INEQUITABLE taxation, high operating costs and gross barriers to hiring have placed the island's small businesses in a state of crisis that could have a devastating impact on the community if left unchecked, a leading advocate charged yesterday.

With small businesses prominently involved in industries which employ middle class workers ? demographically, the largest sector of the population ? setting a platform for their success should be of paramount importance, insisted Keetha Lowe.

She added that while millions of dollars have been spent to ensure the protection and continuity of tourism and international business, no such efforts have been made to secure smaller organisations from failure ? a situation that does not bode well for Bermuda or the future of its third pillar of industry.

"Small business is at risk in Bermuda's economic environment, in Bermuda's economic structure," she said. "For all intents and purposes, they just do not have the support systems and mechanisms.

"In an environment where there is a severe shortage of affordable housing, how does a small business reliant on guest workers compete and manage? How do we maintain an attractive offer to our employees, when the greater portion of their income is absorbed in rent? But the big question in today's economic war is how many small businesses are closing, and why?

"Bermuda's small businesses constitute the spectrum of the service and trade industry. They comprise a large proportion of our middle class. Our middle class, demographically speaking, makes up the largest portion of our population.

"Millions of dollars are being directed towards protecting, sustaining and evolving the development of tourism and international business. What agendas and systems are in place to ensure the same for small businesses who are the backbone of our economy and play an intrinsic and intricate role in our social balance ? from hiring and training unskilled labour, to the major financial contribution to the bottom line of private business and national revenue?"

Ms Lowe intends to address those and other relevant questions next Saturday at Small Business Conference 2005. Held under the auspices of the United Bermuda Party, the event is open to all small business owners, entrepreneurs and industry leaders, and will examine "the risks associated with striving to survive and thrive within challenging undercurrents of domestic taxation, high operation costs and the battle of securing qualified and experienced workers".

The hope is that the conference will stimulate debate and effect the legislative change needed to level the playing field for small businesses.

Explained Andr? Hubbard, a founding member with Ms Lowe, of the Bermuda Small Business Association: "Certainly there has been economic prosperity and development and enhancement of our infrastructure, but there has not been the nurturing. There has not been the further development."

Mr. Hubbard is one of 12 speakers who will share their entrepreneurial experience at the event. In an interview this week, he was quick to distance himself from the event's political foundations.

"The symposium is being put forward under the auspices of the UBP. I am not here representing any political persuasion whatsoever," he said. "I am here principally representing small businesses as an individual, but also as somebody who is carrying forward the Bermuda Small Business Association group, developing a voice for Bermuda's small businesses.

"We're now in a time when we're using the wonderful catch phrase, 'sustainable development'. We need to recognise what it is that needs to be done and the importance of small business ? the service and trade industries.

"They need to be maintained. They need to be nurtured. They need to be taken care of. There unfortunately is a tremendous inequity within the system. You have tax concessions and subsidies that are given to certain areas and not to other areas.

"We recognise we are a jurisdiction that is reliant upon generating taxes ? that we can't change unless we change the form of taxation ? but the inequity comes about when you have forms of tax exemption that aren't across the board. It is not a unilateral base."

He cited the areas of agriculture, fisheries, taxis and tourism as recipients of tax subsidies or concessions.

"I'm an example of a small business," said Mr. Hubbard , who runs his own company, Fine Furniture & Antique Restorations. "I bring in raw materials and I generate a product here, in Bermuda. I generate a product not only for Bermuda, but I also generate a product for export.

"I don't see any tax concessions in reference to that. Am I asking for them? Not necessarily. Would it make life easier? Hell, yeah. Would it be more equitable to offer me a tax concession the same way as they do for Ag & Fisheries? Absolutely. It is about equitability. It is about creating a model across the board that is appropriate for all."

Ms Lowe added that she hoped the conference would provide the insight required to establish a better format or infrastructure within which small businesses could flourish.

"I think that with a format or infrastructure, we will find less and less small businesses experiencing failure and putting an additional burden upon the community," she said.

"Ultimately, when a small business fails what happens? There are issues that are financial. There are issues that affect families. There are issues that affect departments such as social assistance, social services. It's not just the small business that collapses it's everything that that small business supports.

"Therefore, we have to look at ways of getting small businesses started and supported. When we look at small businesses, we face some of the same problems that larger businesses face. The only difference is that (in the past) no one (has) taken a look at how it impacts on our businesses or our ability to offer services."

It was necessary that as many as possible attended the conference for any effective dialogue to occur, Mr. Hubbard stressed.

"Small businesses need to come together, to unite as a collective. We're talking about moving into an environment of licensure regulations. One of our pursuits is also to educate ? and I say that very carefully ? and enlighten small businesses.

"To help them develop a greater awareness about themselves and those around them ? they may be in the same quagmire, suffering the same despair. We want to help them create a voice for themselves. We want them to become proactive. Who better to help dictate as to where we're going than those people who are working within the arena?

"But we need to give an appropriate mechanism for educating. We have an opportunity here with which to engage small businesses in their future. (This conference) is predicated on small businesses ? you cannot look to Government for everything.

"This is not purely legislative. This is about small businesses being involved in their sustainable development but also investing in their future. Many small businesses say that they don't have the time to come and participate in round table meetings. The question that I ask is, 'Can you afford not to'?"

q The Small Business Conference 2005 will be held on Saturday, June 25, at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel, between 8.30 a.m. and 3 p.m. A reception follows the event ? from 3.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. ? which will look at ways in which to bridge the gap between big business and small business. Tickets to the event are limited. For more information, telephone 295-0729.