Small Businesses and the U.S. election

September 11, 2012
5 minutes read

Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and the Republican party are the preferred ticket for most U.S. small business owners. That was the conclusion of the Wave Small Business Opinions Report on the 2012 U.S. presidential election, which we just unveiled today. (Why are we surveying U.S. businesses about politics? More on that below.)

  • 51% of respondents indicated they would “definitely” or “probably” vote Republican on November 6.
  • 38% said they would “definitely” or “probably” vote Democrat.
  • 6% intend to vote “Other,” and 5% are undecided (all figures are rounded).
  • Of respondents who intend to vote Republican, the number-one issue is cutting government red tape for small businesses.
  • Of respondents who intend to vote Democrat, the number-one issue is improving healthcare options for small businesses.
  • Improving healthcare options is also the number-one issue for undecided voters.

Why are we doing this?

We’ve mentioned this before, in our recent rant at Forbes.com: Small businesses with 9 employees or less are under-represented, or mis-represented, in media and politics, in spite of making up 95% of businesses. (These figures are from the U.S. census, but similar proportions apply around the globe).

Most “small business” reports include responses from businesses with hundreds of employees and millions in revenue, so the opinions of real small businesses with 9 employees or less are seldom represented with any accuracy. And that makes it harder for real small businesses to get the right kind of attention and action. That has to end.

We’re doing what we can to be part of the solution. We started with the Wave Small Business Report this summer. This U.S. Election survey is our second effort in giving voice to real small businesses.

I’ll state categorically that we are not trying to further any political agenda. Our pledge is to transparently share the opinions of our small business customers. Wave doesn’t make contributions to any political party, and we will not be making recommendations based on the results of our reports.

“What if my business isn’t in the U.S.?”

Wave has customers across the globe — quite literally in just about every country on the planet. When an opportunity arises to help amplify our customers’ voices, whatever the country, we’ll do our best to facilitate that, assuming there are enough Wave customers in that country to make the survey results statistically significant. Canada, that means you’re probably up next! Guyana, sorry, we just don’t have the numbers there yet to do a fair and accurate survey.

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Starting at
2.9% + $0*
per credit card transaction
for first 10 transactions/mo
Unlimited invoices, estimates, bills
Add your logo and brand colors
Automate late payment reminders
with online payments
Wave mobile app
Unlimited bookkeeping records
Dashboard and reports
Auto-import transactions
Auto-merge transactions
Auto-categorize transactions
Add users
Live-person chat and email support
with any paid add-on
Digitally capture unlimited receipts
additional fee
Payroll
additional fee
additional fee
Hire a bookkeeper
additional fee
additional fee

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By Rob Maurin
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The information and tips shared on this blog are meant to be used as learning and personal development tools as you launch, run and grow your business. While a good place to start, these articles should not take the place of personalized advice from professionals. As our lawyers would say: “All content on Wave’s blog is intended for informational purposes only. It should not be considered legal or financial advice.” Additionally, Wave is the legal copyright holder of all materials on the blog, and others cannot re-use or publish it without our written consent.

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