NFIB

Baton Rouge Business Owner Helps Shape NFIB Agenda
04/29/2002

More than 23 years ago, Dick Juneau took the plunge and started a small business specializing in industrial sales, service and warehousing. As the years passed and his business grew, he realized that there's nothing small about the role the government plays in small business.

While he hasn't been directly affected by many of the onerous regulations placed on small business, he realizes the devastating effect such rules can have on business owners and their employees. At the urging of his son-in-law, who is also a small business owner and NFIB member, Juneau joined NFIB more than 10 years ago.

"It seemed like a perfect fit," he remembers. "NFIB feels passionately about the same issues as I do. They share my interest in taking the good system that we have here in America and making it better."

Since then, he has worked tirelessly to fight inequities in the tax system, repeal the death tax and limit big government. As chairman of Louisiana's Leadership Council, Juneau is active in the fight to protect the interests of small businesses across the state. In 1998 and 2000, he served as a delegate to NFIB's Small Business Summit in Washington, D.C., in where he helped push the death tax issue to the forefront of NFIB's agenda.

"Small business owners identified the death tax as an important issue back in 1995. Since then NFIB has done a yeoman's job of fighting that battle and carrying the small business banner on a number of other important issues."

In addition to his involvement in NFIB, Juneau is active in other small business organizations. He currently chairs the small business council of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, and serves on the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

Quick Facts:
Name: International Manufacturers Representatives, www.imr-cmr.com
Location: Baton Rouge, La.
Founded: 1978
Number of employees: 10

Number of family employees:
Four, including myself. My wife and son-in-law have been involved for the past 15 years. My daughter got involved about five years ago.

How did you get into the business?
After I finished college, I worked as a mechanical engineer in the paper industry. I started in project engineering and moved into maintenance. Over the course of 16 years, I worked for two different companies and had worked my way up to maintenance manager at Scott Paper in Mobile, Alabama. In 1975, I left my job and formed a business with a former employee, re-building equipment for paper mills. I sold my interest in that business to my partner in 1978 to start this company. Three years later, I acquired a custom machine and repair shop and consolidated the two businesses.

When I was first thinking about going into business on my own, I asked the advice of a friend who ran his own business. He told me that when you work for someone else you have good days and bad days. On a scale of one to 10, your good days might be a seven and your bad days might be a four. When you work for yourself, the good days are a 10 and the bad days are a one. The highs are higher and the lows are lower. And instead of experiencing the highs and lows once a week, you feel them every 15 minutes or so! After nearly 24 years in business, I can tell you that he was right.

In what ways have you participated in NFIB grassroots activism?
As chairman of the NFIB/Louisiana Leadership Council, I work closely with other small business owners to fight harmful legislation. I have written legislators, made personal visits and encouraged other small business owners to take part in the political process. I also support candidates that are friends of small business.

When I became interested in taxation issues, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to participate in NFIB's Small Business Summits. Together with other small business owners from all 50 states, we set NFIB's legislative agenda by voting on the issues that are most important to us. I also attended the White House Conference on Small Business in 1995, where we ranked the death tax as the fourth most important issue to small business out of about 400 issues. Today, thanks to NFIB's hard work, the death tax is being phased out and we are working toward a permanent repeal.

What are your top legislative concerns?
I feel very strongly about the permanent repeal of the death tax. While I haven't been personally affected by it in my lifetime, I can anticipate the significant effect it will have on my family. I am also passionate about making our government smaller and more efficient, which will make it easier for small businesses to operate. We have a great system of government here in the United States, but I believe that there are many opportunities to improve it.

Why do you like being a small business owner?
I love the fact that you can fail or succeed based on your own abilities and efforts -- both big and small -- each and every day.