It ain’t fun running a small business these days. As a friend of mine and branding genius, Jonathan Gabay, highlighted the point in a powerful short video. You can feel so lonesome, even when there are others around to help.

A few days ago, I wrote about how I had been left disgusted by my landlord, who would not consider lowering the rent of my office temporarily. He is likely to get a discount for municipal rates. And the owner belongs to one of the strongest commercial groups in Israel. (I am still arguing for now). Upsetting.

It makes you wonder if you are fighting by yourself.

And then there is the government – both the politicians and the civil servants. In Israel, we are still waiting for a full package to support the small biz sector that makes up about 95% of commercial activity. What is that taking so long?

I refer to a post from senior Bloomberg correspondent, Matthew Kalman, who posted on LinkedIn:

Why are governments mailing cheques to people who need cash, now? The VAT, sales tax and income tax payments database could be reverse engineered overnight to deposit the emergency cash straight in people’s accounts, using RPA like the systems developed by Kryon and others.
The same goes for farmers now stuck with too much/too little produce due to shattered supply chains. The computers that operate their milking and other systems can be tweaked to talk to other producers’ computers, and then to the computers of logistics, wholesale and retail companies to move local food around fast to the places where it’s needed.

But is any of that forthcoming? When? How? Answers are in short supply from our leaders, who tell us that they know how to govern and from the bureaucrats groomed in the culture of planning (for the sake of planning?).

Meanwhile, you can understand why the small, individual, insignificant biz owner feels a tad upset.