Internet chat brings entrepreneurs together

The U.S. Small Business Administration has joined private companies and other federal agencies to offer a live Web chat series, designed to engage small-business owners and entrepreneurs in national dialogues about topics important to them.

The second live Web chat, scheduled for noon–1 p.m. Aug. 25, will be on “Health Care and Your Small Business.”

Participants may post questions in advance of the chat for the panel’s hosts: Karen Kerrigan, founder of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, and J.P. Wieske, director of state affairs for the Council for Affordable Health Insurance.

Both of these people are “outside the government” and they are considered to be experts in public policy and advocacy for cost-effective health care solutions for small businesses.

Topics of the discussion will include information about affordable health care coverage for small-business owners, their families and their employees, including discussions on the proposed association health care plans and health savings accounts, whose policy was set by laws passed by Congress and signed by the president earlier this year.

Kerrigan and Wieske will answer questions for about an hour, and participants may post their questions in advance online by visiting this Web address: http://app2.sba.gov/liveKerrigan/intro.cfm.

With health care being the No. 1 issue in national polls of small-business owners, it will be interesting to note how many participants log in to the chat, what the questions are and other input small-business owners have for the guests, who both carry some weight on policy issues in Washington.

If you are a small-business owner, please join us in this Web chat. It’s your opportunity not only to not only gain knowledge and pose your questions, but also to state your opinions. It’s a great opportunity to be heard in a new way and to use this new way to advance your opinion to lawmakers.

Your opinion counts with the SBA, and I hope you’ll take advantage of this new forum during this scheduled Web chat and on others planned for the future to share it!

Sam Jones is the Region VII SBA Administrator.