Small Business and the Bailout

The big news this week has been the U.S. Government’s proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial industry. MerchantCircle has conducted a survey through a random sampling of its members, to see how small business felt about the whole thing.

Results of the complete MerchantCircle survey will be made available October 7, 2008. The questions range from which candidate would help out small businesses the most, whether race or age would play a part in their decision, and which candidate they planned on voting for in November. For the complete survey results on October 7, check the MerchantCircle blog.

I think what we’re seeing here is Washington not conveying their message to Main Street America, says MerchantCircle Founder, Ben T. Smith, IV.Nearly 45% say the bailout will not help them out, and 35% aren’t sure. To me, that means they view this bailout as only helping out Wall Street, with little effect on the economy around them. The focus should be on how Main Street America sees this bailout and that’s not coming across.

Some preliminary results:

Will be interesting to see the complete survey on Tuesday.