AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage will open a forum on family-run businesses this week in Bangor.
The forum begins Thursday morning at Husson University’s Gracie Theatre.
The event is a 2012 community initiative by the Institute for Family-Owned Business, a nonprofit which has served Maine’s family-owned businesses for 17 years. The public is invited to attend.
The governor says family-owned businesses account for 60 percent of employment and 78 percent of all new jobs in Maine’s economy. He hopes to learn more so steps can be taken to help those businesses succeed.
More about reservations is available at www.fambusiness.org.
LePage’s percentages just didn’t make sense to me. So, I went online and yet again LePage has changed the facts. Those percentages are nationwide not Maine specific. See
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/feb2006/sb20060210_476491.htm
I must say though that I like family businesses mainly because I grew up working for family businesses. The owners were on the premises and taught you good business practices.
I did find that the following was online, but it does not state exactly how many family owned businesses there are in Maine at this time:
Institute for
Family-Owned Business
Family-owned businesses represent
approximately 90 percent of all businesses in Maine, yet less than 30
percent survive to the second generation and only 13 percent make it to
the third generation. My main concern still remains that LePage misused the information by claiming the figures were for Maine instead of nationwide.
That’s because he gets his crib sheets from his secret mentors. If you want to see who’s writing the script and many laws in Maine:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/85472333/Who-is-Writing-Maine-s-Laws
LePage gets crib notes from the Koch Brothers.
And quite a bit of ca$h !
BOYCOTT Koch Industry products:
Georgia-Pacific’s – Quilted Northern®, Angel Soft®, Brawny®, Sparkle® , Soft ‘n Gentle®, Mardi Gras®, Vanity Fair®, STAINMASTER® carpet, ANTRON® carpet fiber, CORDURA® fabric, and COMFOREL® fiberfill. POLYSHIELD® resin, POLYCLEAR® resin, OXYCLEAR™ resin, PERFORMA® film and sheet, and POLARGUARD®
Regardless of whether or not LePage was quoting national figures as opposed to Maine specific statistics, its not unreasonable to assume that Maine’s numbers are similar, if not more skewed to being a primary source of both existing and new jobs. In any event, I dont’ understand your concern if you’re willing to concede that family businesses are an important source of employment in Maine. The actual numbers should not have a bearing on whether a Maine governor, of either political persuasion should not focus on making sure that the State create a favorable environment for family business to prosper in the State of Maine.
Your statistics regarding the high attrition rate of family business in Maine only supports the argument that Maine should be reaching out to understand the hurdles these businesses face. That I think is the central point of what LePage is attempting to do.
Finally, in a large number of cases theses business fail because they do not have the financial skills to manage a balance sheet, engage in strategic planning and plan for succession. These are core skills that could be integrated into high school and college courses in the State.
Agreed, and in addition I could add that the number one cause of small business failures(nationwide) is initial undercapitalization.
Awful glad you pointed that out to us dlaurels. Is it now your life’s work to pick every word LePage says and try to find something you think is wrong so you can post it? And if the percentages are wrong as you say and I am not conceding anything you say is correct, how then does that affect the fact that he is hosting a family business forum? Should he just cancel it?
Incorrect, misrepresented information is a constant with LePage. It happens over and over again. It makes many of us question his honesty.
As I previously stated, I had the benefit of working for family owned businesses when I was younger. It was good to have the owners there working along side us. Now, the fact that WalMart is a family owned business is not the same thing.
Are we assuming the author of this article quoted the Gov correctly? Are his actual words available to listen to somewhere or do we trust the AP to be 100% accurate at all times? It’s always a good idea to check the source of information as a starting point. Even the Gov would be well served by that practice.
I am pretty sure that this was the result of a press release issued by the Governor’s office.
Thanks, you just told me you have nothing to say. And what that means is all that you really want is for LePage to fail. All of your hopes and those of the other partisan left wing extremists including the BDN is for LePage to fail. Other than that, why nothing but negative drivel. Even I gave John Baldacci his first 4 years and I voted for Barrack Obama – big mistake but I wanted him to succeed. Unfortunately, both he and Baldacci are/were huge failures.
another message from the Blaine House?
LePage deserves even more scrutiny then he gets.
Only by partisan hacks like yourself
I am pretty much middle of the road. I don’t watch Fox News or MSNBC . Were you calling yourself a partisan hack ? A statement like that does however show your class my friend….or lack thereof.
It is my experience that only partisan hacks call other people partisan hacks.
