Editorial: Big help for small business

Big business gets most of the attention, but out of 32.6 million U.S. businesses fewer than 21,000 employ more than 500 people, according to census data. Developments in Toledo and Perrysburg are notable for their concentration on the vast majority of small businesses that fall below that number of employees.

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It’s easy to ignore small businesses. They aren’t traveling the country looking for sites for a billion-dollar development. They don’t have an army of consultants negotiating development incentives or lobbyists seeking special treatment in the law or bid specifications tailored to the product they want to sell the government.

But the sheer mass of small businesses makes it wise for local government to worry most about their competitive prospects and structure development programs to make sure they are included.

The empty storefront buildings that exist when small businesses no longer do are like missing teeth in a city’s smile.

This week, Perrysburg City Council wisely expanded its 20-year-old Job Creation Grant Program to include businesses producing a payroll of $200,000 rather than the $2 million requirement originally established.

Perrysburg rebates 33 percent of the income tax on newly created jobs to the business as an incentive to help make the expansion financially viable. The importance of small business to downtown Perrysburg is so readily apparent the incentive is hiked to 38 percent for business located there.

The Ohio Chamber of Commerce Small Business Council has just announced a statewide digital advertising initiative with Toledo-based entrepreneur Easton Gladney’s Digi Discounts.

The online app gives Ohio small businesses the ability to provide discounts and promote their goods or services through the Digi Discount link to 10 social media platforms without paying any fees for the service.

Similar services charge businesses a fee to list or take a fraction of the sale. Advertisers provide the Digi Discount revenue, and the small business partners attract the stream of users that make marketing investments strategic.

A business model with no expense to the company that connects is a crucial assistance to the 78.5 percent of firms that have fewer than 10 employees.

Visibility is important to these small businesses, but fees that cut their profit margin on transactions tied to the marketing platform are problematic.

Overcoming that issue was the key to Digi Discount’s deal with the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Hopefully, success with the 8,000 small businesses in the Ohio Chamber network will prompt other state chambers to beat a path to Mr. Gladney’s door in Toledo.

Small businesses need every possible advantage to survive. If Digi Discount helps them profit, it will deserve to become a successful large business and be courted by the economic development agencies that proliferate across northwest Ohio.