Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

Two weeks ago, I was part of a lobbying delegation charged with telling congressional staffers the story of small technology businesses in the U.S.  The “DC Fly-In” was organized by CompTIA, a trade association focused on advancing the global interests of IT professionals and companies. The goal was to influence laws that affect small businesses.  The meetings took place on Capitol Hill in the various congressional office buildings.  I live in Maryland so I met with the staff of my two Senators, Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski, and my Congressman, Chris Van Hollen.  The effort was very worthwhile. Below is a picture of the delegation's motorcade just outside of the Eisenhower Office Building.

Why Small Business Lobbying Efforts are Important

CompTIA's team was extraordinarily helpful in setting up these meetings and provided background information on some of the legislative issues that are affecting small businesses.  They allowed each of us to talk to the staffers about our individual stories and concerns.

Big corporations hire lobbyists to work year round to make sure legislation does not affect them adversely.  In fact, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of California, mentioned the story of Bill Gates.  Apparently, Microsoft never used to have lobbyists on Capitol Hill.  Then, after the government said his company was a monopoly and tried to break it up, he hired lobbyists - lots of them.  She said Microsoft now has four lobbyists for every member of Congress.  Most big firms have people calling on congressional staffers all the time to discuss legislation that is important to them.  Small businesses need a voice to explain their issues.  The squeaky wheel gets noticed.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) moderating a panel on sales tax for Internet purchases

Meeting the Right People

Having never participated in lobbying before, I was happy to see how open staffers were to meeting with constituents.  All you really have to do is call up your member’s office and get on the calendar.  CompTIA’s lobbyists were able to schedule appointments for us so it made the task easier.  But the process is pretty straight forward.  The meetings are almost always with a Legislative Assistant, the people on the office who take pages of notes to share with the Member of Congress.

The Issues - Start Your Egg Timer

These meetings are fast, anywhere from 10-20 minutes.  The staffers take lots of notes, sometimes ask questions and then talk about what the congressional member is doing about the issue.  Their days are packed with similar meetings so I am not sure how clearly the information is passed along in the form we intended.  Nevertheless, that is the process that most constituents and lobbyists go through unless they have a relationship with the Member of Congress that allows one-on-one meetings directly.

With such a limited amount of time, I chose the following issues to talk about:

1. Anti-spam laws
As CEO of email marketing firm MailerMailer, I pay attention to legislation that affects email.  The U.S. CAN-SPAM Act provided teeth for the government and companies to crack down on unethical email activities.  Canada and European Union have since passed laws that are much more stringent and allow private citizens to file suit.  If we did this in the U.S., it would result in a quagmire of challenges for ethical small businesses.  The EU law also covers a very large base of privacy issues that include things like tracking user behavior with “cookies” on your computer. I urged our legislators not to go down that path since it is too strict.  While our law might need some refinements, the expanded coverage of the Canadian and EU laws is not something we should model.

2. Job Retraining
There is a dearth of qualified engineering talent in this country. While national jobless rates remain at unprecedented levels, there are 450,000 unfilled jobs in technology.  These are high paying positions with an average salary of $81,000.  Offering (re)training options for the un-/under-employed and incentives for companies to hire retrained workers will help everybody.

3. Taxes, both state and federal, from the full perspective of a small business
You might not know this, but the heavy unemployment has caused most state’s unemployment insurance funds to be depleted.  In Maryland, where my business is based, the fund went from $1B to $300M in two years.  As a result, the Governor had few options but to increase the unemployment tax.  This meant a 2-12% increase on payroll taxes for businesses.  If you take an average of 5% as the increase, that means for every $1M in payroll a business now has to pay about $55k in unemployment taxes compared to $6k just two years ago.  For hard hit construction companies, that amount is over $100k. This increase amounts to one to three full-time salaries, inhibiting the small businesses’ ability to expand their workforce.

