Raise your hand if you know a recent college graduate looking for relevant, meaningful work. Keep it up if you know several. My guess is there are a lot of hands in the air. I am always impressed by young adults who seriously consider the path to create their own job rather than find one. And though a young entrepreneur has hunger and drive, there’s more to building a business than just these internal factors.

External resources have to exist, and having been a start-up guy for more than a decade, I can say with confidence we are on our way to providing these things here in Iowa. However, we start-up companies need to see more support from the federal government.

A reduced tax burden for first-time entrepreneurs would be highly beneficial.

I’ll provide an example from my own life, to show why I believe this.

In November 2001, I was laid off by Kansas-based Raviant Networks Inc. Between never wanting to get laid off again and a horrible job market, I decided to start my own business. I didn’t have a plan, but I knew how to build websites. I came up with a name and set up an office in my home. I was on my way to becoming an “accidental entrepreneur.”

My biggest financial responsibilities, personally, were a modest mortgage payment, a car payment, food for my dog and an entertainment budget. I had a pretty short runway – about two months’ worth of savings.

In that next full year of business, I grossed $46,000 worth of Web development services, which was great, but it was a complete roller coaster. Cash flow was sporadic, which made it a challenge to stay ahead of bills. And though my accountant had informed me about a little thing called tax liability and quarterly estimates, these took a back seat to the bills that were due the next day. Calculating accurate quarterly estimates was hard enough, but trying to find that money was another issue.

When the accountant did my taxes the following spring, I remember the panic that set in when I saw what I owed. If you make some basic assumptions about what I’ve told you so far, you can guess the number wasn’t even that big. But given my state of swim or sink as a new start-up, it was a very big deal – it could have cost me my business.

I did end up surviving that tax bill and I’m still self employed to this day. I went on to make more money than $46,000 in subsequent years and have held up my end of paying my taxes. But, I think about the compounded negative impact that first year had, and I’m convinced I could have grown my business better and faster had some form of tax break existed that was specific to a first-time start-up, that allowed the business to reinvest in itself.

Jobs for recent college graduates are tough to find. For those interested in starting their own business, eliminating the tax burden on the first $100,000 in business profits would go a long way to faster growth, more hiring, more purchasing and, wait for it, more tax dollars at a later date.

The net effect would be an increase in the rate of growth of new start-ups.

What would it take to get this done?

Brian Hemesath is a Des Moines-area entrepreneur who is heavily involved in the local start-up scene. He can be reached at brian@hemesath.net.