As a small business owner and representative, Shaw shares his views on Georgia's business climate and his family's farming history.
Rep. Jason Shaw is making history with his olive farm in
Georgia: He is one of the first American olive growers east of the Mississippi
River since the 1800s, when Thomas Jefferson experimented with growing olives.
Shaw opened Georgia Olive Farms in 2009 with the intent to
produce local olive oil and capitalize on the local food movement in Georgia.
“We’ve been in the farming business several generations in my family, but we
were mainly limited to the more traditional crops like cotton and peanuts and
soybeans. We decided to try to get into this olive oil business. It’s a very
exciting project to be a part of, and it’s something new so there’s a lot to
learn.”
Shaw says his business helped prepare him for the state
legislature and a role on the Louisiana’s Small Business Committee. This
background has given him a unique understanding of the issues small business
owners care about most.
“In many ways, you’re dealing with things you’ve already got
some knowledge of because in many cases it’s the same things you’ve been
through yourself from running your own business,” Shaw says. “Quite frankly, I
couldn’t imagine being an effective member of the type of committee if I hadn’t
been a small business owner.”
The business climate in Georgia has consistently been ranked as
one of the best states to do business in the U.S. In 2014, Site Selection picked Georgia as the No. 1
business climate in America.
“Georgia’s got a good business climate, but there are always
more things we can do,” Shaw says.
Specifically, Shaw notes that regulations and tax requirements
have reached an all-time high, leaving business owners on their own to
understand their obligations with fewer resources to focus on business.
“I think the more we can do to try to ease up on some of these
unnecessary burdens, the better off we will all be,” he says. “If we can do
that, then that will allow small business owners to spend more of their
resources on growing their businesses and hiring more employees. That helps us
all.”
In his efforts to make Georgia a better place for small business,
Shaw considers NFIB a strong ally.
“As a legislator, I would say that NFIB has an even greater
role in shaping my beliefs and my actions,” Shaw says. “For me, just having a
background and knowing a lot about running a small business makes it a natural
fit to work really closely with NFIB.”
