So it does vary.
I think quite a bit of toy store might be different.
I mean, that's a hard one. But on the other hand,
I go to my toy store because I.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Need my kid. I got kids, and they want toys,
and they don't want to wait a day. They want
and they want they like to go with it.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
So every industry has its own competitive dynamics, is what
I'm saying. And the strategies for small businesses vary a
little bit in order to preserve but there are opportunities.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, let me give you an example. So so my industry,
I mean the CPA industry, right, And so we've got
this huge acquisition with this whole huge consolidation going on
right now, and we've got a combination of things. We've
got big, big firms that are acquiring, and then we
have private equity that's just rolling up firms, right, and
which they're very different. But at the same time, you know,

(11:16):
when I look at it, I'm going, well, wait, wait
a minute, the customer loses. Every time. It's always the
customer who loses. Yeah, the person who's selling the business,
they do fine, they make money, they sell the business,
they're they're all good. The employees are fine because they're
still getting their paycheck, but the customers no longer get
that personal attention of an entrepreneur, which is a different

(11:37):
kind of attention. So I think the customers definitely lose
when when small businesses get rolled up into these big businesses.
But one of the challenges that I've run into, it's
really interesting, Howard, is that I'll find that as I'm
out there, somebody will tell me, well, I need to
be with a big firm because my friend told me

(12:01):
I need to be with a big firm. And I'm going, so,
what are you going to get from that big firm
that you wouldn't get from the small firm. And the
reality is is they're not going to get anything. In fact,
they're going to get less from the big firm. But
the fact that it's a big firm, yeah, seems to
make a different. So how do you deal with that
from a messaging standpoint?

Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah, well, well, you know, it's interesting when you talk
about firms. I think about law firms. I was a
lawyer for a little bit. I have a lot of
friends who are lawyers, and what's going on in the
law firm world is just like that. Which is the
bigger getting bigger. It's the medium sized firms that are
really having a challenge because they're the ones. They have overhead,
they have staff, they have some you know, normally they

(12:39):
would have thought that was a competitive advantage, but the
truth is they have enough overhead that it's a problem. Right,
you don't have enough scale that it's that they don't
have to worry about it. And so what you see
is kind of the barbell. There's a consolidation amongst the
top one hundred law firms in this country, and especially
the top twenty. They're huge and if you're a medium
sized firm, and this is medium sized firm. Even in

(13:00):
Boston and New York, where a medium sized firm could
be multiple hundred million dollars in revenue or billions, they're
all they're all getting squeezed up either they have to merge.
And there was a well known medium sized firm in
Boston that actually closed on whereas at the small Whereas
at the small level, people still want you know, at
the end of the day, they that's it's a personal business,
law and accounting and CPA. And so the smaller firms

(13:23):
that are nimble, that have lower overhead, that are close
to the customer, actually are able to compete and hold
their own better than some of the medium sized firms
were scaled where they don't have they're neither big scale
nor small overhead kind of context.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
So now, now, a couple of weeks ago, somebody I
was talking to somebody and they said, you know, the
really sweet smart spark excuse me, The really sweet spot
for an entrepreneur is to find is to develop a
business that the big businesses can't do. You know, they

(14:01):
actually can't do that work. So you know, in a
CPA firm, big businesses can prepare tax turns and do
financials just like small ones. So that's not that situation, right,
But but there are like I have friends that have
sixty seventy eighty year old family owned businesses that they've
just in a niche that is, you know, the old

(14:22):
niche will make you rich, And they're in a niche
such that the big business they don't really want that
they can't scale that business, but it's big enough for.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
You, yeah, yeah, Or it's a market that's small enough
that the scale that you can get as a small
business is a competitive advantage. Like I could say, we
have a business that does this very niche financial claims
processing for financial institutions, and it's it's a great business.
It's a small business, and it's going to stay a
small business. And it was it was a market that

(14:53):
was too small for the big players to really want,
but it was big enough that we could get a
big market share and turn that in to a mini
version of scale advantages. So it was actually a good
sweet spot where where the niche was small enough that
a small business like ours could own that niche in
a way, or we'll get big, you know, thirty forty
percent market share, add some add some technology and some

(15:14):
scale at that level. And it was one of it's
one of these things where big we're a big firm,
probably doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Doesn't want to get into it.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
And if they did, there wouldn't be any scale, additional
scale advantage that they could have that we hadn't already
taken advantage of in the niche. So there are definitely
opportunities like that if you define the market the right way.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, I like that. You know, we have a we
have a tax advisory franchise, and I think, you know,
we're small enough though the big company, the big guys,
they don't they don't even look at us, they don't
care about us. Right, But but because we have because
it's a franchise, we have the economies of scale, right
that we have independent business owners, we have the economies

