Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
Linda McMahon, new administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), believes entrepreneurship is making a comeback and the SBA can help.
“I’m so optimistic about small business in America. I wouldn’t have taken this job if I wasn’t,” McMahon said during a recent speech for National Small Business Week in Indiana. President Donald Trump chose her to lead the SBA.
After years of hesitancy, more and more business owners are taking risks to start companies or expand, she says.
Her plan is to help make the SBA and its services, such as business financing, better known so more small companies can use them.
“Whether they’re starting up or scaling up, the SBA has the resources they need,” McMahon says. “We are streamlining our processes so businesses can start, expand and succeed.”
She is also talking with business owners and learning about their concerns related to taxes and federal regulations. The volume of regulations has come up as an ongoing worry, she says.
McMahon spoke with Hardware Retailing about the retail sector. Retailing is a tough arena for independent, brick-and-mortar businesses, but niche operations with unique products can find success, she says.
She has a soft spot for hardware stores, including Greenwich Hardware in her hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut.
She says her father taught her some DIY skills when she was growing up.
“I had my own toolbox. He taught me to fix things and taught me the names of all the tools,” she says.
She told Hardware Retailing she is uniquely equipped to lead the SBA because of her past roles as a business owner. She is former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment.
McMahon and her husband, Vince McMahon, started the wrestling entertainment company together as a small business. They shared a desk and experienced setbacks such as bankruptcy, having a car repossessed and other financial struggles, she says. However, their business grew over the decades into the large public company it is now.
“As an entrepreneur, I have truly lived the American dream,” McMahon says.
She can relate to small business owners because she has been one, she says.
“I can walk their walk and talk their talk,” she says.
