All right, welcome back to The Earl Ingram Show.
As always, you can join us at 855-752-4842.
That's 855-752-4842.
And I am honored to bring on board Main Street Alliance's own Richard Trent.
He is the executive director of Main Street Alliance.
Good morning to you, sir.
How are you?
I'm good, man.
I'm just vibing to the tunes always.
Hey, you ain't heard nothing yet, man.
Nobody plays tunes like I do, man.
I'm good.
I'm supposed
Yeah, man.
We got we got
Hey, man, I want you to come into the studio with me, man.
We got a lot to talk about, man.
But, but, you know, so you national advocacy work.
Uh, that's what main street alliance is for small business owners.
Uh, and so you've, you've been the executive director for how long?
thinking back, man.
I had you on several months back.
Yeah.
Yeah, right, right before the convention.
Yeah, man, we had
a
great conversation then.
And so let's talk about small business.
And we were talking about before we came on the air what small business is because people have misconceptions.
You know, that's everything from a mom and pop operation to somebody with 500 employees.
How is that possible, man?
Everybody's trying to jack small businesses style, basically.
You've got businesses that have 50 million in revenue, 100 million in revenue that still want to consider themselves small business because everybody knows that small businesses are the force that keeps communities vibrant and dynamic and interesting.
Any town you visit across this country.
If you go there and you have a good time, it's likely because you had a good experience at a small business.
And so there is this desire to make even larger enterprises seem like they're small business.
But the truth of the matter is small businesses comprise 99% of all of the businesses in the country.
And most of them are very, very small, like 86% make under $100,000 a year in revenue.
So that's
that's a pocket of the small business world that we need to really focus on and make sure that our communities are healthy.
So what's in the mindset, man, of somebody who takes their family's future and mortgages their homes and everything else to start a small business?
What percentage of them are successful in the first place?
In the restaurant and hospitality industry, there's often a much higher rate of business failure after even just the first year or so of operation.
But it varies sector to sector.
But one thing that's consistent is that these folks have a belief in themselves.
They often have like a connection and a responsiveness to their own community.
I think of Yahara Learning Center right outside of Milwaukee where you've got Macy who started a childcare facility because she was hearing things from
her community about the need for more childcare, the need for more services for young people.
And she took it upon herself to respond to the needs of her community members.
That's how so many small businesses pop up and sprout up just being attended to the needs of community.
And that's why we need to make sure that we give them all the support they deserve.
You know, starting up a small business is more than a notion.
And so, you know, there's certainly needs to be, you know,
I don't know vetting maybe or people before they decide to start a small business.
Is there places they can go to get some information before they make this step?
It's a monumental step.
this.
If you want to start a small business, there are a couple places that you can go to to look for an initial loan, right?
You can go straight up to a bank.
A lot of people go to the small business administration who works with other banks to connect you with some financing.
If you've got good credit and you can prove you got some cash flow.
But CDFI's are another alternative lender that are currently being attacked by the Trump administration.
They've made an all out declaration on slashing the CDFI fund.
which really powers a lot of these alternative lenders at the state level.
So CDFIs are important because as a small business owner, even if you're at the...
I'm just writing my business plan stage of the process.
You can go to a CDFI.
You can schedule a meeting with one of their counselors.
They can review your business plan and tell you, hey, this looks strong.
Here's something you might need to think more about.
And that's why we need to make sure that the CDFI industry in this country is protected because they really do help small business owners.
refine their idea even before day one of operation.
So if you're just joining us, my guess is executive director, Mr. Richard Trent of Main Street Alliance.
When we talk about small businesses, one of the things that President Joe Biden did, and people talk about all the things he didn't do, but one of the things he clearly did was offered financial support to small businesses.
and there were resources.
It's hard for small businesses to get a loan because they don't have a lot of excess capital.
And so it's hard to move forward.
Joe Biden was able to tie into that and help some of these small businesses.
But with Donald Trump in office, that may not be the case anymore.
It may be just the exact opposite.
You can't take it away from Biden.
