At FBAC’s recent Annual Meeting of Members, Chairman Ken Monroe urged family business owners around the state to join the Association because “we need to be our own advocate” in Sacramento.
Now for the we-need-some-help news. Our membership is lagging. It’s a challenge to get people to come on board and we do need to continually grow membership, to keep our name visible in the Legislature.
We visit with a lot of family businesses at events like this, even going out and try to recruit people. And without exception, they all have significant concerns about the challenges the state puts in front of us to operate a healthy family business. But this is our challenge – we’ve all been guilty of this – and say, “There’s not much I can do,” or “I got too much on my plate right now. Maybe this will all work out if I just kind of close my eyes.” And I think everybody here recognizes that’s not a good strategy, and we’re going to have to help grow those members.
Let me add to your concerns, though. We at Holt joined the FBA because, like most of you, we recognize that while there are many business organizations out there, they don’t really address the needs that family businesses require because of our generational approach to perpetuating the business. They’re really much more transactional than the way we look at how we’re going to survive. And it’s also apparent we need to be our own advocate.
We cannot rely on other business organizations. To give an example. I was recently at a Sac Chamber-sponsored political event. It was a panel discussion. One of the people on the panel was Cal Chamber’s senior vice president of political affairs. And the moderator asked the question, “What has Governor Newsom done for California businesses?” The right answer would have been, “He’s done nothing at all.” The answer she gave was, “Well, he reformed PAGA.”
This is the same PAGA that, after reform, we’re seeing more lawsuits with than before reform. So, you know, our old bastion of business, the Cal Chamber, I’m not sure we can count on to go fight our battles anymore. We need to be in it ourselves.
The other trend towards why we’re on our own is that public companies, companies owned by private equity, are drifting away from California. These companies are not growing in California. There’s a big argument whether they’re leaving or not, but I can tell you they’re not growing in California. They’re slowly drifting away.
On the other hand, California family businesses stay committed to our communities, our employees, and our customers here in California. But as the public companies drift out and we have this ever-increasing tax challenge, ever-increasing regulatory challenge, they don’t care. And we do. So we have to be engaged to go make a difference in this state. And we’re asking all of you to put that need on you.
If you’re a member, I’d ask this: You probably know other family businesses. Maybe a vendor, maybe customers, maybe just friends. You need to go out and talk to them about joining, and not just talk, but put some fear into them – let them know this is not going the way we want it to go and there isn’t somebody else who’s going to come pick up the ball for us. We have to take it in our own hands.
We have some guests here today. We’d ask you to join. Think hard about joining with us.
For our sponsors out there, we really appreciate what you do as a sponsor, but your opportunity to really provide value to your clients and your customers is to get them to join.
If anybody here has some names he’d like to give us, we’re all happy to take those names and get them on the mailing list and get that going. More importantly, we’re all happy to go meet those folks and have some one-on-ones and try to scare the hell out of them to get them to join. We’re happy to go do all of that.
We will make the difference in our future. We just need to crank it up another notch to keep it going. It is really us or them, and it’s to the point where I realize now I’m taking it personally.
I saw what my forefathers did to grow a business, to be successful. I know what I’d like to leave to my successors so they can be successful, and I’d like them to have the opportunity to build a thriving business, not just watch something die, or worse than that, get pulled away from them because of all the legislative and taxation issues we have to deal with.
It’s up to us to go fight that battle. So that’s my request of everyone here. Please bring some members with us, and we’ll continue to fight the good fight.