It’s traditional to rate a new administration at the conclusion of its first 100 days in office.

But the Obama administration might want to take a closer look at how they are faring with small business owners.

A new survey highlighted in an April 13 edition of Bizjournals found widespread displeasure with the president among small business owners.

Nearly 60 percent thought the president didn’t understand the needs of small firms and more than 40 percent were less optimistic about the national economy than before President Barack Obama took office, the survey said.

The Internet survey was conducted in March by City Business Journals Network and involved interviewing 301 CEOs and presidents of companies with five to 499 employees. Follow up phone interviews showed clear anger over the federal bailouts.

Pat Moore, owner of a private-duty health care firm in Kansas, worried about the specter of inflation, while others believed the large bailouts set a terrible precedent.

Several small business owners said even huge companies should be allowed to fail.

“If you didn’t run your business properly and you can’t survive, go away and let the strong survive, because that’s the way it’s always been, and that’s the way it should be,” Ronnie Nudelman, owner of a Buffalo printing company, told City Business Journals Network.

Not every review was negative.

One small business owner gave Obama credit for reaching out to small businesses to try to understand their needs, the report said.

Naturally, other concerns included loosening the credit market and that perennial small business woe — the high cost of health insurance.

The survey found that two-thirds of respondents were concerned that health care reform would mean higher costs for them.

How do you spell survival for a bent and battered U.S. auto industry?

According to an April 8 Associated Press story from the floor of the New York International Auto Show, the spoils might go to companies that dare to do something truly revolutionary.

“Chrysler LLC President Jim Press surprised reporters at the automaker’s news conference by arriving on stage in an iconic Fiat 500 subcompact. While the company’s big unveiling was a new Jeep Grand Cherokee, the attention was clearly on the small car Chrysler may bring to the U.S. if it completes its tie-up with Italy’s Fiat Group SpA. ‘Don’t you think that this would be a perfect car to get around New York City?’ he asked the crowd.”

But, as the AP reported, the bigger question remains whether Chrysler, living on a $4 billion government bailout, “will survive long enough to see the 500 on city streets.”

Offerings from other automakers trended toward the hip and green.

Mercedes-Benz debuted four new vehicles, including a high-performance version of its E-Class sedan and two hybrid models, and Land Rover unveiled a trio of new models, the wire service reported. Toyota’s Scion brand showcased a concept based on its iQ microcar, and Acura unveiled the ZDX, a sport sedan from Honda.

General Motors Corp. showed off the 2010 GMC Terrain compact crossover vehicle, but Troy Clarke, president of GM North America, nixed plans to speak with reporters at the show so he could stay in Detroit to focus on the company’s restructuring.

Only time will tell if new concepts and innovative selling techniques — including guarantees if a purchaser loses their job — will make a dent in the sluggish car-buying market.

The week before the show, the AP reported, automakers reported a 37 percent decline in March U.S. sales.

A new requirement by the Obama administration will hopefully spur the 21 largest banks receiving U.S. government money to lend more to small businesses.

The new rules, outlined in a March 16 Associated Press story, have those banks reporting monthly on how much they lend to small businesses. All others are being called upon to make an “extra effort” to boost small business lending.

The announcements came March 16 as part of a broad package aimed at small business that was being unveiled by President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the AP said. The package also includes reduced small business lending fees and an increase on the guarantee to some Small Business Administration loans.

“We know that small businesses are the engine of growth in the economy, and we absolutely want to do things to help them,” Christina Romer, who heads the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told the wire service. “There are already a lot of things to help them in the recovery package, and some of what will be coming out are the things that were in the recovery package: increasing the SBA loan guarantees, lowering fees.”

Republicans appeared to embrace the efforts, but with some qualifications.

U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor of Georgia said: “We’ve got to do something to help these small-business people. We know that they’re the job creators in this economy. And the problem … I think we’re seeing out of the Obama administration is a lack of focus on how to get things going again.”