I mean, that he really did a lot in terms of making investments in the small business ecosystem, but especially around black and brown women and rural entrepreneurs and veteran entrepreneurs.
You know, people want to, when people demonize DEI and all these different things, they forget that a lot of these programs are actually targeted towards veterans.
Folks that served our country who have a tough time, you know, readjusting when they get back.
And so I feel like it's important to highlight, there were programs under the Biden administration designed specifically to uplift that pocket of our enterprising class.
I mean, the community advantage program increased their loan rate to black and brown and women entrepreneurs.
The rate of business formation amongst black, Latino, and women entrepreneurs doubled under the Biden administration.
And there was a record 20 million new job new new small business applications Across the four years of the Biden administration, which was a record in and of itself So you had the highest rates of black small business formation in 25 years under Biden a lot of things to be excited about
But but you also talked about rural areas.
It didn't just stop in urban centers.
It was across the nation
Absolutely, because that administration, I think had a solid understanding of the ways that the city, the urban and the rural speak to one another, right?
Our cities are strong because of a strong agricultural sector in the rural spaces and vice versa, right?
So I think that when you understand that connectivity and you build programming around it and you take a smart chance.
on some of these entrepreneurs, then the the economy can grow in a healthy way.
I know I know that former President Biden fed money to chambers across this across this nation.
That was a way to to kind of get money out to small businesses who couldn't go to a bank and get along.
Let's let's be honest.
It's it has to be.
intimidating and you're a small business owner to go sit before a major bank and say, hey, you know, I need $50,000, which is lifeblood to a small business and can be the difference in whether or not one is going to be successful or not.
And so, but he was able to move that into a smaller arenas and the chambers, right?
Absolutely.
But I mean, you got to pay attention to which chambers we're talking about.
You've got some local and alternative chambers that are very healthy and really listen to, you know, first time business owners and small business owners.
Some of the chambers that are more directly tied to the US chamber can often just be like a mouthpiece for policies that don't always work for local economy.
So kind of have to be clear about that station.
Yeah.
So when
when people are talking about, you know, small businesses and, and starting one up in, and the fact that we know that these small businesses are really going to be the lifeblood of, of our country in the future.
Is it safe to say that?
Absolutely.
I mean, we're talking about 99% of all companies in the country, in the country are small businesses.
two thirds of new job creation come from the small business sector.
So we're talking about literally the beating heart of the American economy, but it's really going through a lot right now as a very small number of companies gets bigger and bigger and controls more of the deal flow across our economy.
We got to put a check on that.
You know, it really is as you move around and you look at the storefronts,
in communities that you can tell how vibrant a community is by whether or not these storefronts are filled with small businesses.
Certain places you can go and you see that and you know that that's a strong community, a strong environment.
Other places you go to, those small, those storefronts are empty.
Is there a correlation between the two?
advocating for an extension of the Main Street bounce back program.
A couple years ago it was 100 million.
This year we're fighting for 50 million in the budget because it addresses that problem that places like Madison and Milwaukee historically had of the empty storefront.
It really does impact how you receive a neighborhood, how you experience a neighborhood.
when you've got empty storefronts and we want to make sure that entrepreneurs have enough capital to actually start that enterprise and make their communities.
So hang on, hang on a second.
Executive director, Mr. Richard Trent, Main Street Alliance 855-752-4842.
If you have a question or comment now is the time.
They're tuning into the Earl Ingram show.
join us at 855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
I'm joined by Executive Director Richard Trent of the Main Street Alliance.
Sir, is it safe to say that you can detect whether or not a community is healthy by a small business?
I mean, imagine a world where you go to a town and the only business that's open is the Walmart, the big box store at the end of the block.
and all the mom and pop stores are closed, all the antique shops, the cute little antique shops and stores like that, they're done.
The cafe can't generate enough foot traffic in order to stay open.
The restaurant and bar is languishing.
So, I mean, it's very easy to paint a picture of what our main streets will look like if we allow a couple very small companies to continue to consolidate and proliferate in our small towns and in our main streets.
