If you look at America, one of the great strengths of America is its university towns and the way a lot of their businesses and a lot of their innovation and enormous economic growth have come from reducing that gap, getting those universities directly involved in start-up businesses, green field businesses, new development businesses.
At the end of the day local authorities are responsible for economic growth in their area. They don't buy and sell businesses, they don't build businesses, what they do is work to attract businesses their area, through a combination of things.
I don't have a lot of time for managing [my businesses], so I put a lot of trust in people I hire to manage my businesses. I can't necessarily attend to [the businesses] while I'm in season. We swap ideas on how we can improve and deliver a better product.
My new mission is, and I've said this to the White House, I want the Buy America to be real. I want the Buy America to be by small businesses, African American businesses, Latino and Asian, but in particular our African American businesses who heretofore couldn't even find the front door of government contracts.
I've always been business-minded. I worked in corporate America before becoming an actress and knew that acting wasn't the end but a means to an end. It gave me the platform and the exposure I needed to do my philanthropic work. It also gave me the financial security to focus on my other businesses, start new businesses, and even help other people start businesses.
Our economy creates and loses jobs every quarter in the millions. But of the net new jobs, the jobs come from small businesses: both small businesses on Main Street and many of the net new jobs come from high growth, high impact businesses that are located all across the country.
I think if you look at the commonalities between eBay, PayPal and OpenTable, all three are businesses that built a network in a vertical. Network effect businesses are very attractive businesses.
There are only two kinds of businesses in this world: Businesses in crazy competition, and businesses that are one of a kind.
There are a lot of studies about small businesses and how they make a difference in their community and create a lot of jobs and values. So we need to focus on small businesses or entrepreneurs who want to start manufacturing or making things.
When I talk about the ability for fintech to promote kind of economic growth and productive citizens coming in, using different data and being able to lend to small businesses, see those small businesses start to grow - of course, that means more money for their families, you know, the small-business owner families. They start to hire people.
In China, a lot of the opening up of private entrepreneurship is happening because women are starting businesses, small businesses, faster than men.
We have talented people, great businesses, and an unparalleled entrepreneurial spirit in Montana. By raising capital, Montanans can leverage those assets to start new businesses, expand existing ones, and create more good-paying jobs in Missoula and every other community under the Big Sky.
Are we a nation that educates the world's best and brightest in our universities, only to send them home to create businesses in countries that compete against us? Or are we a nation that encourages them to stay and create jobs, businesses, and industries right here in America?
And what's interesting, and I don't think a lot of Americans understand this fact, is that, one, most new jobs are created by small businesses; two, most small businesses pay tax at the individual income tax, or many small businesses pay tax there.
When the government takes more money out of the pockets of middle class Americans, entrepreneurs, and businesses, it lessens the available cash flow for people to spend on goods and services, less money to start businesses, and less money for businesses to expand - i.e. creating new jobs and hiring people.
You can say on one hand the market is crazy but it's not 1999. People have had their medicine from overexuberance. I find it really interesting that those two businesses, Yahoo! and Google, which are just online advertising businesses, are valued at more than the media behemoths in America.
People generally think of technology simply as a spur to start new businesses. But the Internet has also made it possible for more businesses to compete for any given opportunity.