You're hearing the Paul W. Smith Show News Talk 7 60. Wjr. Well, everyone's been hit hard, but of course, we've said along the way small businesses have been among the hardest hit by this pandemic. And we have checked in with the president of the Small Business Association of Michigan, Brian Kelly a number of times and he has said from the beginning and always has believed that small business owners Are the ones who know best how to run their businesses. And it's time to reiterate that and so we welcome the president of the S B A. M. Brian Kelly. Good morning, Brian. Good morning, Paul W Great to be on the show. Thanks for having me. Well, it's our pleasure. Always. And now we're seeing that light at the end of the tunnel. It isn't a speeding train coming right at us. But It's also, uh, dependent on a lot of things for the people you represent to get their business back the way they want and need it to be That's right. Small businesses are literally the lifeblood of our economy at the the, uh, Foundation of our communities, and putting them back in charge of their businesses is so important. It's an important step toward this long road to recovery. And do you see, uh, any hurdles that are being put up by government action or inaction that Causes you concern representing the small businesses. As these last seven businesses sit down dining entertainment related that sort of business. Get going. They're having a extremely difficult time finding employees. In fact, we just completed a survey among our members and about half of them. Have listed the difficulty in finding employees as their number one concern right now. And of course we You know that That's a multifaceted problem. But at the top of the list, they report that the fact that they have to compete with their government. And finding employees is, uh, is so frustrating for businesses said now it's like kicking them when they're down. So it is long since time to return this unemployment system back to what it was pre pandemic levels. Yeah, it is what has to happen And they are feeling the brunt of the government mistake. I mean, it's the unintended consequences. It was a great idea initially. But it just went on and on and on and kept getting renewed and renewed and renewed, and we ended up as everyone well knows by now. Doing something that just isn't ever good, and that is paying people to do nothing. It's never good is not good for the economy. It's not good for business owners. It's not good for employees. And their families. You know that that survey that I was just telling you about that we work. We're actually going to publish it. Later. On this morning, It showed not only that employees that lack of employees was the top concern. By far no other issue even came close. Do you think about what that means about our prospects for recovery is is Coming out of this pandemic. I mean, people are hiring. That's great news. But what is really concerning is that Yeah, You know they if we don't rectify this and rectify it very quickly. Businesses are going to have to figure out a way to operate without as many employees and so I'm what I'm concerned about is that we'll get to this fall, The unemployment benefit will naturally expire September. 4th is the date when it will. When the federal unemployment the support will Will expire well, by that time these jobs might be gone. They might have given away to innovations or changes in practices or automation or some other thing that You know, these jobs aren't just going to wait for people. And so I think we might miss. There's a golden opportunity to get people back to work right now. Brian Kelly with this president of the Small Business Association of Michigan, and I'm wondering, I haven't asked the question yet. You're the best guy to ask right now. After all of this free money after all of these payments to people to not work Has this affected the wages being looked for, or even demanded now by people coming back to work for the small businesses. Well, we heard anecdotally that, um, that there there was a change in expectations up and down the the pay scale and really businesses have responded the same. Survey will that will publish a little bit later on today has has indicated that over half of of businesses that have lost significant revenue, significant income in the last year have still increased wages to their employees to try to attract More in, so I think that they're doing their part. But here's the thing, Paul, you can't. Uh, you can You can compete with wages, but you can't compete with 100% time off, and I think that's the purpose Getting lost in. This is that businesses are going out there with $20.22 dollars and 24 hour an hour offers for employees and still not able to keep and retain employees because the incremental benefit of working at $20 an hour is only three hours and 45 cents an hour because the the unemployment benefit as the equivalency of 16 55 an hour Wow. Well, I keep going back to what I have said, and I've said it since the jobs bank Um And I know that workers gave up a lot. There was a lot of sacrifice. They gave up benefits They gave up money. And that's how the jobs bank came along. But it just wasn't a good idea to have people sitting at home, have their kids seeing them sit at home and think that's how we make money. We sit at home and don't have to go work anywhere. And it wasn't good there. I had that argument with beloved Ron Gettelfinger, who fought so hard for his Members of the U. A. W But I think it all comes down to that again. And here. We've created a circumstance in a situation where you're talking about people getting more per hour, not working than working. And though this may have in your own words, Brian Kelly changed some things. And some of the small businesses have stepped up and offered more money. Not everyone can afford that. Whatever you said. It was $16.25 an hour or whatever the figure was. They can't afford to do that and still higher the same number of employees they had pre pandemic. Yeah. I mean that our survey that we're publishing today shows that 63% of our members head a decline in sales in 2020 is compared to 2019. And 34% of them had a decline in revenues of more than 25%. And so at the same time, they're getting hit with with inflation. And if you know small businesses are not They are not luxury. There are a necessity to our economy, our communities, our people, our families, and that's why this is so important. We get this right, sure and a ton of pent up demand. There's a ton of opportunity. We cannot afford to miss this economic recovery that the pent up demand that could push it economic recovery right now, and we can't just assume it's going to wait for this fall. Well and Brian The ugly truth is that interest rates are going to start going up, and that's not helpful to small businesses who depend on loans and other things just to keep their companies going. So how do we get a hold of the survey that you're publishing today? We'll get it out to actually I'll send it over to you here in just a few minutes. Is it something that our listeners can get? Also You'll find it at SPM. Org will be released at 11 o'clock. Today.