SMALL BUSINESSES V LARGE BUSINESSS
I am a small trucking company in SC, we pay taxes so we can have better roads and bridges in our state. I have been in business almost 8 years and have invested a lot of time, energy, money and sweat in my business. I am 100% woman owned minority business certified in all areas. In South Carolina they have a good old boy system that exclude minority businesses. All the roadwork that's being done and all the building that's being done there's no way they don't have work and good pay for minorities. I noticed a pattern with the work being done here. Large companies will bid on the contract, bid very low on the contract and when awarded they come to our state, bring their people with them and X out the local small companies. If there's a set aside goal and they don't meet it, they will blame it on the local small businesses saying it's hard to find DBE SBE MWBE or whatever the contract set aside call for. I have went to a lot of conferences and they all sing the same song and getting away with it. They finish the contracts that they are doing and take our money to another state and spend it. Something has to be done, people are tired of being railroaded, under paid and over worked for nothing. The Government saying they are spending billions of dollars to help strengthen the economy and to strengthen small businesses so we can have a chance to grow our businesses but I have yet to see one small business reap the benefits. When you contact certain people in higher places they send you to so called training classes to help but they wasted our tax dollars on information that we already know and done (waste of time and money). I have talked and reached out to so many people trying to get the answers or information I need to subcontract here in SC on the major projects that's being done here. I want to know why they have these small business meetings and advertise the projects that's coming up and know they are not going to use local businesses? We have had MUSC children's hospital, Volvo plant, Boeing plant, Mercedes plant, port access road going on right now and that's a few. I know no local minority companies got any of this work. I sat around the job site and watched for 2 days all the companies that got work and it was none. When you ask questions about the contact person for the work nobody knows anything. When you ask local procurement department they don't know, SBDC don't know. Why are our tax dollars being spent to pay these people to support small businesses if they don't know nothing, its not what you know it's who you know. I'm starting this petition and calling on congress to help support minority businesses, woman owned businesses and small businesses in South Carolina.
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