Solution Providers: Small Businesses Stand To Gain In Trump Presidency

President-Elect Donald Trump's background in business and his pledges to lower business taxes and push for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act bode well for small businesses, solutions providers told CRN Wednesday during an SMB-focused trade show in Pennsylvania.

At D&H Distributing's Mid-Atlantic Fall Technology Trade Show in Hershey, Pa., solutions providers who spoke with CRN were mostly upbeat about the implications for the small-business world in Trump's defeat of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

[Related: Solution Providers Hopeful Trump Presidency Will Bring Tax Relief, Health Care Fixes And Regulatory Reform]

Bob Swensen, president of Towson, Md.-based Total Technology Solutions, said he serves clients with as few as two computers and as many as 120—and those smaller-sized businesses "just don't want to spend any more" in the current economic climate. He's optimistic that things will change during Trump's presidency.

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"I think we can turn the economy around and grow the economy. I'm hoping it's going to open up some of the wallets," Swensen said. "He's a businessman, and if we run things like a business, I think it's going to help the economy a lot."

Different policies around health care—including a repeal of the Affordable Care Act—would go a long way to helping the economic situation faced by small businesses, he said. "Costs have gone up incredibly with Obamacare," Swensen said.

Steve Torbick, owner of Blairstown, N.J.-based TESS Associates, echoed the sentiments around the Affordable Care Act and Trump's business background.

"I'm not sure if we should throw the whole [Affordable Care Act] out, but we have to do something about the fact that insurance costs are through the roof," Torbick said.

Meanwhile, Trump "is a CEO, and I'm hoping he surrounds himself with people who are really good in their fields and they start fixing this [expletive]," he added. "For eight years we've had a guy who never ran anything. The U.S. is a business, and it has to be run that way."

Jonathan Brewer, a partner at Elkridge, Md.-based Millennium Computers, said he believes a repeal of the Affordable Care Act might help his own business because it could create an opportunity for providing solutions to small health care agents—many of which he said have been put out of business by the act.

Lynn Thames, owner of Wynnewood, Pa.-based Thames Computer Consulting, disagreed with the claim that a repeal of the Affordable Care Act would help small businesses, however.

Thames said she works with business owners who receive their health insurance through the system set up by the Affordable Care Act, including one business owner with a pre-existing condition who has seen far lower costs as a result of the federal system.

"If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, that's a big impact" on such business owners, Thames said.

Thames said she also has clients in the nonprofit world who could be hurt under a Trump presidency. "Do I think the Republicans care about nonprofits? No," she said.

Other industries served by solution providers could stand to benefit, however. Christopher Regalis, senior hardware manager for Pittston, Pa.-based C3i, said his firm is focused on serving pharmaceutical clients and said Trump is "probably better for the 'pharma' world" than Clinton.

That's because Trump appears to favor less regulation in the pharmaceutical industry while Clinton has appeared to favor more, said Regalis, whose firm serves both large and small pharmaceutical companies.

Taxes on businesses were another issue raised by a number of solutions providers who spoke with CRN. Trump has at times said he would favor a lower tax rate for all businesses—as low as 15 percent.

Lower taxes for small businesses is "always a hope," said Zack Ley, controller at Houston-based PennComp. "Tax reform has been a long time coming."

All in all, for a Trump presidency, "I don't see it hurting" the small business world, Ley said.

Millennium Computers' Brewer is not sure that a tax cut should be the first order of business for the Trump Administration, however.

"We've first got to turn the economy around and start making money again," Brewer said.