The new measures have the government stepping in to buy loans, temporarily eliminate upfront fees of up to 3.75 percent and some processing charges on certain SBA loans typically passed along to borrowers, the AP said. It also increases the government guarantees on certain loans to 90 percent, up from 85 percent for loans below $150,000 and 75 percent for larger loans.

Just when it seems like the bad news couldn’t get much worse, tales of economic success amid financial chaos are thankfully bubbling up.

And it’s in the form of successful entrepreneurship, everything from shoestring-budget start-ups to major viral marketing coups by tiny companies.

Recession be damned, some entrepreneurs are not only doing well, they are doing exceptionally well, wrote Jill Priluck of MSNBC’s “The Big Money” on March 17.

“With less overhead, a slim-to-none bureaucracy, and a philosophy that goes against even the most innovative Fortune 500 game plan, little guys in industries such as finance, marketing, entertainment, and media are busy, some more than ever, and a few are moving into territory where the big fish can’t swim. Whether making deals, planning ad campaigns, or signing talent, all small fish have the same slogan: lighter, cheaper, faster,” she wrote. “Welcome to the Little-Guy Economy, where boutique investment banks make deals while big finance is frozen, where Web geeks field calls from big media and corporate clients who need viral video and other digital-branding tools, where small law firms prosper and laid-off lawyers open their own shops, where independent music labels innovate faster, and where the word “team” can have a whole new meaning.”

Finance is perhaps the most interesting example, where small firms are playing a strong hand, particularly in the credit markets, where huge loans are history.

“While firms like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase depend on freely flowing credit markets, boutique firms, which do smaller deals, rely more on private equity sponsors—and don’t have the same bank, credit, or securitization obligations,” Priluck wrote.

If small is in, then it doesn’t take long for some bigger fish to swim over and take a look.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — as big a billionaire as there is — is now looking to spearhead small business and entrepreneurship in the financial services sector, Priluck wrote.

Video producers Lindsey Johnson and Leo Borovskiy of Lush Life Productions know how it is to make it big when your administrative assistant is your voice mailbox.

They turned a viral marketing jackpot and YouTube sensation “The Chad” into a thriving business that today includes clients like Hearst Digital, Priluck wrote.

“We’ve gone from only working for advertising agencies and marketing companies to having corporations directly approach us with their brands and ask, ‘What can you do and how much can you do it for?” Johnson told Priluck.

The federal government is pouring cash into huge financial firms with very little oversight while even the slightest hand out to small business owners brings “we-need-scrutiny naysayers” out of the woodwork, says journalist JJ Ramberg of “Your Business.”

Ramberg, who anchors the MSNBC weekly show on small business, continued in her March 18 blog post:
“Maybe I’m missing something here, but small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy, and they are struggling right now largely through no fault of their own. They can’t get loans because the big boys messed up the system; and the faltering economy — caused in large part by the big financial firms — is also taking a big bite out of their sales,” Ramberg wrote. “All they want is a little bit of a break. So many entrepreneurs I’ve profiled in this blog — and many of the ones who post comments here — are struggling to keep their doors open.”

The impetus for her outrage came from a recent proposal by President Barack Obama to boost declining lending on Small Business Administration-backed loans. The idea was to do such economy-stirring efforts as directly purchasing up to $15 billion of securities backed by loans from the SBA, eliminating fees and increasing loan guarantees.

But it soon ran into criticism, she said, citing a Wall Street Journal story that worried the Obama administration could be creating incentives for another run on unwise credit and create a huge pool of unregulated money.

“I’m all for putting a lid on the bailout free-for-all with tougher standards and regulations,” she wrote, “but isn’t it odd that when small businesses want a helping hand suddenly the scrutiny reaches a fever pitch?”

The head of the U.S. Small Business Administration said the latest version of a government plan to pry loose lending markets will help small businesses.

Acting SBA Administrator Darryl K. Hairston in a Feb. 10 release praised the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the latest version of its Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF.

