Unlikely Connections: A key part of starting a business, pt 2

Dear SJ,

In the last note, I mentioned looking around at the changes your elected officials have made or influenced while in government.

First — why would you do this?

Three reasons that come to mind immediately are:

1. Because certain types of businesses require permits and/or licenses, or to comply with curfews
2. Most businesses are interested in being able to hire a competent, prepared workforce
3. After you register your business, every year you have to file an annual report and taxes with the state (note that filing taxes and paying are different events)

Put in context: That restaurant or bar you like to go to with your friends has to do a LOT of work and navigate a LOT of bureaucracy to be able to pour you that beer. (And I’d bet they’d happily keep pouring later into the night than they’re allowed to.)

So: if there’s something you want to see changed so you can do business more easily, you’ll want to talk to the people who set these requirements.

But before you start talking, you’ll want to come prepared by understanding how this person tends to think and what their priorities are. That information is easy to find if you know where and how to look.

This extra large gif means don’t give up

First, here’s where to look:

Go to Google or wherever, and simply type in “[your state] bill lookup.” You should see two separate results for your state’s Senate and House of Representatives. Here’s Florida:

The Florida Senate bill look up website.

The Florida House of Representative bill look up website. Nice of them to check bills from both the House and Senate by default!

Next, how you look is by choosing your elected official from the “Sponsor” drop down list and hitting search.

You’ll get a list back of bills (rough draft ideas for laws) that your elected official is trying to pass.

Have a scan through and just make some observations:

• What kind of topics are they interested in?
• Are they looking to make processes easier or harder to complete?
• Are they changing requirements for existing rules or creating new ones?
• (Extra credit: do any of these efforts match what they promised in their campaign?)

Add this information to your other intel gathering just so you have it in your back pocket when you speak to them. You still can talk about what you want and why it’s important, but this extra information will help you decide how to talk about it so you have a higher chance of successfully persuading them.