Be Your Own Lobbyist: How to Give Your Small Business Big Clout with State and Local Government

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We all know the role that big business plays in politics and the influence large corporations have on government via lobbyists and donations. But did you ever consider that your small business could have the same kind of influence? Of course, one small company cannot hope to wield the influence of a massive global corporation.

Interview: How Small Businesses Can Lobby Government

But by banding together to make our voices heard, small businesses can make a difference. For many of us, the issues that affect our businesses the most are the ones being debated on the state or even local levels. Making your voice heard can start as small as working to get a zoning variance so you can run a business from home. In my area, business owners have successfully lobbied to get parking meters removed so that more customers will visit their businesses, legalize sidewalk dining to attract more customers to restaurants in a beach community, and change restrictions so that local coffeehouses can feature live music at night.

Handlin shared her 7 tips for successful lobbying. One of the tips that rang truest to me: Handlin advises reaching out to other entrepreneurs who share your concerns, then educating more business owners about the issues so you can all be effective lobbyists for change. You can also hook up with community organizations that share your concerns.

Be Your Own Lobbyist

This article on Business News Daily cites a business owner who joined forces with organizations from churches to the Boy Scouts to protest a transit project that would have required his business location to close. Or you can join an existing business organization that shares your attitude about political issues.

Another solution— run for office. Whether we vote red or blue, the reality is that government—large and small—affects all of our lives and businesses.

Have you heard about the word Gerrymandering? DO something about it! Settling is a choice! Better decisions can only be made with better information, so you have to inform your representatives. I think the easiest way to get your voice heard is by being specific. There are people out there looking for those specific items and search them on google or on twitter, if you are there and in the conversation you can find it.

We also have a PR team which has helped a lot by finding specific stories that we could submit our company for consideration.

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Do most entrepreneurs contact their representatives only in a crisis? Overwhelmingly, which is a shame. It is a very low-risk, high-return investment to develop relationships with officials before you have a problem. What's the right way to go about making those relationships? You want to target the right person, select the right communication tools with which to approach them, and shape a message that will get their attention.

First, you have to know who is in a position to influence your business and in which ways. That's a matter of research. In the same way you wouldn't introduce a new product without researching the market, you shouldn't try to get involved in the advocacy business without researching who does what in state and local government and in the agencies, authorities, boards, and commissions that make important decisions.

Please visit BusinessWeek to read the rest of this article.

But others call landscapers like Rick Turner to do the work for them. He's a trained organic lawn care provider. They don't like pesticides. The trainings include proper planting, mulching, and pruning methods in an effort to use less chemical fertilizers.

Small Business Spotlight

Pets of course have different sensitivities to chemicals that are in pesticides and fertilizers. Home Run is a recently developed hybrid, derived from the bestselling black spot-free rose, with the added benefit of total resistance to powdery mildew. Home Run is easy-to-grow, thrives in most landscape conditions and requires little maintenance.

Making Your Voice Heard as a Small Business Owner - Small Business Trends

But unlike its famously popular forerunner, Home Run has natural immunity to black spot and powdery mildew — diseases common with other rose bushes. Black spot and powdery mildew distort the leaves and reduce the foliage of roses. Both often spread to infect other rose plants in the garden.

Home Run is the first rose on the market that will remain completely free from these diseases over the entire lifetime of the plant. Home Run blooms nearly continuously with five-petaled blossoms of an intense shade of flame-red, from late spring to first frost. It is the first to flower in spring and has an amazingly short re-flowering time of only 30 days. Compact, growing only 2 to 3 feet in height, this flowering shrub rose can fit more easily into any sized garden.

Its abundant dark green foliage provides a great contrasting background to the fiery crimson flowers. Home Run rose is heat tolerant and hardy in colder temperatures, so it can thrive from Texas to Michigan, zone 10 to zone 4.

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