National Small Busines Alliance
the problem:
Small businesses are the lifeblood of every community and economy, which they support and sustain through employment, variety, choice, and charity. Yet it becomes increasingly more difficult as a small business to overcome the vast breadth and depth of hurdles they face. I am trying to create an environment where small businesses have a fighting chance to survive, prosper and grow. This includes giving them unified representation through local policy.
vital stats:
people impacted:
220,000people involved:
350why it's important:
My parents and I owned and operated a small business which we closed after 5 years. So much of what we experienced we want to share with other small businesses and help them through the struggles which often it seems you are so alone in facing. Most people are unaware of what occurs emotionally when losing a business. In our retail plaza we lost an anchor store which dominoed into almost all the businesses surrounding it becoming vacant. This leads not only to people losing their businesses but their homes, life savings, and dignity. And then as a result the property becomes dark, it spurs crime and vandilization and affects the surrounding neighborhoods. In observance of what is occuring today with so many institutions touted as "too big too fail" many people have lost the faith in larger corporations which have become more bureaucrat than business. But I shudder to think what will happen if we do not support our local plexus of businesses. They are left to flounder in a market place stacked against them from every angle.
the plan of action:
I have helped create an organization in my local community that is an alliance for small businesses. We represent their interests in local politics as well as support them through business to business networking and community outreach. we are an all volunteer run group with 10 board members, 6 committees of varying interests and over 350 members. Our plan is to create charters in other municipalities to unite micro voting blocks of small businesses. This will finally allow them to have a voice on the policies and issues that affect their daily operations. The organization also supports them in other areas such as business resources which we access through a partnership with the AZ Small Business Development Center and Small Business administration.
how you can get involved:
We have interns that volunteer and gain a perspective in the wealth of knowledge, expertise, culture and leadership small businesses contribute. We always need help with raising money (so we do not have to increase membership fees to support our businesses), as well as with coordinating events and community projects. And of course the greatest help is spreading the word to grow our number of small business advocates in the Alliance.
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