(15:53):
of scale. So that that's the kind of thing where
I'm going, Yeah, that that totally makes sense to me.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah, yeah, And then yeah, and there are a lot
of these things where you're like that tax advisor is
a good good example because you've got the personal relationship,
it's really integrated. You have to really add value, and
you can add value somebody. Somebody can't just you know,
swoop in and sort of add value. And then yeah,
there are these networks in other ways that you can
get access to up to date Washington information about all

(16:18):
you know all that. There are services that will give
you essentially a late level plane field with PwC in
a way, right in terms of you know, or any
of the big the Big four or Big six, or
however you want to define it. Because you can get
access to this information you get still at the end
of the day, whether you whether you whether you have
your tax advice from you know, PwC or or a
local firm, doesn't matter as much as the professionals that

(16:40):
you're dealing with are instrumental.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
That's interesting. So let's kind of I'd like to jump
a little bit to what's going on around this whole
small business and big business environment because I mean, you
think about the you know, the founders of our country,
they were all entrepreneurs, right, I mean they they by
definition they were fighting the big guys England, right, and

(17:08):
the big corporations, and they set up the constitution to
allow for you know, entrepreneurship and ownership of our intellectual property.
As an example, right, Uh, property ownership, all of these
things were set up. And yet what we're seeing is
almost seems like we're seeing a shift here to big business. Now.

(17:32):
You know, you got the big technology companies, you have
the big retailers, and they are they're putting so much
pressure on and they've got the government. Seemingly they clearly
have the government behind them. Okay, so how do you
see this plane out? I mean, do you think that
we can keep our competitive? What makes us different is

(17:54):
that we have an environment where all entrepreneurs can thrive.
And yet if you have the big business, says and
government pushing the entrepreneurs out, then what happens is that
you lose that and now all of a sudden you're France.
Which I'm not saying France is bad. I love France.
Actually I lived in France. I'm saying that France is
not the US, and we don't want the US to
be France. I don't think the France wants to be

(18:16):
the US. So how do you mean what do we
need to do to maintain that? Hi? Everyone, I'm wheel
right here, CEO of Wealthability and Robert Kiyosaki's personal CPA
for over two decades. You're listening to the Waltability Show,
where we help entrepreneurs and investors make way more money
and pay way less taxes legally. Before we dive in,

(18:38):
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First of all, if you're a CPA, join me and
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(19:01):
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Speaker 3 (19:09):
Well, well, we do have a strong, as you point out,
a very strong undercurrent in terms of wanting to help
small business. I mean going back to the very beginning
and actually my book I talk a little bit about
the American Revolution and the big incumbent was the British
East India Company, and that was a lot of merchants
and they were getting squeezed out of the market. And
in fact, at one point, because of some things going

(19:31):
on in England, British East India Company was undercutting them
in the price of tea, and and that was part
of the catalysts around Boston Tea Party and what happened
at the Revolution, and a lot of the merchants sort
of rally popular support against the big incumbent and the British.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
East India Company.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
And we've had that throughout history in the United States
and even as in the twentieth century. I talked a
little bit in the book about A and P. At
one point, you know, A and P was the grocery
store was squeezing out all the small grocers. They were
using technology, they were they had better up to date
pricing information. They were doing all the things in a

(20:10):
many way that one of the Amazon's been doing, you know,
one hundred years later or something like that, and there's
a big rebellion. Well in truth, AA and P and
now was busted. I mean, they're they're gone, and they
had they ran their course, and they were overtaken by
the next innovator that came in and took them down. Actually,
things like the invention of the shopping cart. Believe it

(20:32):
or not, a small technology ended up taking the footprints
of A and P which were in the city and
making them made them obsolete as people were moving to
the suburbs and the shopping cart made supermarkets you know.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
A competitive.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
So there's always been a natural dynamism between the incumbents
and upstarts, although most of the upstarts tend to not
tend to be small businesses that then become up emerged
to become upstarts in a more disruptive way. But even
amidst all that, small businesses still find there's always room.
I mean, you still have lots of places where you