You and the governor both seem to agree that family-run businesses might need some help to retain and create jobs. So what if his figures were wrongly applied when your own figures demonstration he has a valid interest in opening a forum on family-run businesses.
Our Governor has done more for the state in the short time he has been in office than any governor since Longley.
Don’t you mean “to the state” ?
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Kant reed?
That’s too bad. Maybe you could take some reading classes. I suggest “Hooked on Phonics” ! Give it a try.
really, i agree with others on the “to the state”. i think he’s been more detrimental that good for us. he might have had some positive things in his term, but not enough to outweigh the negative
Another message from the Blain House
I completely agree. He’s done more to make us look bad on the national stage then anyone. He is a walking, blundering, blustering disaster.
OK buddy-stay in Bangor
I think thats more than you can say for yourself
He has gotten Maine in the national news more times in his year than in the previous 20 combined, that’s for sure.
How to help family run businesses (a primer)
Step 1: Get elected
Step 2: Hire family…………
What a skeptic. Try making a positive comment about 1 thing, stretch your noodle for something useful.
Thanks for the advice….but I’ll stretch my own noodle in whatever way I please.
Good day!!
How about,
Step 3: Make taxpayers pay the whole family’s salaries!
Real productive dialogue
Well “at the moment” a lot of Mainers out here who don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or scream about taxpayer paid nepotism seem to have found something to chuckle over. Believe me we need something to hold us over until November 6th when we can all start enjoying Lame Duck Stew every day for two years. Is that dialogue any better for ya?
What dialog do you bring, insults and put downs? This state is going in the RIGHT direction thanks to MR LEPAGE. The democrat hacks have run this state rough shot for 40 years. Time for a CHANGE. You know the word “CHANGE” your hero Barry O used it to get elected but he didn’t make any. I challenge you to state one thing that the Dems have given the working people of Maine. They certainly have risen the misery scale to unprecedented heights with taxes and nanny legislation.
Do you beat yourself up in your sleep?
exactly.. no secretary I ever seen makes 48,000 starting pay… nor does some advisor make 60,000 a year starting pay… nepetism at it’s best… as far as buisness in maine… it sucks.. only way to improve our situation is convince people to buy at local stores… to avoid the box stores, and keep the money local.. local merchants buy local goods.. and the cycle continues.. and repeats, until it builds.. sadly maine has very few products I want/need other than paper products, and wood. maybe seafood.. but I doubt that’ll last much longer if fish and game don’t get sustainable fishing working at a lower cost.
Hire his family
He just come back from some vacations, and Jamaica of all places too, maybe he has some workers that need to be hired so when someone says “I need to hire some people” he can offer his extended family to them and maybe throw in a tax break as an incentive.
What do family owned businesses want? Cut taxes, cut social programs, cut unemployment, cut regulations, and cut the minimum wage. Cut and run, governor, cut and run.
Can’t help wondering when I read your comments if you have ever worked for a small business or ever stayed awake at nights worrying about how you were going to make your next payroll or whether the bank was going to pull your line of credit or how you were going to tell a valued employee that business conditions were forcing you to lay off him/her. Your perspective might be just a tad different if you had.
I own a small business. I have no debt, no employees, and I never lose a wink of sleep worrying about anything. I have had huge debt, employees, and boat loads of stress in the past. When one of my life long friends died in his sleep of a massive heart attck at age 46, I changed my way of thinking. I laugh a lot more these days. Please do not take my ribbing the governor to heart. I hope your business is successful and you ultimately find happiness in whatever you do.
——————————
Fair enough I would wager we both understand the important things in life.
Then why the snide comments?
Exactly! I engaged in many years of education, massive debt, incredible stress I learned to manage, and lost a dear friend to heart attack in my occupation. But I chose not to bail on my employees and clients as avoiceinthecrowd did. Avoiceinthecrowd doesn’t loose any sleep because he/she took his/her self out of the game. I guess criticizing others trying to make a difference is stress free and makes one laugh a lot more. It makes no sense at all that avoiceinthecrowd would criticize the Governor’s Forum given his/her past experience. He/she has no idea what family business wants, and is clearly focused on his/her self. Hard to take a critic who gave up on his/her employees very seriously. Cut and Run!
What is your business? or product? I might be a customer if you are close enough.
Why don’t you go to the forum and learn more about family owned businesses. Maybe you can contribute something a little more positive while there. Who knows, maybe the governor will return to Augusta with some good ideas on how to put Mainers back to work. Don’t you think that’s a good thing?