And you can easily see the opposite of that, right, where we make
intentional investments in entrepreneurs and young folks or older entrepreneurs, enterprising spirits that just want to take a chance and be responsive to the needs of their community.
And you can see all the little enterprises start to bubble up and percolate and pop up on Main Street.
And then you want to go there.
That's actually a town you'd like to visit where folks have a stake in the thriving of their own community.
When you can feel that in the air, it's something that you just want to be a part of.
How do you keep that spirit alive in children?
Because because there has to be some connection to young people today to even know what that is, man.
They even want to be engaged in that if it's dying, right?
Man, that is a very good question.
And as a father of two young boys.
I would love to make sure that I impart to them some sense of industriousness and that entrepreneurial spirit that I find so appealing in a lot of the folks that I work with.
And I think that it's really about a couple different things.
It's about healthy risk tolerance, you know, because you've already put your finger on it, Earl, that like if you're a small business owner, you are sticking your neck out and you are taking a big chance, usually.
But the difference is, are you just taking a chance to take a chance?
Or are you engaging in informed risk?
And then this is like, I've thought about this for a while.
I've built out a business plan.
I see a space in the market that maybe I could occupy and treat.
That's informed risk.
And so I think that if you can engender something like that, and young people of how to identify through critical thinking,
the smart risks that it makes sense to take, then that's a really good starting point.
But I think the other value that you want to instill, if we want to continue to steward this generation of young entrepreneurs, is just this idea of being attentive to the needs of your community.
Open your eyes, look around to what people that live around you are saying, what they need, what they want, what they aspire to, what they want for their community.
Um, and then you can build enterprises around it, sustainable enterprises.
So be responsive.
You know, man, I remember because I'm 70 plus years old, I remember
It
You know, man, you're looking in the mirror.
This is your future.
Um, but anyway, as a young man,
Long before there was Walmart and all those major outlets in the community I grew up in before there were the major grocery stores In my community man, there was a five and dime Local local pharmacies little mom-and-pop pharmacies You know in my community there was there was no big major outlets like that and so
It kept, it was a healthy community, right?
Yeah.
Once all of those major corporations came in, that community died.
Yeah.
And, and so that's part of, people ask why we're where we are now.
It's all of those things,
Absolutely.
Basically, basically starting in the 1970s, like the mid-1970s out.
there was a period where you'll hear a lot about Milton Friedman and his thoughts on just protecting shareholder value at all costs.
Around that time, antitrust enforcement, the legal jurisprudence that keeps large businesses from getting larger, it declined.
Antitrust enforcement started to decline in the 1970s.
You can basically track
small business, new small business formation, the decline in new small business formation started with that decline in antitrust enforcement as these a couple companies started to gobble up competitors, gobble up competitors, merge and just get bigger and bigger.
And that's why that's how we've ended up in this in the situation today where you've got Amazon basically the controlling half of all web.
uh, transactions, right?
It's, it's a, it's a crazy world to live in, but it started very intentionally in the 1970s with this, with this idea that bigger businesses are better.
So, so how can, uh, uh, current small businesses benefit from Main Street Alliance?
So that you've got, you've got small business organizations that focus on the technical assistance and just like how do I make a business plan?
Those are the CDFIs that I mentioned are some of these local chambers of commerce.
But the truth is that small businesses operate in a policy ecosystem and with rules and different legislation informing how they operate, we're the entity that helps shape those policies so that entrepreneurs actually have a fighting chance.
So you got a couple more minutes.
Yeah, of course.
All right.
So I'm really thrilled and excited about having executive director Mr. Richard Trent from Main Street Alliance on board.
You can join us with your questions and comments, 855-752-4842 on the Earl Ingram Show.
All right, welcome back to the Earl Ingram Show.
As always, you can join us at 855-752-4842.
Look, it's another privilege to have my guest, Mr. Richard Trent, Executive Director of Main Street Alliance on board.