“If we want to thaw the credit markets for small businesses, we absolutely have to get the secondary market for small business loans moving again. TALF is a critical element in doing that,” he said. “SBA supports this program and we’re glad the TALF is moving forward with some changes we asked for that will make SBA lending more attractive for 7(a) and 504 program lenders.”

The goal of TALF is to help unfreeze recession-battered credit markets and its revised terms and conditions were announced on March 3 by the Federal Reserve of New York.

The revisions include a reduction in the interest rates and collateral haircuts — a percentage subtracted from the market value of the collateral — for loans secured by asset-backed securities guaranteed by the Small Business Administration or backed by government-guaranteed student loans.

The Reserve said in a release that TALF was “designed to catalyze the securitization markets by providing financing to investors to support their purchases of certain AAA-rated asset-backed securities. These markets have historically been a critical component of lending in our financial system, but they have been virtually shuttered since the worsening of the financial crisis in October. By reopening these markets, the TALF will assist lenders in meeting the borrowing needs of consumers and small businesses, helping to stimulate the broader economy.”

Under the announcement, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will lend up to $200 billion to eligible owners of certain AAA-rated ABS backed by newly and recently originated auto loans, credit card loans, student loans, and SBA-guaranteed small business loans.

Issuers and investors in the private sector are expected to begin arranging and marketing new securitizations of recently generated loans, and subscriptions for funding in March will be accepted on March 17, the Reserve said.

On March 25, those new securitizations will be funded by the program, creating new lending capacity for additional future loans, it said.

The program will hold monthly fundings through December 2009 or longer if the Federal Reserve Board chooses to extend the facility.

“SBA is optimistic the TALF will help unfreeze the secondary markets and help restore liquidity to the small business lending industry,” Hairston said. “We’re going to keep working closely with the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to make this program successful.”

The massive $789 billion stimulus package just passed by Congress contains plenty of cash to shore up ailing banks, but little in the way of direct spending for small businesses, a Feb. 11 report by The Associated Press said.

“The plan does extend two provisions of 2008’s economic stimulus bill that allow small businesses to take a bigger upfront deduction for the cost of new equipment,” the AP said. “But companies whose sales are hurting may be reluctant to make big expenditures, putting those tax breaks out of reach.”

Raymond Keating, chief economist with the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, told the AP small business owners needed something better. “We need incentives in the private sector for people to take risks and expand business. Unfortunately, there’s very little of that in this package,” he said.

The savior for small businesses, economists say, will come when consumers start dusting off their wallets.
“The best thing to happen to small business is if customers come in,” William Dunkelberg, chief economist with the National Federation of Independent Business, a Washington-based small business advocacy group, told the AP.

The big problem with the economy now is “the guy whose job is not at risk has been scared into not spending,” he said, adding the recession’s grip will ease when they start buying again.

In the meantime, small business advocates say extending the Section 179 and bonus depreciation provisions into 2010 because makes more sense because it is unlikely small businesses will be investing much in the near term.

Twin pressures of economic weakness and uncertainty are causing twice as many U.S. companies as previously expected to cut their travel spending this year, a new report by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives said.

“There’s only two things that companies have immediate control over when the economy turns bad: personnel and travel,” association executive director Susan Gurley told USA Today in its Feb. 9 editions.  “That’s why we believe that as long as joblessness is still on the rise, travel spending won’t begin to bounce back.”

The association said 71% of its member companies now plan to spend less on travel this year than in 2008. In September, only 33% of respondents said they expected to cut back. In fact, 36% said they would be spending more on travel in 2009, USA Today said.

But in the just-completed survey, only 8% of the responding ACTE member companies — typically midsize or large U.S. corporations and institutions — now expect to spend more on travel this year and most were expecting to spend 10% to 20% less on travel, USA Today said.

As for the impact, ACTE figures the 176 member companies that responded to the survey will collectively spend about $880 million less on travel this year than they had planned, the report said.

Gurley told USA Today if the same estimation is applied to the ACTE’s full membership — about 2,400 companies — the impact would be more than $2 billion in foregone travel spending this year.