Family run businesses are a great thing. The WSJ had an interesting article by the people who wrote “The Millionaire Next Door” They stated that the wealthiest people in general are those with family run businesses who pass them on to the second generation. We are talking about businesses such as plumbing business, trade businesses in general. The more family run businesses there are the more young people we can keep in Maine who take them over and employ local people. He is definitely on the right track. He is more likely to succeed here than in getting larger businesses to come here.
The Wall Street Journal lost all it’s credibility when Ruppert Murdoch took it over.
I’m glad he took over ownership because liberals already have close to a virtual monop0ly in the printed media.
You are entitled to any opinion you might have. I will say however that Neo-Cons tend to label any media outlet that doesn’t agree 100% with their extreme views as “Liberal” and that is simply not true.
The term neo-conservative applies to a broad class of political leanings, so I’m not sure what you are referring to. So let me restate my position if the terms “liberal” and “conservative” is too vague for you. Almost all of the printed press is owned by people who embrace Democrat Party principles of big government, more regulations, broad abortion rights, higher taxes, gay marriage, restrictions on religious expression, and state monopoly of the school systems, among others things opposed to Republican Party principles. That is a fact.
Concerning extremism, what is politically “extreme” is in the eyes of the beholder, a term generally used to put down ideas or people with ideas. So who or what idea is extreme? That depends on ones political views.
As I have previously stated…You are entitled to any opinion you might have. Your response however does not change my view of US. news media at all.
You’re free to believe what you want to, but I just don’t understand what good it does anyone to be in denial. Personally I’d rather know the truth even though it may hurt.
Here’s another finding that doesn’t surprise me: According to Howard Kurtz, author of COLLEGE FACULTIES ARE MOST LIBERAL LOT, STUDY FINDS, “In contrast with the finding that nearly three-quarters of college faculty are liberal, a Harris Poll of the general public last year found that 33 percent describe themselves as conservative and 18 percent as liberal.”
Click on the link for more info:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8427-2005Mar28.html
I am not in “denial” anything, What on earth are you talking about ? Now you have gone from accusing the press (those which are not owned by Murdoch) as being liberal, to accusing colleges faculties of the same. I am neither Liberal or Conservative and it sounds as if you have a problem with that fact. The way I see it is somebody has to be sane and it isn’t the extremists from either side. One more thing…. I have noticed in all of your posts that you are using all of the right wing extremists talking points. Maybe it is you who is in denial ?
Looks like I raised up your dander.
No, but you did tickle my funny bone !
Well, that’s great. It seems like it’s a splendid day in your life!
Back at ya !
Faux-intellectual liberals love the prefix “neo”.
It makes them feel so erudite.
Murdoch currently has his butt in a sling in the UK for phone/email tapping. Fox had a lawsuit against them years ago, that they won, and the results were that they have the legal right to lie.
Murdoch is slimy.
I read that article as well. The content of the article was not political and is no less important to the business world because of who owns the newspaper. If a few people are encouraged to start a successful business, who cares who owns what newspaper? Irrelevant.
If it’s irrelevent to you that’s fine with me. You certainly are entitled to your opinion. I personally will not read or watch anything that Murdoch has his mitts on. Everything with a slant, and that includes the WSJ. Political Poison !
How about the rest of the press? There’s no slant there I suppose? And what about Rupert Murdoch? Just because one of many of his news media producers did something reprehensible does not make him morally culpable. Workers do all sorts of things (good and bad) when the boss is not around.
MSNBC is as bad as Fox News for bias, but Murdoch overall is the worst “case” that I have found. Nobody and I do mean nobody does any thing at any Murdoch media outlet without complete direction and approval from the big man himself . Do a bit of research on it my friend.
I did that research on the “Murdock” scandal three months ago. The accusations of complicity abound but no link has been established. This reminds me of the media case against the man who shot the black 17 year old in Florida. The man has been tried and found guilty in public opinion on hearsay without an actual police arrest and court hearing. In both cases there’s a lot of speculation but no much more to go on. I’ll just say one thing, Murdock has a huge empire that employs hundreds if not thousands of employees. Other than the lone offending news outlet there is no evidence of malfeasance by other subordinates or outlets. My guess is that his reputation is being sullied for political reasons. Until he is proven guilty I’ll continue to withhold judgment. Besides, what does this have to do with the Wall Street Journal he happens to own?
Are you trying to tell me that Murdoch is not political ? That Murdoch has never sullied anyone for political reasons ? Even a true Murdoch “fan” knows what he is and what he stands for !
