If Trump can get GDP to 4%,You will see start-ups like we haven't seen in years. More businesses start when GDP expands at 4% rather than 2%. Mr. Trump should also focus less on Silicon Valley, which already receives disproportionate attention from Washington. This part of the nation’s entrepreneurs—high-tech companies and the venture-capital investors who fund them—has shaped the narrative of entrepreneurship for too long. … The new president must also make it possible for local banks to get back in the business of financing startups. For 200 years, community lenders were the principal source of capital for startups. … Mr. Trump can also reverse regulatory sprawl and cut government-imposed requirements that add to every entrepreneurs’ costs and risks.
I heard about this in the not too distant past, someone (or some organization) proposed a form of entrepreneur’s tax exemption program. I don’t recall all the details. The general thrust was that if you start a business you can exempt 100% of your profits from income taxes in the first 2 years, 80% in the second 2 years, 60% in the third 2 years and so on reducing the exemption until you reach 10 years, where 100% of the profits were subject to income tax.
The ideas behind this approach were based on analysis addressing the question, “What are the biggest obstacles new firms face at their birth and can we create policies to help eliminate those problems?” I’m not even sure a program of this type would cost very much. Only 1 or 2 of every 10 small start ups will survive 5 years let alone 10. And I imagine most small businesses struggle for years to generate a profit.
