Open For Business

One of the things that I have been focused on is the plight of small business people in the Old Pueblo. It really got my attention when I was doing the business roundtables with our city council members and government officials. The main concern I heard from business people was that our development services department was a stumbling block rather than a stepping stone. I spoke to the city council and they voted to give Ernie Duarte (the head of the department) the authority to make the changes in the culture and policies to become business friendly. During that process I kept wondering who stands up for small business people in our community. The silence was deafening. I joined the board of Arizona Small Business Association this year. ASBA has over 2500 members statewide (500 in Tucson) and has been a leading advocate for small business at the state level. Joe Higgins (Wake Up Tucson) and I made a presentation at the last board meeting concerning our lack of advocacy and meaningful events for small business in Tucson. The good news is that ASBA will now be taking that role in Tucson! Joe is forming a committee that will get input from small business people about their concerns. These will be reviewed and position statements put together for the approval of our CEO Donna Davis. She will represent ASBA to our government officials and bureaucracies. Small business now has a real advocate in Tucson. ASBA already has strong membership numbers, but these numbers will grow as small business people realize who is representing them. ASBA will also be doing forums that will keep business people informed on government regulations and policies that affect us. If you are a small business person I urge you to contact Suzette Colley at ASBA’s Tucson office and become a member. ASBA also has great membership benefits that offset the nominal membership fee. We now have a voice and would like to add yours to our chorus to change Tucson and get our economic engines running! Here is Suzettes contact info:

suzettec@asba.com