If that is the way you really feel about him you should continue to believe in Murdoch and his multi-national propaganda machine. That is just fine with me ! I will close with this old adage…….
” You can bring a horse to water but you can’t make one drink ” !
PS. The court of “Public Opinion” doesn’t count for anything ! If any justice will be served, the gunman in the Florida case will be arrested and then be tried by a jury of his peers. I do believe that is the way America works ? Isn’t it ? Or have the Neo-cons already changed the Bill of Rights ?
An advertisement for nepitism..
That would be nespotism
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Given LePage’s recent antic’s does it really make a difference ?
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Sorry Governor but it is time for you to step aside. Your lack of experience is killing our state.
Your guy first..
Le Page is an expert at running a family business since he has a load of family members working for the state. Talk about corruption.
If you want to help small businesses then proved an affordable way for me to give health care to all my employees.
The very best way to do that is to get government completely out of health care.
Do you really think the health care industry has our best interests at heart?
No more or less than the government does
Don’t listen to the traitors who hate our country.
They only want to destroy our government so they can exploit us they way they do in China and the third world.
I do not think it is about hate are country. Some people really just want to know the truth. Blind trust In anything is the most dangerous thing that has ever happened in history. To question authority and want some changes is not hate. It is not a perfect would and could use some improvements. Just we all disagree on what improvements are . I guess I am a traitor because I did not believe IRAQ had WMDs at least not that was a threat to us before the Iraq war. Like most the world did. Then you turn on the news and condi Rice says the whole world thought he has them. That was a fair shot I thought . I will leave other examples out about Blind trust it is too close to easter.
The truth is we peasants are supposed to die at 62 so our masters don’t have to pay out on the SS money they collected while we where still working.
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Just keep smiling , it annoys the heck out of the haters.
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You asked a question. Do we think the health care industry has our best interests at heart.
No they dont, and neither does the US government. I dont hate our country, I hate 99% of the people running it. Government screws up anything they touch, no reason to think healthcare will be any different.
But I thought TheOne! had already done that for you, your lordylordship.
Oh My child. Didn’t you know the Republican’s have pulled out all the stops to prevent us from getting healthcare at an affordable price?
Its not affordable, but I am wasting breath here. The country as a whole is living well beyond its means, adding more to it is not the answer. Get spending under control before thinking about messing up healthcare, then I would be more inclined to get behind the idea.
If you believe that, perhaps you should be referring to your lordylordship self as Fauntleroy.
The real problem for small business lies in the fact that the government has stacked the odds in the favor of the large corporations, ie. “Corporate Welfare” ! Mitt Romney’s ideology would be a perfect example of this way of governing. God bless the small businessman if he is elected president.
PS. In thanks for those unwarrented tax breaks, credits, and tax loopholes the large corporations have moved most of our manufacturing jobs overseas….driving up unemployment numbers and forcing most of our family owned local retailers out of business !
LOL like I want to engage in a discussion run by someone at Husson (another coincidence) who has no idea how to properly run a State. Sure if the forum was called “LePage open to ideas on how to run Maine” that might have my attention, otherwise sharing ideas or having a discussion with him I am sure would be quite unproductive.
Well this is one area in which he’s the pro! He’s hired most of his own family and in-laws for state jobs.
Cmon folks, he’s actually doing something good here for once. Reward good behaviour. By all means, smack him on the nose for the bad.
If lepage cured cancer, aids and all terminal disease, the libs would still hate him.
Random negative statement.
People are down on LePage because he can be crass, but he has a solid understanding of what businesses need to succeed.
Local, family businesses are what drive Maine and they put food on a lot of tables. No one should lose sight of that, regardless of whether or not they like LePage.
Just how in H** can a nummy like this even consider helping a small business. Look at the disaster he ran. Mardens . Filthy messes, junk stores, China rejects, filthy rest rooms and low paid employees, no benifits, no educated emplyees, run down buildings and pot hole parking lots. He should be ashamed to show his face anywhere outside the Blaine House.
Yikes, someone really doesn’t like Mardens.
It seems successful to me!!!
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His last sentence good one Paul, you hope to learn more, Well if a Governor doesn’t know how to help small business suceed , he needs to step down. For any small business to suceed, lower the prices and get the jobs flowing in the state of Maine. People are not going to spend money if they don’t have it. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see this Paul.
I see angry people…LOL….
The Assad regime in Syria is a family business.