Help For Mom & Pop

Small, privately owned businesses are in dire need of being saved. Every day, large "chain stores" and corporate controlled, franchised businesses are moving in and setting up shop next to 'Mom & Pop' businesses that have existed for years, if not decades or generations. Soon these small businesses will go the way of small family farms. What these businesses need most of all are the means to stay competitive; they need capitol and they need solutions that can't be found with a membership in the Chamber of Commerce. They need help creating an 'online presence' to enter into today's electronic marketplace. They need access to micro-sized 'bridge' loans and low cost financing to help them bring in products at volume prices and to pay for imporvements and the always 'unexpected' expenses. They need to know that they are not being abandoned by their communities, just because Wal-Mart or Target comes in with a 'big-box' store. The family owned private business needs protection from private developers who throw up a mall across the street and then receive tax breaks from local or state governments for having done so.
America was founded on the labor of small farmers and small family businesses. The small family farmer is rapidly becoming an anachronism. It's time to show appreciation and understanding of that fact and help protect the small businessman and his family.
Small towns can say "No" to franchises or limit their numbers, cities can create "Protected Private Family Business zones" to keep large corporations and franchises out of areas where privately owned business exists.
Granted, 'Free Enterprise' dictates that anyone should be able to do business anywhere at any time. The reality is that the theory of free enterprise is regulated and controlled by numerous constraints and laws. If a corporation has the money to lobby for something they can afford it, but the small business owner has to stay in their store and unlock that door every morning to stay afloat. They can't afford to take the time (or money) to try and convince legislators to do something in their favor.
Family businesses have been and can continue to be a viable, vibrant force in this country, but they are being strangled every day by large corporations and franchise enterprise.
Almost all of the money made by small family businesses stays in the community and state. Money made by corporate and franchise business leaves the immediate area. Small family businesses don't usually get tax breaks from the state and local governments the way large companies do.
We need your help, your influence and your desire to prevent this from happening. Thank you.