When was your small business founded?
1986 in Wisconsin [later, retired and moved to Texas].
How did you become a small business owner?
I got fired. Best thing that ever happened to me. Without that I would only have known what it was to be an employee, not a business owner. I would have always perceived the riskless paycheck and never known the risky receivable because I had never owned my own business. Had that not happened I would have only known how to be an employee and not what it took to be an owner.
How many employees do you have?
None. I did my best to keep government out of my business. I contracted, never hired.
Why did you become an NFIB member?
The state of Wisconsin declared my IT consulting business to be too small to do business with. I had to do business under a business (a larger consulting company) that was under a business (the contract management company) that was doing business with the state of Wisconsin, along with their “piece-of-the-action” cuts. I joined NFIB because I thought it was a good organization to be a part of. Eventually, I joined the leadership council (with NFIB Wisconsin).
In what ways has NFIB helped your small business?
To the extent I wanted a solution to my specific problem, it didn’t. This (idea of some small businesses being) too small to do business with the state of Wisconsin still exists. However, NFIB is a pit bull on issues critical to business, whether or not (those issues are) mine, so it’s of value to me even in retirement. Although I became a member to help me, I remain a member to help us.
What’s the biggest challenge that faces Texas small business owners like you?
Governments that create laws that manage, not laws that lead. Don’t legislate what to do, legislate what to accomplish. Government that’s proud of its reflection in the mirror shall only have a government definition of “us”, not an American one. “Government” and “American” are not synonyms. They’re two different things. When government decides what’s best for America rather than allowing Americans to decide (what’s best), then it considers us children to be contained and controlled, not adults allowed to achieve success through learning from failures. Americans are willing and capable of taking the risks to achieve global success. Government is unwilling to allow us.
I’m retired. Now, I’m trying to teach those who will become voters what those who have been voters have created by their votes of “yes”, “no”, and, regrettably, “I don’t care”.
What advice would you give to new NFIB members to make the most of their membership?
When you buy a membership, be a member, not just an observer. That doesn’t mean going to NFIB events. It doesn’t mean becoming an NFIB recruiter. It means knowing and understanding your business peers; their frustrations, their pains, their joys, their failures, their successes. It’s using your membership to leverage your knowledge of yourself and your peers by bringing that to NFIB to help move the government needle away from adversarial and toward partner. Away from contain and control and toward serve. See your membership as an investment. There’s ROI (return on investment) there if you work to generate it. Your membership puts you into a club of small businesses across America. There’s a tremendous volume of knowledge available. Invest in that.
What could help your industry grow?
Teach the bottom of your organization chart what the top knows so that the government (the bottom ranks) “hire” (through its electoral votes) knows what they know, not perceives what they perceive. There’s a lack of understanding of what it takes to produce a paycheck. Money comes from somewhere. Businesses don’t print money. There’s a process of understanding that isn’t taking place at the bottom of the organization chart. And government reflects the perceptions of those at the bottom of the chart. I’m all for perceptions out and knowledge in.
If Texas lawmakers could grant you one legislative wish for your business, what would it be?
Don’t be proud of the number of laws you’ve created. The purpose of a law is to contain and control. Wisdom is containing and controlling as little as necessary, not as much as possible. America’s greatness comes from Americans, not America’s governments. Don’t contain and control our greatness.
Do you have a small business hero or mentor that helped shape your entrepreneurialism?
One? No. Jack Welch for teaching me (the differences) of fair versus kind. Harvard Business Review for the many (business experts) who have been published, whether I agreed with them or not. Claude (a Wisconsin farmer) for teaching me the value of human intellect in overcoming elected government ignorance. My customers for teaching me the difference between geek wants and business needs. And most important, my wife Jill [who died recently] for teaching me joie de vivre.
