State to put on small business workshop in SLT
George Runner, state Board of Equalization vice chair and former state senator, along with state Board of Equalization staff will put on a seminar in May for small businesses in South Lake Tahoe.
The May 21 event is from 9am-2: 30pm at Lake Tahoe Airport. Check in is at 8:30am. The talk is free.
The workshop entitled Free South Lake Tahoe Small Business Tax Seminar is designed to help small business owners be successful. Topics include: common sales and use tax problems, employee or independent contractor, forms of ownership, and record keeping.
South Tahoe Chamber of Commerce invited Runner to town.
Register online or call 888.847.9652



The best thing the State could do to help small business is to leave them alone. If the State went out of business, it would be a good start.
Revitalizing small business would be a great idea, help provide jobs. We surely need more jobs.
I don’t see this workshop as helping to do that. Not at all.
Coming from a guy that owns one. The state does nothing but hinder my ability to expand and employ people in CA. Just sayin.
Y’all should move to a country where Me the People libertarianism has been so successful-oh wait-that’s a never-ever-or ever will be-
w/o gov’t which is We the People- Lake Tahoe would have been completely destroyed by greedheads
Hows your business doing teatotal? Oh thats right, u dont have one.
Yeah, there’s no greed in the government.
Please.
It’s funny how some Business Owners see employees as a lower caste of people. But think about this: An employee gets a job by virtue of merit and experience. A Business Owner simply buys his or her job! A SMART business owner approaches the owner/employee relationship as a symbiotic relationship of equal importance.
You’re right, Bigs. I’ve worked for different people over the years, good bosses and bad ones. The best ones were right there in the trenches working as hard as we were; probably harder.
I think one of the biggest keys is communication.
BO feel free to leave any time. Im sure you can find your nirvana in some other country. Take dog with you. She seems to be of your ilk, good at finger pointing and all that…..government hater, whiner extrodinare, know it all. She would make a great lackey, I mean employee…
Oh Dog. The cry of the Libertarian, “Oh, if there was just NO Government at all – everything would be Nirvana.”
This article is about a “Business Workshop, not about your Mad Max flashbacks DOG… LOL! ;)
BO, don’t you have some laundry to do?
Your accusations are laughable, rocks. I never said libertarianism is nirvana. I’ve said repeatedly that this is not a perfect world and there is no perfect system in it.
But you like to mock anybody who disagrees with you, so I know you’ll just continue.
By the way, it actually doesn’t look like this ‘workshop’ in any way promotes better business creation. It appears to be all about proper adherence to rules, regulations, and taxation. All to benefit the government, NOT the business people attending.
Yes, I’ve worked for some local business owners who treated their employees terribly even tho we were making the owner rich while the worker struggeled to get by on low, unlivable wages.
As George Harrison sang, “isn’t a pity, isn’t it a shame”.
Take care and lets hope we get some snow. OLS
“This article is about a “Business Workshop” OK, so you have to be at least that smart to comment here.
I too own a small business, and I agree with @Business Owner. The government is a pain in the a** for businesses, and SLT is one of the least business-friendly cities in the US. You have no idea how bad it really is until you try it.
” A Business Owner simply buys his or her job” You’ve obviously never run a business. You can’t just buy your own job. Unlike employees who go to work, earn money, and go home, business owners have tons of regulations, taxes, fees, and legal problems to worry about. You have to be extremely savvy and experienced to run a successful business, especially here in Tahoe. It’s not all about money, and your average guy could never run a successful business. You’re success in the business world is based on your merits and experience. Having been in both camps, I would argue that small business owners have it way harder than their employees. Regardless, your comment is insulting as well as false. What do you think would happen if all the business owners here in Tahoe up and left because of people like you?
Some of you are just jealous because you’ve never had the opportunity to run a business and make a difference in the world, therefore you’re going to play the martyr and try to knock business owners. Having been in the small business world for many years, I can tell you for a fact that we are getting sick of crap like yours. It’s pretty simple: if you want more small businesses, be more business-friendly!
greengrass
P.S. I’m not a libertarian.
Oh Dog, the wounded duck again? LOL! You whine and complain about Government YET you are unable to point to a Country or Continent that the “Libertarian” Ideals exist and flourish… on this planet. Ayn Rand was a fiction writer from Russia, that should be your first clue.
If a person is more informed about sales and use taxes, doesn’t that make that person more productive? Ah, I see the glass half full Dog, you see it half empty or worse.