(21:07):
have grocers, and you have bodegas, and you have places
where there are markets that you can compete. Although it is,
it is, it is tough, you know now for sure,
you know, the incumbents in the tech in the tech
field in particular, are you know, it's pretty clear what
they've done. In booksellers and things like that. It's really
pretty it's really a shame, actually, but there's a little

(21:27):
bit of an upswing now in booksellers. Even so, people
still clamoring for, you know, books about local bookstore, especially
one that sells coffee, and use other models.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
I mean, you can you can't.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
You can't order a cup of coffee on Amazon while
you're ordering a book, and people sort of like the
idea or be so there are elements there that that
that fight back, but it is tough, and and you know,
it's industry by industry, and really having a strategy with
your eyes open, I think is going to be important
if you're going to pick up. I think you can
compete any of these industries at a local level, but
you just have to be smart about how are you

(21:59):
going to do it?

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Well. The good news, at least is that we do
have this concept of equal protection under the law, which
means that a small business can take advantage of all
of the legal benefits of a big business, even from
a tax standpoint, although there are it is interesting that
even in this tax bill, we have some industries being

(22:22):
singled out right. So so the so the service industry
that's not the professional service industry, you know, like hospitality,
et cetera. They're getting benefits, right, people who work over
time are getting benefits. And then you have other people
that don't get any of those benefits and actually are
being punished, like the professional service providers who no longer

(22:45):
will be able to deduct their state and local taxes
that they've been deducting for the last several years under
the pass through entity tax regime. What do you what
do you? How do you deal with those types of
government infringements on uh on your on your business that

(23:05):
you don't have control over.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah, yeah, you know what. It's maddening.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
I I understand exactly what how you're thinking, because it's maddening.
I mean I I built, you know, along with my
dad and my brother, and now we have these small
businesses and they become bigger. But I definitely would look
up and say, what's going on? You know? Why is
it that you know, these companies, you know, five times
our size are able to benefit with all kinds of things,
even tax credit. You know, there's a lot of tax

(23:29):
credit strategies. I don't have access to any of that stuff.
So why am I paying you know, uh, full income
tax rate you know, on our earnings? And and other
people are other companies much bigger than ours are able
to not paying taxes? I mean, it was, it's it's
it is a maddening thing. I think it's probably just
because the tax law is so arcane and you have
to at a certain size, not just influence from logging,

(23:52):
but also just access to expertise and enough of complexity
in your business and scale that you can take advantage
of things that the ordinary person can.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
And it is it is absolutely maddening.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Well, and it compounds the problem because because now you
have you know, the rich getting richer, they have more money,
which compounds which then they have even more money. They
they push up prices. Asset prices we've seen have just
been skyrocketing over the past few years really because of
you know, the Wall the Wall Street guys and CEOs
that make so much money that they can't spend and

(24:25):
so then they go spend it on fifty million dollar houses,
right that are that are not even their primary residents, right,
So so they that'll always pushes things up. But how
do we deal with the policies. So, you know, you
were in government during the Clinton error, right and and

(24:46):
and Clinton actually was pretty favorable to small business. I
I thought he was quite favorable to small business. I
actually find that some of the current policies, which you
would think under Trump would be favorable small business, are
less favorable than that, even Warren to Clinton. How do
you navigate all that?

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, you know, it's it's it's very hard. I mean,
I mean, I remember from my experience in government. I
was on this Reinventing Government Commission, and we had all
these ideas. I worked in the Treasury Department and the
Justice Department, and we came up with a list of
fifty ideas to make government better and more efficient. And
then we had to go in front of the congressional subcommittees.
Which most people don't realize how much power the congressional

(25:26):
subcommittees have, but it's usually you know, the chairman and
six or eight members of Congress. Every one of them
has some sort of vested interest in that particular topic
in their home district. And the power that these sub
committees have is really substantial, and so a lot of
good ideas just weren't going to happen because you know,

(25:47):
you know, there was you could you could take you know,
ten irs servicing centers and bring them down to four,
but it so happens that the ten centers are in
the ten districts of the ten congressional members, and so
good luck chrying to squeeze those out. But my point
being that it is interesting how much a call or
or organized group to the right person in the various

(26:09):
subcommittees can make a difference a surprising difference because you know,
oftentimes it's it's it's representatives that don't get the same
degree of attention on sort.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Of the big issues.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
But you can really do some effective targeted lobbying around
particular issues that are that are problematic. Doesn't always work,
especially if they're getting you know, contributions and influence from
the big boys that are that are trying to initiate
something in their advantage. But if you can be very
very surgical in terms of how you look at the

