As if the supply issues already plaguing most small business owners weren't already enough, now comes more supply-chain dislocation as roughly 10-20% of cross border truck drivers from both Mexico & Canada will be prohibited entry due to vaccination status as of last Saturday. That's not a small thing at all! A very large percentage of US goods cross both borders daily and this new restriction will be felt in many ways, none of them good for small business owners.
"Shelves are bare in the US, manufacturers cannot get parts, businesses are shutting down operations due to shortages. So what do they do? They block at least 10% of the truckers from Canada and Mexico from entering the United States with their goods."
Anyone who still watches television news is probably unaware that there is currently a 70-mile long convoy of trucks headed for Ottawa (which is kind of like Washington D.C. for us) scheduled to arrive January 29th and "shut the government down" over the country-wide vaccine mandates. If things go the way the truckers want expect deliveries from (and to) Canada to grind to a halt.
It's not just truckers; it's all small business owners are being continually targeted, restricted, burdened with new, ever-changing bureaucracy that imposes extra costs and demands more time and personnel. Let's not even go into liability!
Healthcare businesses as of January 1st now have new disclosure requirements for ALL CLIENTS due to the "No Surprises Act" which, surprise! Requires them to give an estimate of all possible charges (in and out of network within $400 dollars or otherwise face sanctions and financial liability) to all their clients every-damn-year! If you own one of these companies your costs for time and personnel just skyrocketed because of these new rules.
"Congress enacted the No Surprises Act (the Act) to protect patients from costly, unexpected medical bills. The regulation applies to all health care providers, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) defines as “a physician or other health care provider who is acting within the scope of practice of that provider’s license or certification under the applicable state law.”
This new rule will afflict Dentists, Chiropractic care, etc and whether it will benefit the general public remains to be seen but you'll be signing bigger checks regardless.
"Years ago, a young entrepreneur asked me in exasperation: “Why does our government seem intent to put every obstacle they could possibly think of in the way of small businesses?” He was unhappy at how he needed to spend too much of his time attending to all the rules, regulations, and documents that various government offices require, rather than be able to devote his valuable time running the business."
Did any city administrator ask the business community if they wanted to be deputized to police their patrons' medical status daily? Have any of these bureaucrats making the rules stopped once to consider the damage their doing to peoples' livelihoods? I never attribute to malice that which can be easily explained by incompetence but the rule makers are rampaging through the balance sheets of businesses who are already reeling from two years of this and it doesn't stop!
Right now the demand for immediate capital is understandably hot; urgent capital needs are more frequent so rates have been higher too.
The changing landscape makes it even more critical than ever to have capital handy for sudden expenses - the good news is that capital is cheap when compared to the price increases we're all seeing. Whether because of scarcity or increased demand prices for everything are going higher but the cost of capital I provide remains stable for the whole term!