Grass. Try doing business in a Country WITHOUT a working Government. I ran a small business myself for years without much “Government” problems; had more problems dealing with Vendors. ;)
@OLS—-I miss George Harrison…
‘rocks. I never said libertarianism is nirvana’
That why rock put those words in quotes….
@rock4tahoe: I actually explicitly stated that I was NOT a libertarian. I’m all for government, but only the right kind of government. There are lots of regulations and laws that do nothing but make life hard for a business owner, and the sheer bureaucracy, especially in Tahoe, makes it very difficult to get anything done. IMHO, what we need are the right laws, and a government that is trying to serve the people, not itself. Remember, we’re not here for the govt., they’re here for us. I wonder how many politicians making these laws have ever run a successful small business. I would venture very few.
Vendors can suck too, but you can usually find new ones, and they have much less overall control over your business. I always try to find two vendors, in case I have problems with one.
greengrass
So Greengrass let me see if I get it.
In your quest to “make a difference” in the world, or what some might look at as just turning a profit and making a living, I should not only hold you in higher esteem than myself and my fellow below average employee class urchins of society that have never owned a business thereby not having any understanding of the ultimate responsibility you as a highly exalted small business owner must suffer, I and my contemporaries should ALSO feel sorry for you and all that you must endure as it pertains to Federal, County, and Municipal government oversight that plagues you. And those pesky “vendors”, whom you obviously fail to see as possibly being small business owners themselves, can be replaced as you see fit because their are others who will fill that void, unlike the irreplaceable YOU.
A) You’re a dime a dozen my friend
B) You obviously suffer from an over inflated sense of worth
C) If you are an actual employer, YOUR business would be nothing if all the employees available to hire left town
D) And don’t forget that we employees are consumers as well!
Green. We need the “right laws.” So, if you were the “Dictator of Tahoe,” what exactly would you change?
Remember, running a business is NOT the same as running a Government.
I don’t understand why all those people who say that California and Tahoe are such a pain in the a** for businesses and everything else don’t just go to Nevada. It’s only a couple miles down the road, you’ll be rid of everything that ails you, and then you can concentrate on being happy instead of being curmudgeonly. No one’s making anyone stay in California or Tahoe, and if you’ve already left and live in Nevada why don’t you just try to take some modicum of joy in being where you want.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
Bigger, wrong. I only ask that you don’t ridicule and defame business owners, and try to downplay the work that they do. Remember, you would be unemployed without us. I respect all my employees, and don’t think I’m a better person than any of them, but it’s not as easy as you think. How’s your business doing. Have you been in business for 20 years?
“You’re a dime a dozen my friend” 10% of businesses survive their first 20 years, so I don’t think you’re right. Also, guys with three masters degrees are not a dime a dozen. People like you who can barely hold their McDonald’s job are pretty cheap though.
Rock, I will never be dictator of Tahoe, because Bigger would never vote me in, so it’s pointless for me to explain, but, like everyone, I have my share of laws and regulations that I would like to see changed.
Good luck having a reasonable discussion here, Greengrass. If you are not a tool of the state, most people here have no use for you. Everything you say will be twisted as they try to make you look a fool. They don’t realize what our elected officials are doing to them.
Greengrass, you may have three masters degrees, yet the esteemed scholar that you profess to be, you resort to an elementary school dis making a snide remark, “People like you who can barely hold their McDonald’s job are pretty cheap though.” On that point I rest my case as it pertains to your over inflated sense of self.
I’ve been a highly valued employee of every job I’ve worked. I have only left a job for a better higher paying situation, have worked for some of the most successful small business owners in town, and have garnered a great deal of respect from those small business owners (and none of them had your diminutive attitude!), AND I raised two children as a single parent.
And I’ve done more than you can imagine for this community as a volunteer in the 30+ years I’ve lived here.
And you are 110% correct in your statement that I would NEVER vote for someone like you!
What is with all the hate and anger towards business?
Without businesses where will the jobs come from?
Truckee seems to be doing really well with business. I don’t hear hate towards businesses up here.
It’s a seminar. It’s free! It’s here in South Lake Tahoe! It’s for businesses. It’s to help them. It’s to help business owners be more successful. It’s about taxes. This is ALL GOOD! What a wonderful event! Thank you South Tahoe Chamber of Commerce and George Runner and the BoE!
Pretty entertaining that a bunch of non business owners are authorities on owning businesses. Also funny how many of you love the state putting on a compliance workshop but also want owners to leave the area if they complain about an overbearing state. Strange the amount of hostility towards a small private business but the love affair for govt and large corp employers. Once again as with many subjects on this board, the future you guys want is sad, i will replace employees with technology at every turn untill attitudes change…good luck!!
