How Small Business Can Influence Policymakers

Spotting Hot Topics

Small-business owners, who already have enough on their mind, have to know how to pick their battles, though.

Caughran advises signing up for NFIB emails and scanning them every now and then for whatever issue you care about most, whether it's health care, workers' comp or something else. Then call NFIB and let the organization know you're interested in getting involved in the issue in some way.

Newman recommends establishing an advisory committee made up of five to 10 diverse business leaders in your own community, a group that can discuss local issues.

"These people can not only give me more clients, they can look at signs of change in the community and tell you what's coming down the pike," Newman says. "Restaurant owners are especially a good indicator of how the economy's going because people eat out a lot less when money's tight."

To have a say in what initiatives the NFIB lobbies for, Kabateck encourages business owners across the country to vote on their annual ballot for the issues most important to them because that's how the organization determines the causes it will fight for each year.