(26:38):
points of leverage, sometimes you can, i think, help forestall
some of these things. I mean, the whole, the whole
notion of small business associations and things of this sort
really go a long way because it's a powerful group
and it has its power, but it could probably be
brought to be a little more effectively kind of topic
by topic than I think it has been.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, it's it's a couple of I think examples of
what you're talking about, the state and local tax deduction.
So we've got a couple of people in Congress from
the from your part of the world, frankly, Massachusetts, New Jersey,
New York that they are just absolutely we've got to
increase the state and local tax diction, which in my

(27:18):
mind makes no tax policy sense whatsoever. It's a terrible
policy to deduct any of it. And yet they're you
know that clearly their constituents have said, hey, this is
a problem, and there's been some grassroots on it. Another
example is the twenty percent small business deduction right qualified

(27:39):
business income deduction, which that's actually being made permanent under
this bill. So you have a you have something that
is a huge benefit to small business, and there must
have been some conversations somewhere along the line to get
that done.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
I mean, I think, I think sentiment is very strongly
in favor of small business. I think the organization around
small business and and the cloud that it wields is
probably under under uh underutilized, just because it's so disparate.
There's so I mean, the National Association Realtor certainly has a.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Lot of power there.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
There there there were a trade group that seems to
have done a pretty good job to organize themselves. But
I think in Dearie, there are there are places but
some but some industries have big players in them too,
so it.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Really buries the industry by industry. But that's why.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
You know, restaurants I think have a pretty strong lobby,
although it could be even stronger.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, what we know is the chemmedy profession has a
really terrible lobby. That way know for sure. So, so,
what are some things that you think that entrepreneurs ought
to be doing right now when there is this you know,
there's a lot of pressure on small businesses. What are

(28:54):
some steps we can take in order to insulate us
from the pressure they're the big business, or make sure
that we're seeing things that we need to see, you know,
the trends in the marketplace, et cetera, so that we're
not we're not surprised and pushed out.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Again, I think a lot of it ends up going
industry by industry. You know, it's going to be because
I think that the strategies and the tactics for small
businesses to succeed would vary by them. So, you know,
in in restaurants certainly have one different, you know, set
of lenses.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
I think than accounting, than law, than.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Hvac or plumbers, electricians, appliance or real estate. I think
every one of them do have different dynamics they have
they have different incumbents that are there. They have different
upstarts that are that are check up starts that are
transforming the industry. They have different customer changes in behavior,
they have different tools to work with. So it's almost
like I would I would look at it, uh industry

(30:01):
by industry trade groups and see whether or not those
industry trade groups are understanding them in a real way
that they're that they're they are they carrying the clout
that they have, do they are they rallying their members,
are they position positioning the issues the right way? And
are they targeting the right people in Congress to the
extent they're looking for relegislative assistance. And then there's the

(30:23):
whole set of you know, business strategies that that that
are intended to each one where you have to kind
of read the tea leaves, figure out where the pucket
is going, figure out what tools they have, figure out
what technologies they can leverage to stay ahead, figure out
what disruptions are happening that might create a window of
opportunity for them. So things you know I mentioned like

(30:43):
the shopping cart happens and all of a sudden supermarkets
are interesting. But we see that now all the time
in every industry. New technologies are catalysts for opportunities. Typically
the venture back firms step in more quickly, but there's
no reason small businesses can't step into those things. I mean,
I just see a lot of small business has become
more and more nimble using payment systems and using marketing
systems and digital marketing and other ways to leverage. So

(31:07):
you've got to be on your toes and figure out
where where there's an opportunity to do more. And so
it's I don't think it's a one size fits all,
but there are similar common tools that I think are
going to be required regardless of what industry a small
business operates in.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
I like that. So I'm hearing a couple of things.
One is that look at those technologies because they tend
to filter down for the small business. Right, they may
start in the big business, but they filter AI as
an example, right, filtered very quickly to the small business.
And look at those technologies that we can use as

(31:43):
a as a as an entrepreneur in order to up easier,
more easily compete and not have the overhead that the
big business and really take advantage of our strengths, which
is being nimble. You know, low overhead, et cetera. And
then the other thing I hear you saying, Howard, which
is I think a really important point is to get
involved with your trade organization and to really make sure that, hey,

(32:06):
are they doing what they're they're supposed to be doing.
I mean, I can point a finger at myself. I'm going, hey,
I complain a lot about the A c PA, my
trade organization, and yet I'm not involved that involved in it.
So I'm actually gone outside that trade organization to try
to influence as opposed to within the trade organization. But

