Your Business Needs a Lobbyist. You Just Might Not Know It Yet.
Government decisions can reshape your business overnight. Learn why a lobbyist belongs alongside your lawyer and accountant and why advocacy is more accessible and affordable than you might think.
Written by
Parker White
For most business owners, the list of people they know they need is familiar: an accountant, a lawyer, an insurance broker, a banker, maybe a marketing firm.
There is another professional every business increasingly needs: someone who understands government and can advocate for your business when policy decisions threaten its interests or create new opportunities.
That person is a lobbyist.
The word “lobbyist” sometimes carries a Washington-centric image: enormous corporations, six-figure retainers and backroom meetings on Capitol Hill. But that picture misses where much of the action affecting businesses actually happens.
34% of executives said government actions put 10% or more of their operating income at stake. Laws and regulations were among the government actions most frequently identified as affecting company value. Even more shocking, McKinsey found that 71% of executives believed companies should proactively and regularly engage with government, yet only 43% said their companies actually did so.
For businesses of every size, government is one of the most consequential stakeholders in the room, and state government is increasingly where the rules are being written.
In 2009, McKinsey surveyed 1,167 executives across industries and regions about the relationship between business and government.
The finding was striking: executives said “government was more likely to affect their companies’ economic value than any stakeholder other than customers.”
A business may spend millions of dollars optimizing its sales funnel for a one-percentage-point increase in conversion. It may hire accountants to minimize its tax liability. It may retain attorneys to protect it from legal risk.
Yet a change in a statute, regulation, tax policy, permitting requirement, labor rule or licensing standard can alter the economics of the entire business.
And unlike a customer, government does not simply decide whether to buy from you. Government sets the very rules under which you operate.
Everyone needs a lawyer, everyone needs an accountant, and whether you know it or not, everyone needs a lobbyist. The good news is that lobbying is more accessible and affordable than you think.