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Summary of US Chamber of Commerce Small Business Summit
 Miami, FL (June 1, 2006) – MerchantAdvantage spoke at Access 2006: The US Chamber of Commerce’s America’s Small Business Summit in Washington DC from May 10-12 and here are some of the highlights for ecommerce online businesses. The following comments are from Chip Arndt, Executive Vice President of Business Development at MerchantAdvantage who spoke at the event about ecommerce.
Overall:
The US Chamber of Commerce is a well organized lobbying machine helping represent small business issues on Capitol Hill and was worth attending. The Chamber traditionally is dominated by Republicans, but it was good to see that many people, who don’t recognize themselves as Republicans, were also there representing the concerns of small businesses. It confirmed to me that everyone realizes that the health of the small business sector determines the health of the US economy and that “both sides of the aisle” need to work together to ensure sustained growth in the small to mid sized business sector.
The summit was attended by over 500 people representing all sorts of small businesses from many geographic regions. It also included several lobbying groups and other interested parties. All in all it was a great opportunity to network and there was ample opportunity to let your concerns be heard over 3 days covering 35 different events. The summit covered a myriad of issues concerning small businesses, inclusive of: tapping global markets, networking advice, the impact of litigation, government partnerships, customer acquisition, playing the lobbying game, economic outlooks, leadership and management, the highlighted issue of small business healthcare reform and, of course, ecommerce and the future of online retail. Please see http://www.uschamber.com/sb/summit/agenda.htm for a complete agenda.
Here are some highlighted observations that I hope you find helpful!
1. Small Business Health Care Reform:
This is a hot issue and the Senate held a cloture vote which did not allow bill, S 1955, on Small Business Health Reform, to move to the Senate floor for debate and vote. Please see:
This political method, cloture, was used to hold up any vote and force the issue to be dealt with later, and who knows when that might be. Both the Republicans and Democrats agree that something must be done, but from this writer’s perspective, the two main issues standing between a compromise are:
1. defining the basics of what employers should provide to their employees, ensuring that a standard is available to everyone, and mandating this standard by the Federal government to ensure equity across the board and,
2. leaving it up to the States to decide this issue from State to State. If you want to learn more about the issue, please see http://www.nsba.biz/healthreform/ and go from there. This link is a partisan link but it gives an excellent overview of one side of the issue. Here is a lead into viewpoints on the other side http://pizzamarketplace.com/article.php?id=5022. This is a complicated issue and the links provided are just one of thousands to go to! So don’t stop with these.
Both Senator Hillary Clinton (New York) and Former Speaker of The House Newt Gingrich gave excellent and very articulate polar opposite viewpoints. After hearing both sides, I am unsure that one solution is better than the other, but I am sure that whatever direction is decided it will come down to regulation and having a clear plan on how to execute the eventual plan. Government is great on policy decisions but terrible on understanding the ramifications and processes needed to execute that policy. That will be the deciding factor on its overall effectiveness as a cost savings method for small business that also protects the employee.
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2. Speech by Treasury Secretary John Snow (replacing scheduled speaker President
George W. Bush):
Disappointing. Not one insightful word or comment that I could not find by reading the Financial Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal or watching cable TV or FOX news. The inability of Secretary Snow to identify and understand our issues and then speak to them is indicative of….well, draw your own conclusion. All he did was give a marketing, cheer leading speech on how the economy is recovering and added nothing of value on the vision and future from the administration = a real lost opportunity.
 3. Ecommerce, Network Neutrality and the Future of Online Commerce:
I was honored to speak on this panel with William Kovacs, Vice President, Environment, Technology and Regulatory Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Eric Fitzgerald Reed, Director, Market Issues and Policy of Verizon Communications, Thomas W. Loveland, Founder & Chairman of Mind Over Machines, and Glenn Couper, Senior Director, DSL Product Planning and Development at BellSouth. The panel session was titled: "High Speed to Profits: Leveraging Communications to Drive and Promote Your Business."
Sitting next to multi billion dollar behemoths claming to represent the small to mid sized business was a bit odd, so I am glad MerchantAdvantage was invited to speak. I focused on representing the voice and concerns of the small to midsized ecommerce business in a billion dollar marketplace. I presented a handout, which you can download and print by clicking here. I created the handout to establish a graphic framework of what we were all there to talk about in an open and candid manner.
It was an effective handout and here is my simple takeaway: No one person or company has yet figured out the full power of the internet and how it is changing, forever, online and offline commerce. It is exciting, as the opportunities are boundless, and wonderful new companies pop up everyday to help businesses increase their sales and brand exposure. Minds Over Machines and MerchantAdvantage provided insight into many of these helpful services and tools that are available to an online merchant. Verizon and BellSouth spoke to bandwidth options to help businesses get their information online in a cost effective and efficient manner. We all agreed that it is essential for merchants to be online, as online sales are growing each year. We also agreed that being online is not enough. Instead, the answer is to be online with the proper strategy, partnerships, tools, solutions and knowledge to navigate and utilize the marketing and sales power of the internet effectively. While the process may be daunting for any online merchant, the possibilities are endless. Let the learning curve begin and get to it!
We are here because you are online.sm
My comment sent to the press remains: “MerchantAdvantage is honored to be included in a summit that directly impacts our economy and the future of not only small business in America, but America itself. Much of the future of American commerce is online. Unless we together create a vision, and agree on a cogent strategy of how to support small businesses by making online and technology solutions cost effective, America will witness the dominance of few large ecommerce companies and the decline of small to midsized online businesses struggling to compete for the technologically savvy consumer.”
Ecommerce businesses concerned with the aforementioned issues are encouraged to contact Chip Arndt at summit@merchantadvantage.com or 800.550.9466 with comments and observations so that MerchantAdvantage can better represent small to midsized businesses in the future.
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About MerchantAdvantage, LLC
MerchantAdvantage (merchantadvantage.com) is an ecommerce software solutions company committed to championing and helping the small to midsized online ecommerce Merchant address complicated online issues and take a systematic, controlled and proactive approach to online product marketing. MerchantAdvantage provides long-term, cost effective software tools that enable an online business to grow by reaching the widest audience possible via online, broadband, and wireless devices. MerchantAdvantage’s applications are designed to thoroughly connect the online retailer to their marketplace partners in a seamless motion of communication allowing Merchants to take control of their ecommerce channels, marketing strategies, IT solutions, and online order management demands. These software tools specifically help ecommerce retailers bridge the gap created by non-standardized data feeds to various online market places, shopping comparison sites, and other online shopping destination sites. MerchantAdvantage is changing the macrocosm of ecommerce by staying ahead of the curve in providing business solutions to the growing online retail marketplace: We’re here because America’s commerce future is online.sm
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