The Business Environment
Week 4: Assignment 1
Jeffrey P. Moore

Introduction To Business
BUS 100
Dr.Matt Keogh
July 29, 2012
The American President stated in his speech on May 13, 2010, “So, America’s small business owners -- people like Dave Sullivan -- have always been the backbone of America’s economy” (Obama, 2010). In today’s economy that is seeing all time lows, this statement has never been truer. As we move forward, the impact that small businesses are going to have will become more important in maintaining the economy of the United States and, eventually, in the world.
From the many small shops on Main Street to the dot com startups, America’s small businesses have become America’s economic engine and one of the country’s greatest assets. Small businesses have been responsible for creating 2 out of every 3 new jobs. When American small businesses are strong and thriving, the surrounding communities are strong and growing. From the time President Obama stepped into office, he has invested and encouraged the small business owners so they can do what they do best and that is create jobs and economy.
Small business is responsible for a huge percent of the businesses that are available to provide needed services to customers and are there for profit; however, they are not the only available resource for certain services. In today’s economy, there are many nonprofit organizations that can provide needed services to the public for much less or at no charge to the customer. Most of these nonprofit organizations stick strictly to areas of our lives that are considered a need to live or better health. No matter what the service, nonprofit organizations have an important place in today’s society and form an important part of our economy.
Understanding the role of monetary and fiscal policy in the current crisis is particularly important for containing the damage from this point forward. (Genetski, 2008). The impact of the current fiscal and monetary policy on the economy will be as different to each person as each small business and nonprofit organizations are different within themselves. Although the effect of rising fuel costs, food costs and taxes are affecting everyone in one form or another, the way business owners are coping with it is different. As would be expected, the additional cost is being placed in the prices of the services provide but other means are being implemented such as layoffs, removal of services or closing of business in the worst case.
A service that has become very important in most people’s life and has touched everyone’s life is internet service. Internet service has opened more avenues for innovations than any other modern technical advancement. This being said, internet access has not reached all parts of the world. There are still 2nd and 3rd world areas that do not have internet access to its entire people. The following is a diagram of the current internet users in the world by geographic regions in 2011 (Internet World Stats, 2011).

Providing service to the remaining people that do not have internet would be an undertaking that would benefit the people of each area and profitable for the company that accesses that area. A company could use the combined resources of satellite, ground lines and wireless points to make these areas available to the internet.
In today’s world economy, every company, either small or large, makes an impact on the world economy. With this type of impact, every organization has a responsibility to the society that it affects. UPMC, a hospital system at which I work, is the largest employer on the west side of Pennsylvania. They are also the biggest health system in Pennsylvania, making them the biggest provider of health care to millions of people in Pennsylvania. The impact that UPMC has on the people in Pennsylvania is just as great and should be of the highest level. UPMC keeps track of private information of its patients and, thus, requires the upmost level of security to protect that information. Leaking of this information could potentially be extremely harmful to the patients and to the well known people that visit.
No matter what the size of a company was, is, or will become, the impact to the local, regional or global economy is the same. As businesses are affected by the natural disasters, economic break down, or other unexpected issues, the people all over the world are affected by price and availability of required servers.

References
President Obama, Barack (2010). Small businesses: “The backbone of america’s economy”. The White House Blog. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/13/small-businesses-backbone-americas-economy.
Genetski, Robert. (2008). The contribution of monetary and fiscal policies to the urrent financial crisis. The Heartland Institute. Chicago, Illinois. Retrieved from http://heartland.org/policy-documents/contribution-monetary-fiscal-policies-current-financial-crisis.
Internet World Stats. (2011). Internet World Stats. Retrieved from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm.