Indiana: Catch Sen. Braun on NFIB’s Small Business Rundown

October 18, 2023 Last Edit: June 5, 2025

Sen. Mike Braun discusses problematic small business regulations on NFIB's latest podcast.

Indiana: Catch Sen. Braun on NFIB's Small Business Rundown

Sen. Mike Braun is featured on the latest NFIB podcast, “Small Business Rundown.” This week’s episode focuses on problematic small business regulations. Senator Braun updates small business owners on what’s happening in Washington right now with anti small business regulations and his experience dealing with burdensome regulations as a small business owner.

The Small Business Rundown podcast offers small business owners an inside source in Washington, D.C. and the nation’s state capitals. Host Adam Temple and guests discuss and analyze the current issues and news that directly affect small businesses across the nation, including policies and programs, taxes and mandates, Supreme Court cases, and more. Labor and employment is really hard for a small employer because you don’t have an HR department and there’s quite a host of regulations that you have to comply with. So when you have to deal with OCHA inspections, you have to make sure you’re paying your employees correctly by the letter of the law. There are harsh penalties if you don’t. Right now, the rules are influx. NFIB is expecting a decision soon on the independent contractor rule, which would make it more difficult to classify consultants and contractors as nonemployees. In other words, making more individuals employees and putting more people on your payroll. We’re expecting that from the US Department of Labor at some point this fall. Senator Braun is familiar with the frustrastrations of the time and complexity of making sure he’s following the numerous and onerous federal regulations. Braun started his small business journey at a local kitchen cabinet company in 1978 as a regional sales manager. The job came with the opportunity of buying in and Braun did just that a few short years later. “It was a tricky time to do it because interest rates were already around 10%. That’s right when inflation had gotten really out of control and our home mortage that we secured in 19778 for 10% skyrocketed to 18% five years later. My small business sold mostly products to farmers and it was the middle of the farm crisis that was driving the financial angst back then.” The next 17 years Braun describes as hardscrabble. His business never grew much beyond the original 15 employees, until he moved into a different location, where in 10 years, we went from 15 to 300 employees. When his two sons joined and brought a few of their friends, Braun saw another surge of growth. Now he writes paycheks for 1500 Hoosiers. I can tell you that if government, federal or state, becomes too overbearing, it definitely weighs in on your ability to grow, create jobs, all of that. All of that adds up and it’s a disincentive over time if government is the main driver, not free enterprise, moderate, reasonable regulation is okay. When everything’s being dictated through government, it gets expensive. Some of the regulations specifically that we’re talking about come from the Department of Labor are the independent contractor restrictions, the overtime exemption threshold being doubled, the joint employer rule and OSHA’s walkaround rule.

Topics:

Taxes

State:

Indiana

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