In all the “stimulus packages” that are being pushed by politicians around the world there is precious little –or nothing – that is of practical benefit to most entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Are you surprised?...

1   Few politicians or bureaucrats have practical experience of small business.

2   Their retirement plans usually centre on overpaid directorships of the banks and other big businesses of the type which, as it happens, are getting big handouts.

3   There are more votes in stimulating demand – consumers – than in investing in supply – us.

4   Everyone wants to make big sweeping macro-economic statements, but few care about micro-economics.

5   We actually know what is happening at a time when the “great and the good” think it acceptable to admit they are at a loss – and the ignorant, by definition, never listen to the informed.

6   There will be headlines if a big company lays off 1,000 people, but no one notices as a hundred small businesses each have to lay off ten.

7   Only big businesses can afford to pay people to fill in the forms the way government likes them.

8   No one speaks for small business – there are reasons why it is perhaps inevitable that we have no united lobby, but it still puts us at a disadvantage.

9   It was ever thus.

10   Finally – let us be honest – we are on our own because we chose to be on our own. Most of us like it that way. We want to be independent, and the price of being independent is accepting that there is no one on whom we can depend.