NJ Printing Company on the ‘Ideal’ Presidential Candidate

Ideal Jacobs Corporation is a printing company based in Maplewood, New Jersey. Andrew Jacobs is the third generation owner of the family business that was established in 1921.

Ideal Jacobs Corporation specializes in graphic overlays and custom labels, and has become a leader in providing customized solutions to companies ranging from telecommunications to automotive. In addition to the NJ headquarters, they now have operations in Massachusetts and California, Canada, Mexico, The Netherlands, Romania, Malaysia, China and Thailand.

According to the Labor Department, the unemployment rate of New Jersey is currently at 9.8%, which is higher than the September national rate of 7.8%. New Jersey’s population estimate is 8,821,155, according to the United States Census Bureau’s estimate from July 2011.

The industries holding the most jobs in the state are trade, transportation, and utilities. The highest gross domestic product for NJ is due to real estate, rental and leasing.

New Jersey’s small business owners make up 98.4% of all employers in the state, as reported by the Small Business Administration’s profile completed in 2009.

Interview with Andrew Jacobs

FOXBUSINESS: What are some immediate goals that you hope to see satisfied by the president in the next term?

JACOBS: I would like to be left alone. I want to be left alone to be able to do my job, which is to create good-paying jobs for more people. And if I’m not left alone to do that here, I will do it offshore. So, basically, that’s what I want to do. I want the healthcare bill gutted, I want taxes lowered if possible, I want to be able to put my own money back in and grow, I don’t want to be told I can’t do things, I don’t want the government to interfere with anything I’m doing. Obviously if it’s safe and healthy and environmental stuff – that’s totally different because we’re set up for that. But basically, I want to be left alone, and I don’t want the government giving all their money to people who don’t work and then getting us involved outside the United States in places where we shouldn’t be involved.

FOXBUSINESS: On an individual employee level -- do you encourage your employees to vote in the election?

JACOBS: Positively. I make it easy for them.

FOXBUSINESS: What are the top three issues for you when it comes to who you’ll vote for for president? JACOBS: Less taxes, gut the medical plan, and less restrictions. FOXBUSINESS: How many years have you been operating? How many employees did you start out with, and today?

JACOBS: In 1921, my grandfather started off by himself. We have gone up and down, and up and down. We have about 22 employees in the U.S. and about 200 worldwide.

FOXBUSINESS: What kind of health benefits plan do you provide? Has this changed in recent years?

JACOBS: It’s pretty much been the same – full health benefits depending on the level you are in the company. Sometimes it depends on how much you donate into it. FOXBUSINESS: Do you expect the healthcare plan to negatively/positively/neutrally affect your business?

JACOBS: Negatively, definitely. There’s no question. Because all the people who can’t afford healthcare now that are now going to get it for free, they’re only going to go to the people who can pay for it, which is me. Which is the same reason why I’ll never probably ever get Social Security, and every other benefit that’s out here, because anybody who makes any money is never going to get anything.

FOXBUSINESS: What has your hiring trend been over the years? Have you hired employees, laid off employees, or remained the same?

JACOBS: Yes. Here, we were roughly at 30 and we’re now at 22. Worldwide we’re up to 200, though, total. So we’ve had a lot of expansion outside the U.S.

FOXBUSINESS: Throughout the years that you have been in business, do you remember a particularly high point or low point in your business profitability, and what the cause of that was?

JACOBS: We follow our customers around the world to wherever they are, and the profitability goes mostly with new niche markets. Niche markets and new product lines used to last a lot longer than they do now, so when you’re trying to push something new, you can often ride off it for a few years and gain a lot of momentum from that. These days, things change so quickly that it’s a lot harder to do that. The change is so fast that you can’t really make the kind of money you were making before unless you’re constantly in the front, which costs a lot of money to stay there. So it’s harder to make more money now than it was before.

In this series, we are interviewing small business owners across the nation about the political policies that affect their businesses in anticipation of the 2012 presidential election. Each profile subject has been selected randomly and does not represent the views of their respective state.