What The Obama Presidency Means For Growing BusinessesWhat The Obama Presidency Means For Growing Businesses

Advocates for smaller business hail Obama's election. Champions of smaller business condemn Obama's election. Now that the (endless) campaign is done, we can move on to how small and midsize businesses will fare under the coming Obama administration -- no surprise, there's not one answer.Much of the bullish support of Obama centers on the hope that a new, decisively elected President will bring calm to the financial markets and confidence to business owners. And there's much to be said to for stable leadership according to Karen Kerrigan, president of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council. "Political certainty will bring some sense of stability to the financial markets," she said. "A rest from the severe market turbulence will likely ease consumer and investor anxiety to a certain extent. This is a welcome break for entrepreneurs." The allegedly becalmed markets reacted by slumping the day after the election with the Dow dropping almost 500 points. As discouraging as post-election day one was on Wall Street, the calm confident quotient is a long-term play, and the jury will remain out for several more quarters.

The mass of detractors fall in line behind Joe the Plumber's concern over Obama's proposed tax plan. Business owners making more than $200,000 annually ($250,000 for families), fall into the top two income brackets, now taxed at 33% and 35%. Obama proposes increasing these percentages to 36% and 39.6%, respectively, -- in essence returning them what they were during the Clinton administration. Despite the reality of his $40,000 annual income, Joe Wurzelbacher's concern was that Obama's tax increase would stymie his small business aspirations and it quickly became a rallying cry for the McCain campaign. It's worth noting, however, that only 2.7% of taxpayers deriving more half their income from a business or farm will pay taxes in either of the top brackets according to the Tax Policy Center. That drops to 1.9% for filers with any income from a business or farm. If accurate (bMighty readers, chime in here), that means more than 97% of small business owners won't pay more in taxes.

Taxes are a hot button issues, but most of the buzzing is about individual tax rates. For businesses, Obama's proposals include exempting start-ups and small businesses from paying capital gains taxes, expanded SBA loan programs, a tax credit for small businesses that provide employee health care, elimination of double-taxation for self-employed workers, and a reduced corporate tax rate for companies that expand or start operations in the U.S. The devil is in the details on how any of these will play out and it's crucial to remember that these are campaign promises -- what will actually happen remains to be seen, especially given the broader economic outlook.

And what of the financial crisis? For many business owners and analysts, concern over the economy overwhelms the results of the election. Companies of all sizes in industries from advertising to technology are tightening their spending, slashing costs (often in the form of layoffs), postponing capital investments, and hunkering down for grim times.

And it's not just anecdotal. The ADP National Employment Report found that employment in businesses with 500 of more employees declined by 41,000 from September to October. The drop was even steeper in companies with 50-499 employees -- 91,000 jobs vanished. And companies with fewer than 50 employees were hardly untouched with a decline of 25,000. According to ADP, this marks the first outright decline in small business employment since November 2002.

Bringing that home to the technology sector, the October edition of the CDW IT Monitor notes a 2% percent decline in anticipated overall IT hiring and a decrease in IT staffing predictions for small and midsize businesses -- only 4% plan to hire in the next six months. If there's a glimmer of hope it's that 51% of businesses still see IT budgets increasing the in next six months.

Though is easy to become mired in tax policy debates and dismal data about the business outlook, one aspect that's encouraging about the coming Obama administration is its fluency with technology. From announcing his running mate via text message to naming a cabinet level CTO, if Obama's not our first Internet President, he's closer to it than we've ever been. Exactly what that that means for governing remains to be seen, but it's likely to improve communication between citizens and government and, more hopefully, the prospect of looking to new solutions to solve the daunting list of problems we confront.

For more on the candidates stances on business and technology, go to the bMighty Election Resource Center.