(32:27):
at the same time those organizations, like you said, that's
maybe one of the weaknesses that we have is that
organized labor within entrepreneurship is not as organized as it
is within big companies.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Right yeah, I mean, I.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Mean, I can't say I love all the lobbying and Washington,
but it is true that the squeaky wheel gets to
grease and they are the ones that are there, and
it's not just that they're that they have the relationships,
but they are really articulating the lens. And so I
would make sure that whatever trade group is relevant to
your industry, they're taking a small business lens on some
of these things rather than just representing the big players
in an industry. So I think that's probably what happens

(33:04):
is the trade groups are our monotony are they are
heavily representing the big players within an industry, and how
they really request small businesses.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah, that's a that's a really good point that that
is one of the issues that the big four accounting
firms pretty much dominate the A, I, C p A.
And so you know, they're they're they're not worried about
the small guy, and so we kind of have to
go to someplace else like our chamber of commerce, you know,
like the chambers of commerce, places like that that can

(33:35):
uh you know, that will actually listen to us. That's
really interesting. And then of course there's always like you said,
uh calling your congressman, right because you know a few
good place words. Actually, if you get enough people uh calling,
then they will actually make an impact. You know.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
You know an interesting industries that we've talked is wealth
management because you got the big players. But actually I
think these big brokers are the big brokers houses are
under a lot of pressure because you know, smart wealth
managers at a local level can get access to global
level tools, global level information and still have that personal relationship.
And I think when people comes to people's resources, they

(34:14):
want to be able to sit down. They want and explained,
and they don't really care what the what, what the
logo is on the door. What they really care is
the kind of quality input, especially since it has leveled
the plain field. I think you can get as good
advice from a local wealth, sure, and you can from
a big, big brokerage from that oftentimes are actually hackeying

(34:35):
just the brokerage firms products.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
So I think you actually get better advice. And I'm
like you. I think entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the world, frankly,
and certainly what makes the US great, what makes us
different from the rest of the world is our level
of entrepreneurship. The book is launch Pad Republic Howard Walk Howard.

(34:59):
Where would people get more about you and what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
There is a website at launchpadrepublic dot com if you
if you like the books available on all the you
know online everywhere.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
It's at some local bookstores.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
I love to see more local bookstores carrying, So walk
into the local bookstore and tell them to order a
couple of copies and put it on the shelf, and
it was a lot of fun to write. I mean,
I really do believe that that that it is. The
legal system in the United States, the political system, the
rule of law, the way we're set up is so
different than anywhere else in the world, even the big

(35:32):
developed worlds like the UK and Germany and Japan and France.
It's a different ball game. We have a unique system
that allows you to compete, and there's always ways to compete,
and I think you do that and add value. This
is the best place in the world to do it.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
So I love it. Howard, it's gorillas versus gorillas. Yeah,
and that's what it comes down to. And we can
we you know, the US, we beat the big guys
with warfare. There's no reason we can't do that as entrepreneurs,
and we have the advantage of being nimble. We have
the advantage of we are constantly innovating, and we have

(36:11):
tools that we've never had before. Certainly, technology is way
cheaper to build technology now because we have the AI
tools to help us build technology. Right, So there's so
many advantages to being an entrepreneur. You know. My my
recommdition don't get discouraged. It's it's a it's tough to
be an entrepreneur. It's not something that is for the

(36:31):
feint of heart. But like Howard says, you know, this
is the launch pad Republic. That's what the US is.
And let's let's let's push that out there. Let's support
our fellow entrepreneurs, and let's make sure that our government representatives, frankly,
know where we're coming from. And when we do all that,
what we'll always end up with is way more money

(36:54):
and wayless tax We'll see all next time. Thanks everyone,
thanks for listening to the Weltability Show. If today episode
gave you a new perspective, remember this, the tax law
is not your enemy. It's a roadmap, and when you
know how to follow it, you can build real lasting wealth.
If you're a business owner or investor who's tired of
overpaying taxes, the Wealthability Accelerator is your next step. You'll

(37:18):
have the opportunity to work directly with me for eighty
percent less than my standard rate, and I'll personally guide
you through how to change your facts so that you
can change your tax Go to wealthability dot com, slash
bonus and apply today. Remember it's not just what you make,
it's what you keep.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
This podcast is a presentation of rich Dad Media Network.

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