And you know, man, I wanted to ask you about what I perceive, and that doesn't mean because I perceive it as fact, but is there anything documentation to say?
that women are more willing to take the risk as small business owners than men, because that's just kind of what I see,
If we're going by the number of attendees at our day of action at the Capitol last week, I'd agree with your hypothesis, because it was about 70%
women entrepreneurs that showed up to get FaceTime with their elected officials and fight for a budget that's actually working for Main Street.
And I don't know the numbers off the top of my head of the gender breakdown of new business formation, but it is the case that so many microlending programs, if you think of like Grameen Bank and how they've done microfinance in other parts of the world,
it starts with the savings and the experiences of the women in the community.
Because frankly, and speaking in very gendered terms, heteronormative terms, there's so many women that take on the responsibility of caring for the entire tribe, so to speak, the entire family.
And when they put that responsibility on their shoulders, it makes them more trustworthy and accountable.
uh, players within the economy.
Uh, so I would, I would, I'm, my sense is to, I'm inclined to agree that that's probably true, that there's some special spark in terms of women entrepreneurs and their ability to pull it off, but I don't have the numbers off the top.
Yeah.
You know, man, uh, here's a question, uh, comment.
That is simply because he made many deals with the wealthiness country as well as enemy countries.
That's something I've done with Trump.
He's a coin operated president, but you know, it clearly is another comment.
Trump transferring the student loan debt to the SBA doesn't make sense.
Yeah.
As a person who spent many, many years trying to get my student loans forgiven through the public loan forgiveness program and just understanding how cumbersome and tough.
that processes to now know that those same programs are going to be housed within the small business administration, which has no history of doing anything like that.
Also, the small business administration has just suffered massive layoffs between 400 and 700 people have been dismissed at the SBA.
This is the decision making of a person and an administration that does not have
any sort of concern for working-class Americans.
It's plain and simple.
He's funny.
He says outlandish things.
I get it.
But in terms of caring about the lived experience of working-class Americans, it's decisions like this that show how little he cares.
Because if you care about folks, then you make decisions that actually help them out and make their lives easier.
This is not going to make folks' lives easier.
You know, man, it...
it just as you just look at this whole thing and it's unraveling and you know that this is not going to end well for the average American, right?
It just is not.
And so, you know, when you look at especially the things that are going on right now with all of these different trade wars and all of those things at the end of that road, what looks like.
a recession hit it in our direction.
All those things don't benefit somebody in small business, man.
It's true.
I the thing I've been saying is that, you know, you've really got like a year and a half that we have to make it through because by the time the midterms come around, the decision making of folks in Congress starts to change a little bit as they start to become more.
accountable and responsive to the ideas and beliefs of their constituencies.
So you really got to just like survive a year and a half of some of this decision-making.
And I'm saying this to my conservative buddies, to my moderate buddies, my centrist buddies.
At Main Street Alliance, we build...
um, ideological alignment across the political spectrum.
So we've got folks that voted for Trump once who, you know, who still show up to some of our roundtables and talk to, you know, bleeding heart progressives.
And we arrive at some similar conclusions that things like paid leave for employees really makes a difference and makes businesses more competitive.
that folks should have meaningful access to capital.
That child care should just be affordable and accessible to everyone.
It's the workforce behind the workforce.
And so when you put conservatives and progressives in a room together, they arrive at these same conclusions.
And so I think that it's a matter of maintaining our sanity for the next year and a half until we can build a cross-party coalition to fight back against some of this stupid decision maker.
You know, I never understood
why our allies, European allies and others, never squashed their small businesses.
They never did.
They knew the value of the small businesses.
And you can go to those different countries now, small businesses are thriving.
And it has, I think,
That's a good question.
I haven't thought much about it, but I think the experience of rebuilding after the great after World War one and after World War two Those cities like when they did come back when they bounce back It was usually on the backs of entrepreneurs and small business owners who built up their communities And I think that there's maybe just more of a recent memory of how important small business owners are Because of how crucial they were for rebuilding Europe.
Let me
so
Kind of last kind of question.
