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Business & Tech

Business Owners: Progress Will Be Slow But Steady Following the Nov. 6 Election

It my be that "politics is local," but business is more so for Geneva-area business people.

For a lot of Geneva-area business owners, the presidential election is of extreme interest, but its impact on their business is as distant as Washington, D.C.

Geneva Patch asked owners for their thoughts about the state of the business environment on the day after the Nov. 6 election. 

"In terms of your question, I don't think the election will make any appreciable difference to the business environment," said Mike Simon, co-owner of The Little Traveler. "Nothing today is any different than it was yesterday, and I never got a sense that people were waiting and hoping for a (Gov. Mitt) Romney win so they could change course in their spending habits. If we see a big jump, or a large fall in business in the next few days, I'll let you know."

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Justin Eggar of Allstate—Eggar Insurance Agency had a similar initial reaction.

"Most of this stuff’s not going to affect me as a consumer or even as a businessman," he said. "But what does impact me is the day after the election when the stock market drops 2.5 percentage points. We don't sell cheap products here, so when the economy is struggling, the conversation (with clients or potential customers) gets more difficult, especially when people don’t see an end in sight."

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The good news is that both local businesses are doing very well in a tough economy. Eggar said his insurance agency just had its best month ever.

Batavian Bob Lisberg, owner of Pockets Restaurant in Aurora, told Batavia Patch that he's noticed a slow but steady growth of the stock market since President Barack Obama was elected in 2008. 

"While we have a long way to go, I think we are on the right course," he said.

Scott Salvati, co-owner of Lighthouse Marketing in Batavia, had a different perspective.

"(With Obama) I haven’t heard anything about job creation," he said.
"(Romney) was very, very specific about how he was going to work with taxes to allow small business to invest in themselves, to hire more people."

Shawn Roohani, owner of Computer Plus, told Batavia Patch his business is small enough to weather some of the hard times. Roohani offers computer repair, virus removal and installation.

"If I'm short one month, I can take savings, take a loan out and keep going," Roohani said. "It’s not going to break my back. On the other hand, I’d like to have more things going here so I can hire more people."

The Nov. 6 election also brought some changes in state government—but not enough to alter the Democratic Party's hold on Springfield. Similarly, Americans decry the gridlock in Washington but continue to elect the same leaders.

"The state is really the laughing stock of the union right now," Eggar said. "And it doesn’t seem we want to change that. We shrug our shoulders and say it is what it is."

Government regulations have bogged down some businesses, and the issue was a key part of the discussion in the presidential debates. Obama argued that lack of regulation, especially in the stock market and housing industries, were the triggers of the recession. Romney argued that the pendulum has swung too far, and it's hurting small businesses.

"My industry is overregulated as a whole," said Eggar, the Geneva insurance agent. "But there’s never a day I feel it’s overbudensome. There were a lot of skeevy insurance businesses in the past. So if we have to pay the piper for that, I understand."

For a lot of business owners the future doesn't look bright so much as a long climb toward daylight.

"It’s such a convoluted thing," Eggar said. "I like to think we’ve at least bottomed out, especially with home prices. But the employment numbers concern me. I see people going from being a vice president to working in Lowe's. And I think the real numbers are substantially higher than what we’re seeing.

"It looks like it's going to be long and drawn out. Our dollar’s worth so little, so of course, some of our industry is going to rebound."

 

  • Geneva business owners: We'd love to hear more! If you own a business in Geneva and are interested in issues regarding business and politics, please contact Geneva Patch Editor Rick Nagel at rickn@patch.com.
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