President Obama recently signed into law the Jumpstart Our Business Start-ups or JOBS Act. Noted as a game-changing bill, the JOBS Act is a bipartisan bill that aims to make it easier for start-up businesses to expand and hire more employees to help aid further the so far, very sluggish, US economic recovery.
This new bill will classify start-up businesses as emerging growth companies, allowing those business owners to rely on online investors who can help raise the vital start-up capital required. Sites like Kickstart offer a very similar format currently. Companies like this that allow users to raise money for start-up ventures will be able to sell up to $50 million in their own shares before being required to register with the SEC. The new bill also doubles their current limitation to now allow up to 1,000 shareholders.
During the bill signing ceremony, President Obama stated that “One of the great things about America is that we’re a nation of doers. We think big, take risks and believe that anyone with a solid plan and a willingness to work hard can take even the most improbable idea and turn it into a solid business.” Obama signed into law the JOBS Act while flanked on both sides by Congress members as well as some of our nation’s top entrepreneurs. Many have taken this as an act proving that our politicians are beginning to better understand the role that entrepreneurs have to play in American economics.
How will this effect start-ups?
The JOBS Act is only an initial step in a much larger battle to make it easier for business entrepreneurs to create vital new business, expand their growth, hire work workers and create the economic growth our country is desperate for. It will help to increase capital formation as well as pave the way for other smaller businesses to gain more public visibility.
Start-ups will now be able to gain financing via crowd funding allowing those who participate to raise up to $1 million a year without having to do public offerings. That step currently requires state-by-state registrations that can cost business owners thousands of dollars. The hope is that this type of funding will begin to open up many more opportunities for necessary capital to begin flowing into our nation’s start-up businesses. In turn, new companies that can now create jobs will help to steer our economic perils back onto the right path that benefits each and every one of us.
Author:
@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.
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