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Promoting Independent Businesses
If you own your own independent business, there are two
organizations that hopefully your are already aware of. They are
doing great work promoting small, locally owned independents by
promoting community and government involvement. It takes all of
us, working together, to improve our communities and the local
business environment.
The National Federation of Independent Businesses helps
individual business owners with planning, taxes, and legislative
matters. They have representatives in all 50 states and in D.C.
I visit their site often for advice and articles. I guarantee
that you will find several useful items of information within
their site.
The American Independent Business Alliance, based in Bozeman,
MT, promotes independents buy helping business owners form IBAs,
or Independent Business Alliances. These alliances in turn
promote community involvement, the best example being the annual
America Unchained Day, which takes place every November, the
Saturday before Thanksgiving. They show their communites the
power of "putting your money where your house is".
I urge all independent business owners to join NFIB and look
into starting an IBA. I am in the process of doing both. We need
to team up for our communities and independent business owners.
Make a difference as a consumer as well. You do have choices. A
good place to start is by watching Independent America, a
documentary about a married couple searching for Independent
America and filming the results. It's a real eye-opener.
About the author:
Jason Gober is the owner and founder of Independent Business
Online (www.myibol.com). He can be reached at jgober@myibol.com