The federal payroll tax for businesses and employees is 6.2% each. Congress passed a one-year reduction for the employee to 4.2%, which expires at the end of this year.  I urged Congress to extend this reduction because it offers much needed relief for many companies and employees.

4. Section 179 expensing allowances that are about to expire
The tax code allows a small business to deduct the full purchase price of equipment purchases up to $500k.  In 2012, this limit will revert back to $150k unless Congress extends the tax cut.  Why is this cut important?  Businesses who spend a lot on new equipment typically do so to expand.  That means adding more jobs.  By keeping this cut in place, small businesses will have more capital on hand to hire more workers.

Other members of our delegation spoke to their representatives’ aides on related issues.

Is There Any Business Experience in the White House?

The next day, we met as a group with senior advisors on technology and small business to the President in the Eisenhower Office Building next door to the White House.  I did not realize that the President had not appointed a single small business owner to his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, led by GE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt.  Apparently, he had the opportunity to do so - several Members of Congress had nominated a fellow CompTIA member - but it didn’t happen.  This point, among others, created an energized discussion. While the advisors were very welcoming with our feedback, the meeting reinforced my impression that there is an shortage of business experience among the President’s staff.  Some understand the needs of small business, many do not.

Me (Raj Khera) in front of Eisenhower Office Building next door to White House

Lobbying is a Process

I was very glad to have participated in this lobbying effort. It made me feel that I was working toward solutions rather than complaining about the problems.  The goal of meeting with Congress was to create more awareness of issues that are important to small technology firms.  The issues are often the same across most small companies.  With the lobbying landscape dominated by large firms with resources to push their interests forward, it is important that small business owners unite in a voice to shed light on legislation that affects us. After all, we employ over 50% of the U.S. workforce.

If you could tell your Member of Congress something, what would it be? Write to Congress and share it in the comments below.

Using Twitter for business is a powerful and effective way to reach a large audience with valuable, useful content. Unfortunately, many business owners think that their Twitter content should be advertising messages that say "Buy My Stuff," as long as it fits within the limitations of 140 characters or less.

Constructing effective business tweets is much more than just telling your followers to buy your stuff, or exclaiming how great your product or service is. Most of the time, the content you post should benefit your readers, give them something of value, and be interesting.

Here are a few tips to help use Twitter for your business and create interesting business-related tweets that your audience will gravitate towards.

Re-Tweet Other Valuable Posts

One of the easiest ways to update your Twitter business content is to simply re-tweet relevant posts. Be sure you follow other valuable Twitter accounts within your industry and monitor that content. You'll be surprised at how often you like what another business has to say about an important and relevant topic.

Take advantage of those great business tweets and re-tweet them, maybe with a brief thought of your own attached to it.

You can also re-tweet something your customers say. Perhaps in 140 characters a customer shouts your praise or even posts a link to a picture with your product. Feel free to re-tweet those as well. There's no harm in sharing a customer testimony.

Create Shortened URL Links

There will be times you will want to include a link to other websites within your tweet. One of the best Business Twitter tips to come around is the invention of the shortened URLs.

Use a service such as Bit.ly or TinyURL.com. These free services can provide you with valuable service that helps you shorten, share, and even track your links. Simply paste a longer URL into their appropriate field, click "shorten," and you turn a lengthy URL into a manageable character length to help you add more valuable small business Twitter content with each post.

Link to a New Article on Your Website

Of all Twitter tips, one of the most used is the simple link to a new blog post or article on your website. Even after you have posted your new article on your own website, that becomes valuable small business Twitter content.

Shorten that blog URL and update your small business Twitter account with a brief teaser. You'll want to post the link more than once, but don't over do it. Perhaps a few times a day for a few days could spark the interest of your various followers. That way, if a follower missed it, she can catch your post the next day.

Link to an Outside Article

Don't forget to share other interesting articles or blogs. Part of your Twitter tips list is to monitor the Internet for content pertinent to your industry. Use Google updates to give you a notice when something of importance is newly published on the web. When you find something you think your customers and followers would like, shorten that URL and post it on your business' Twitter account.

