This is great news for the small business community.  Senators sponsoring the investment were Kit Bond and Christopher Dodd.  It was co-sponsored by senators Mark Warner, Scott Brown, Maria Cantwell and Mark Begich.  This amendment will impact the financial reform bill under debate in the senate, easing restrictions around accredited investor requirements.

It will accelerate the access to start up capital for small businesses by eliminating the 120 review period by the Securities and Exchange Commission.  In addition, while the requirement that investors prove annual income in excess of $200k and net worth over $1M held, the requirement that these amounts increase annually with inflation was amended to allow for a review every 4 years instead.

With unemployment holding near 10%, it’s crucial that this bill doesn’t limit investment in small business.  The bulk of new job creation happens in these small localized businesses and without the necessary startup capital, the national economic issues would have compounded further.

Increased regulation for large businesses does appear to be necessary as we continue to experience the fallout from the Wall Street failures, but the original language increased the regulatory burden for small business beyond what was reasonable.  This amendment is a critical improvement to the bill, and will allow our innovators and entrepreneurs to get back to the business of growing.

As any small business owner knows, cash is king.  Without it, growth is impossible.  This amendment will enable small business owners to continue to access cash from angel investors, and access that cash in a reasonable amount of time.  The result will be continued growth in this sector and gradual increases in job growth for our communities.