Proposed SBA Head Linda McMahon: Young Entrepreneurs Need Better Financial Know-How The former WWE CEO wants to make financial literacy a top priority.
By Nina Zipkin
Linda McMahon, the co-founder and former CEO of WWE selected to be the new leader of the Small Business Administration, said this week that she believed one of the key ways to help up-and-coming entrepreneurs pursue their ideas was to better educate them about money management.
"I have kids in high school that don't know how to balance a checkbook," she said during her confirmation meeting at the Senate. "We need to have that fundamental understanding of economics as we move forward to develop the next generation of young people."
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Over the course of the nearly two-hour hearing, McMahon also voiced her support for maintaining the SBA as "a standalone agency."
Though in her second campaign for Senate in 2012 -- against Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Small Business Committee who is in favor of her confirmation -- she did support a plan that proposed to fold the SBA into the Department of Commerce.
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She said that if confirmed as SBA administrator, she would rely on her experience running the WWE to understand the needs of the entrepreneurs the agency would be tasked with aiding.
"I remember the early days, every month I had to decide whether to continue to lease a typewriter or whether to buy it. Yes, believe it or not, that $12 a month at that time made a difference in our budget," McMahon said. "Like all small-business owners, I know what it is like to take a risk on an idea, manage cash flow and navigate regulations and create jobs."