OK Biggerpicture. Just remember that without businesses, you’d be without a job, so you might wan’t to have a little more respect for the people who provide your livelihood.
Business owner, you can say all that again. It seems that a lot of these guys are just jealous because they’ve never had the opportunity to run a small business. Well, at least I’ll make a little more money by replacing employees with technology. That is, after the govt. automatically takes 30% of it from me for self-employment tax.
Greengrass, I have a great deal of respect for business owners I know……..that have earned that respect! I only take issue with those such as you and Business Owner that project an air of superiority for no other reason than you own a business. And you’d be best served not to forget that employees are probably the largest consumer block in this nation, are they not?
And that little saying I mentioned in my original comment about business owners buying a job, was told to me many years ago by a small business owner who was and is still very successful!
I’m glad to hear their will be this business workshop in SLT. Maybe it will keep some business owners afloat and help our local economy. OLS
When I was asking around about the Hard Rock Hotel some people seemed to be a bit negative towards the area. One old guy said I’d be better off staying away from the South shore just a bunch of ‘hate and vinegar’ and that the place is’rotting away’.
I get that now. If you hate business people so much i don’t see much reason for me to head that way as I work as a consultant to small businesses.
Some of you folks sound like you are right out of a communist novel – the movie Reds comes to mind.
Tomorrow-
Don’t be dissuaded and put off by some of the negative attitudes here. This site tends to see the same 5 people either trash each other or trash some semblance of any idea or thought that might move South Tahoe forward into the 1990’s. I assure you that the majority are quite the opposite of the ‘hate and vinegar’and you need only look around a little to find it.
You are welcome to come and share your ideas and thoughts at any time. There are plenty of people here to welcome you and guide you wherever you might want to go.
Implying that people are communists is ridiculous and doesn’t further your point at all.
‘Did you get that from a McCarthy flyer, you fascist?’
See? That was silly.
This workshop is all about staying good with the state as far as taxes are concerned. i doubt it will help biz owners where they will need it most. Mainly in generating more sales. Scott is there something else that it would teach to make biz owners more successful? Because in my mind learning how to pay taxes is not making a Biz more successful.
business owner says:
“Also funny how many of you love the state putting on a compliance workshop but also want owners to leave the area if they complain about an overbearing state.”
Why would someone purposely stay where they are miserable and believe they’re being unfairly treated?
The constant, endless, complaining and the always negative commentary by certain individuals wears pretty thin after a while, and my preference would be for the chronic complainers to seize control of their own lives and take their misery elsewhere. Contrary to what many people who blog here embrace, life doesn’t have to be the pits.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
You don’t need to own a business to have a superiority complex that comes in all shapes and sizes.
Why would a community want to chase away businesses and the entrepreneurs/ risk takers that run them?
Where will the jobs and opportunity come from?
Do you have a lot of jobs in South Lake Tahoe? I hear it is not in good shape and that it has been declining for years.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc; from what I hear and have read there is merit to the complaints. Don’t business people have rights too? Are there complaints without substance in your mind?
TomorrowDreaming:
Business people do have rights and there are a lot of small, independently owned local business operators in SLT (not the corporate types such as Safeway, Raley’s, etc.) who exercise their rights to ridicule and insult others not only on this blog but with a tremendous frequency within their business establishments. Consumers have rights too and there’s a reason why such a huge percentage of SLT locals continue to spend their precious time, energy, and gasoline to go off the hill to shop rather than paying a little more locally to support SLT’s struggling small businesses. What this seminar should be teaching some of the rude local business operators are customer service skills. Being polite and courteous can go a long way in getting return patronage.
4-mer,
This is not the first time I heard this. Someone up here said it this way
‘ funny thing down there, the business owners are their own worst enemy, when i’d go into a restaurant i can tell who owns it by who looks the most annoyed ‘
This person happens to be a marketing/computer consultant also that went on to say “don’t waist time down that way any more ‘.
So i’m hearing that side too.
Interesting.
I appreciate this opportunity and will attend.
What is in your heads with you other locals that you argue over the same ol BS. If your not a biz owner just shut up………
To any network news watchers, like fox news…kill your TV and read a book.
So after you attend, please write here and tell us whether the event taught you about making your business more profitable/successful, or if it was about how to better comply with regulations.
I’ll be very curious to hear.