So day cares and the fact that, you know, we have in this society priced people out of being able to afford day care.
And so a mother who might want to be an entrepreneur can afford it because if she's got a child or two, it costs more.
for a week's date here, then they're ever gonna make in renting the facility wherever they are and even trying to survive.
How do those things make any sense?
You know how a second ago we were just talking about how there's something special about women entrepreneurs and how we need more of them.
Well, this is the big thing that is standing in the way is in so many families across this country,
childcare is so expensive or unavailable that folks are making the decision to drop out of the workforce to stay at home to take care of kids because there's a threshold.
If you're not earning over a certain amount, it actually makes sense for somebody to stay home with a kid as opposed to just paying for it.
And that is a huge problem.
It's a brain drain happening within our own economy where we've got qualified
men and women who are serving as caretakers for their kids who are no longer in the workforce as a result of that.
And it's a big problem.
It's why things like making sure that child care funding is properly supported, that child care stabilization dollars are supported in the Wisconsin budget.
This is on the chopping block in the Wisconsin budget.
We're talking about $500 million that could be used to help stabilize the child care industry and make child care more affordable for Wisconsinites.
make sure to call into your representatives and to speak up and say that you want that $500 million in the Wisconsin budget approved so that child care can be more affordable for working families.
Man, it's just a great conversation.
We're going to take a couple of calls quickly.
Mike from Kenosha, good morning to you.
Mike, you have a question to comment for my guest.
Yeah, thanks for taking my call.
I love having these conversations.
It's for all of our benefit.
You know, a couple of things that all business needs.
One of them is customers.
And the second thing is a living area that supports the business.
In other words, a community where they pay living wages.
I want to speak to the too high of failure rate of businesses because of so many prerequisites we don't have anymore.
So many businesses seems like they're sacrificial lands in this
Crazy economy where they go through their savings and go through their their retirement accounts and then and then they're out of business I think that what the failure rates 90% in five years.
Is that correct roughly?
Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit more because that's that's what I've witnessed
in my years of outside sales and calling on businesses is the revolving door.
Because, again, we live in this upside-down economy where more people are not being paid living wages.
So, you know, to go through their savings, go through it for a small businessman to take the leap into being an entrepreneur.
I wouldn't do that for just about anything today.
There's too much volatility.
Too many businesses have to have a predatory relationship with their vendors.
Hey, I wish you had more time, but thank you very much for the call.
Richard.
Yeah, listen, I think that everybody is entitled to dream has a right to dream about what they want for themselves.
But the truth is that the economy can be treacherous and it can be difficult for small business owners that don't do enough planning on the front end before day one to make sure that their operation is sustainable, which is why we need to make sure that community development financial institutions, those CDFI as I was talking about, stay open and properly funded to continue supporting entrepreneurs that are just starting out to make sure that that business plan is strong, to make sure that they have a clear pathway to cash to cash flowing their business.
Those are the things that actually matter.
And we have to make sure that we're educating want to be entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs to make sure that the risk, again, that they're taking on day one is informed and educated risk and not just kind of flailing.
Brendan, you have the last question, Brendan.
Go ahead.
Yeah, I just had, yeah, I just had a comment.
I think it's going to be so integral to a fading public school system that the childcare, not only initially before the child hits kindergarten, but even my, I know my wife and I struggled for the childcare when she was in school to take care of her after school.
But the addition of education, the education they're not going to get at school due to certain things and information being limited to them, books being limited to them.
This will play a big part in the child care system going forward.
Is the jumpstart we give these kids before they hit public school?
That's all I had to say.
I worked for an organization a couple of years ago.
a couple years ago, almost 15 years ago, higher achievement that does academically rigorous after-school programming.
They got a $12 million grant from the Department of Education back in 2012, 2013 to expand their after-school program.
The Department of Education no longer exists.
I know it.
So it's like these entities that were powering academically rigorous after-school learning for kids
to helping to take some of that child rearing responsibility off the parents plate.
They don't exist anymore.
We got to fight for it to get it
back.
So, man, we got a couple more callers.
