Some Small Business Owners Say They're Seeing Improvement -- No Thanks to D.C.

CNNMoney asked six small business owners (each with a different political tilt) a simple question: are you better off now than you were four years ago?

The answer was “yes” -- but no thanks to the president or Congress. Most of the respondents told CNNMoney that their hard work, not anything from the White House, has kept them successful in this economy.

Sidney Brodsky, owner and chef of James Gerard Foods, told CNNMoney that his low point was in 2008 when he had to tell his 40 employees that there would be no Christmas bonuses.

Four years later, Brodsky has managed to turn things around for his business. He has expanded his customer base and can now afford to give his now-51 employees bonuses and raises.

James Gerard Foods (Image courtesy: Sidney Brodsky via CNNMoney)

"The government did not have that much to do with it. I don't see any policy they put in place that specifically helped us or our local economy," Brodsky said.

Abi Mandelbaum, creator of YouVisit, a company that designs and creates virtual walking tours of college campuses, was having a hard time marketing his services back in 2008 because several universities had slashed their budgets.

Fast forward to 2012 and not only has YouVisit’s staff grown from five to 50 but the company has also expanded the number of its clients from about a dozen to 150.

"It would be a stretch to say whether the president's been good or bad for my business," Mandelbaum said.

And even when one of the business owners interviewed by CNNMoney was able to point to something from Washington that could've helped her business, she said it came with a downside.

“For example, Housing America Realtyin Los Angeles received a major boost in home sales from the emergency expansion of the first-time homebuyer credit,” CNNMoney’s Jose Pagliery explains.

“But co-owner Marissa Solis said her company, which buys homes at foreclosure auctions, had a difficult time re-selling some homes because of a new federal law protecting non-paying residents who refused to leave,” he adds.

Likewise, Susan Silberisen, president of BestIT, said Washington’s “help” wasn't very helpful at all. For instance, although Silberisen says her business could have benefited from the 2009 Recovery Act (because, theoretically, there should be more people with cash), she says federal documentation requirements put a chokehold on time-sensitive deals.

"I'd love to say that some of the restructuring money made its way to us, but we didn't see a dime of that," Silberisen said.

But it wasn’t all bad for President Obama. One small business owner directly credits the president with helping her business. Nan Warshaw, co-owner of Bloodshot Records, says the $6,000 she received through a 2010 “Obamacare” tax credit helped keep her company afloat when things got really tough.

"I give him credit for turning the economy around," she said. "It's not something that can be turned around easily."

However, Paul Butler, a British immigrant who runs a staff training company in California, begs to differ.

"I can't put my finger on one thing and say, 'Because Obama did this, it worked for us,'" Butler said.