An Advocate Can Sound Expensive—Until You Compare It to the Alternative
The cost of advocacy is only part of the equation. Weigh your policy exposure, the resources needed to monitor legislation, and the time a business owner spends managing government affairs alone.
Written by
Parker White
Imagine a company spends $20,000 per year on state government affairs. That's approximately $1,667 per month.
Now imagine a new state regulation increases the company's annual operating costs by $100,000. Or a tax change reduces its margins by several percentage points. Or a licensing change makes it substantially more difficult to enter a new market. Or a procurement rule puts the company at a disadvantage against a competitor. Or a proposed law creates a compliance requirement that requires hiring another employee.
The question isn't whether $20,000 is a lot of money. For a small business, it absolutely is.
The question is whether $20,000 is a reasonable investment to protect a business from a policy change that could cost multiples of that amount.
Sometimes the answer will be no.
But businesses should make that decision based on their actual exposure, not on the assumption that lobbying is automatically too expensive.
Consider what it would cost a business to replicate even a portion of what a professional lobbyist does. Someone has to monitor hundreds or thousands of bills, to determine which ones matter, to understand the legislative process, and to know which committee members matter.
Someone has to establish relationships with policymakers and their staff, to attend hearings and meeting, and to translate policy into business impact.
For a small business, that person is often the owner. That means time away from sales, operations, customers, employees and growth. And unlike hiring a lobbyist, that cost doesn't show up neatly on an invoice.
It shows up as the opportunity cost of the owner's time.