You want to take them?
Yeah, of course.
All right.
8-5-5-7-5-2-48-42.
Richard Trent, the executive director of Main Street Alliance.
I really appreciate it, man.
You're only scheduled for 30 minutes, but you're doing a human's job.
All right.
We'll be right back.
Yeah.
you
is the last few minutes of the early income show.
As always, you can join us at 855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.
And I am on it again to have Mr. Richard Trent, the executive director of Main Street Alliance.
Man, I can't wait till you come in town, man.
We're going to hook up.
All right.
Let's go to Cam from Appleton.
Hey, good morning to you, Cam.
You have a question to comment from, I guess.
Cam Okay, let's go to Susan from Kenosha good morning to you Susan
Good morning.
I am on administrator.
Oh, this is cam.
Okay.
Go ahead cam.
Nope, this is Sue.
Oh, Sue.
Okay.
Go ahead Are you on the speaker?
Are you on the speakerphone?
Are you on the speakerphone?
Yes, I
am.
Get off the speaker.
Okay, hang
on.
Better?
Yes, much better.
Go
ahead.
Okay, so I'm an administrator at a nonprofit child care in Menominee Falls and one of my fellow administrators just went to Madison last week with the Alliance to talk about not only the importance of the funding for the
parents and the families that need the child quality childcare, but also for the workers that work in the field.
We have staff of 50 teachers that are very dedicated, qualified, nurturing, but the childcare fund since COVID has helped support our payroll, help us keep our wages lower, I mean higher and the fees lower for the parents.
So we are advocating for the childcare accounts also.
And I just wanted to put it into the perspective from a child care center's point of view, along with the parents.
We're both struggling and trying to meet in the middle without making quality care unaffordable.
Hey, Susan, why don't you leave your phone number with Cardi?
And I'll make sure that I get you guys on the air to have that discussion.
Thank you very much for that.
Oh my gosh, that'd be great.
Thank you, girl.
We're gonna make it happen.
Have a great day.
Thank you.
Richard?
Man, when I go into my kids' childcare facility, most days to pick them up, I just see a crew of folks who are working so unbelievably hard and the market has just totally missed their value.
Somehow we messed it up.
And you can expect that about 25% of the...
childcare workers rotate out of the profession every year.
So one out of four people working at a childcare facility today will not be working there a year from now.
That sort of employee churn from the low wages and the demands of the job speaks to how tough the work is.
And we need to be paying folks that work in childcare much more.
while also managing to keep the cost down for parents.
It's a tough balance, but it's something that we can do if we make the investment at the government level.
Making those childcare stabilization dollars available is the solution.
We make investments in all the industries that we say we care about, you know, oil and gas and all these, you know, medical tech and all these different things.
Why are we not making the same sort of massive investment in childcare to make sure that everybody has access
to it?
You know, Richard, it is so...
backwards in the way of thinking.
I always say, man, children grow up to be adults.
Why wouldn't you want to make sure that when they're children that you invest in that so they grow up to be healthy adults?
Unfortunately, there's a deep and kind of sinister
a deeper story around why we underpay folks in these sectors, why we underpay teachers, why we underpay service workers and wait staff.
There's a racial history to it that we probably don't have time to get into, and there's a gendered history to it that you got black and brown folks and women that have historically been in these professions who have been underpaid because that's what society designed for them.
And we need to undo it by intentionally looking at the problem in the face
and providing the proper allocation for our child care
industry.
Hey man, just great information.
Man, love having this conversation and dialogue with you.
I look forward to meeting you in person.
Absolutely.
And continuing our conversation down the road, because this is not going away.
We'll see each other in person real soon, my friend.
Thank you.
Yes,
Likewise.
All right.
Uh, thank everybody who made the show go, uh, you know, Cardi, especially, uh, up next, Jane, Matt, Ned, Greg bought, uh, Matt, Nair on air and that's 70 degrees tomorrow.
Yeah, I just let the good Lord allow me to open my eyes tomorrow if for no other reason 70 degrees
