An interesting piece on NRO, where there is more:

The fortunes of small businesses — perhaps more than any other commercial sector — are tied to rates of taxation on the individual. And individual income-tax rates are set to jump sharply at year-end when the Bush tax cuts of 2003 expire. Put another way, on January 1, 2011, the world’s biggest tax increase ever will arrive on the doorsteps of U.S. small businesses (and a great many others). Higher tax rates on incomes — along with capital gains and dividends — will reduce the incentive, on the margin, for entrepreneurs to engage in the kind of risks that lead to business formation, economic growth, and job creation.

There’s a monetary component to the small-business nightmare, as well — namely, the Fed’s ongoing near-zero-interest-rate policy.

Interest rates normally balance savers and borrowers. But when rates are held near zero, the environment becomes one of rationing a scarce resource — credit. It’s the same thing that happens when price controls are placed on a commodity, such as gasoline. A shortage is guaranteed since purchasers (or borrowers) are incentivized to buy more gasoline while producers (or savers), faced with lower returns, opt to under-supply the commodity. The Fed’s artificially low interest rate has a similar impact on the supply of credit available for small businesses.