Small-business owners actively participate in the 2016 presidential election by speaking out about their concerns for certain key issues that impact both themselves and their business environment, depending on their economic situation.
“I am currently undecided, but I think any entrepreneur needs to think about how the next leader of this country is going to influence others socially and financially,” Aaron Bowers, founder of Wahola, a performance based brand-marketing firm, said.
According to the stats, most people are concerned about the economy. Bowers has been an aspiring entrepreneur since a young age and is also a current student in his senior year that will soon graduate from Cabrini with a communications degree.
“I explored politics in order to understand business. I became fascinated with Obama and McCain and I had a connection with a woman running for Mayor of Harrisburg,” Bowers said. “ I volunteered on her campaigns and several others including senate and houses.”
Wahola provides businesses with marketing strategies that are based on results. The company provides full circle digital and print marketing services and its objective is based on a storytelling approach. Bowers is currently growing his business into the e-commerce sector, which will ultimately expand the company’s customer base and hopefully reach the future company vision of going global.
“Political views of small-business owners differ across certain towns and cities,” Bowers said. “I believe small business owners in Radnor are mainly republican, but if you reside and conduct your business in Harrisburg or Philadelphia, it’s mainly democratic.”
According to a survey conducted by the National Small Business Association, small-business owners are politically split, but continue to lean Republican.
Small business owners, like Bowers, and the economy as a whole have a strong concern about the social and financial well-being and the economy.
Similar to the presidential candidates on certain issues, business owners are torn between political parties. According to the Endurance International Group’s U.S. Small Business Economic and Political Sentiment Survey, small business owners feel optimistic about their business prospects, but less then half of small business owners that were surveyed have a positive outlook about the general economy.
Not only do small business owners sustained economic hope, but also so does the public in general. According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 54 percent of Americans expect that economic conditions a year from now will be the same as they are today.
According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, people that are considered less –educated with a low-income still feel as if they are falling behind economically.
The public’s minimum sense of optimism for the economy relates to the issue of income inequality that presidential candidates have spoken about over the course of the past couple of months.
According to Pew Research Center, the global middle income population increased between 2001 and 2011, but the majority of people continued to fall under the low income population. The feeling that individuals have of “falling behind” is an issue that political candidates have addressed domestically to a certain extent, but have not yet spoken much about the global impact of the income inequality gap.