Post a Quote

Using your handy famous quote guide, or even an easy-to-find quote resource on the web, look for famous quotes that pertains to your industry. It could be a little ditty about business innovation from Thomas Edison or motivational quotes from Tony Robbins, decide what your audience would respond to the most. The best Twitter tips policy is to always attribute the quote to the individual, of course.

Ask a Question

When using Twitter for business purposes, one of the best content ideas to hit the Twitter fields is simply posing a question to your followers. A question not only gives you great intellectual content, but it stimulates discussion and replies from your followers.

You might ask for opinions on a recent news article. Ask how they have used your product recently or even what they would like to see improved upon.

Small business Twitter content in the form of a question helps you monitor results, see who is reading your updates and posts, and how many replies and re-tweets you get.

If you are a small business owner who operates a business with multiple physical locations, consider yourself lucky. Sometimes a small business grows to the point that the logical next step is creating a presence in more than one geographic location. However, there can be problems with employee motivation and morale with this type of business set up.

The reasons for operating in multiple locations are many. You could be a local restaurant or style salon that starts a chain store or two in other diverse parts of your city. Or you could be a business with an industrial location that manufactures your goods, another retail location that sells them, and a third location to house your office and administration needs.

Whatever the case for having multiple locations, your staff and employees can suffer from being separated and lose that necessary interaction that makes a cohesive and solid company culture.

So what can you do to keep your company unified and share a common culture? Here are a few helpful tips:

Write a Weekly Staff Letter

Having multiple offices can have an isolating effect on staff, even if they are in the same city. Having the main leadership in a distant office with irregular visits or communication can make employees feel like they don't matter or that they just don't make a difference.

If your business has multiple locations, consider writing a weekly staff letter. Hearing from the "Big Cheese" on a regular basis can keep morale high, and your words of encouragement will be very welcome.

Create a Company Intranet

Just because your company operates on separate and multiple geographic locations doesn't mean you can't have a unified computer network. Consider publishing a company-wide intranet that is only accessible by employees logged onto your network.

Your business intranet can have a section for each of your departments. Publish updates and highlights from different stores. Keep a photo directory of employees, and keep employees equally abreast of company news and events.

Hold Friendly Competitions

There is nothing like a friendly competition to spur imagination and enthusiasm among employees in different locations. Consider having a decorating competition during the holidays. Or even a sales competition between your chain locations. And don't forget to organize a softball or other sporting tournament between location employees at the company picnic.

Be Consistent with Policies

Be sure you keep consistent HR policies among your multiple business locations. How does it look if employees at one location get to go home early on Fridays while other offices are working until 5pm and beyond?

Sure, you have to take into consideration the needs of the location. For instance, you may have a manufacturing location that works both day and swing shift or even multiple restaurant locations that are open until 2am. Of course, it's important to set the hours of each office location and keep them.

However, work hours are just an example. Other policies such as attendance, time off requests, holidays (or holiday pay), etc., are just as important.

Form Traditions

Why not create traditions that create a sense of family and unity? It could be something as simple as organizing a happy hour meetup one Friday a month. Keeping the company picnic tradition each summer. A quarterly blood drive. A holiday party with carolers. Or better yet, forming a caroling group of company singers. This is a category where you can let your imagination run.

Company-wide Celebrations

If you have a reason to celebrate, be sure all employees at all locations get to participate. For instance,for your 10 year company anniversary, you want to provide a catered lunch to all employees. Coordinate the catering to all locations, not just the main headquarters. And avoid jealousy by getting fine cuisine catering at home base and sending sandwiches to the satellite shops. Provide the same quality meal to everyone.

Your business is not just selling products or services. It is made up of a company culture consisting of your valued employees and staff. Be sure you take necessary steps to keep your small business culture unified if you operate in more than one location.