Ten Ways Any Woman Business Owner Can Make A Difference 

The KC Council of Women Business Owners helps to make your voice heard. Educating ourselves and others about the impact of public policy advocacy on our businesses is one of our foremost goals as an organization.

1. Decide what you're most passionate about. Education? Government wastefulness? Rising taxes?  Providing healthcare to your employees? What is it that drives you up the wall and around the room? Find one issue you believe is your civic duty to help change. This is where commitment meets preparation.  It's also where the impetus for change begins. 
   
2. Know the issue and keep a file. Be informed. Know your position and why.  Research the issue in the newspapers, magazines and on the Web.  Read books related to the issue.  Build your reference files.  Date everything, compare data and build your knowledge bank.  Flex your file folders weekly. 
   
3. Become a local "expert" and be available. No one starts out as an expert on anything, but if you seek greater knowledge, over time people will seek your counsel.  Build a relationship with the media as a reliable and a credible source.  Be accurate - if you don't know the answer to an interviewer's question, find out and report back.
    
4. Write "letters to the editor" and mail frequently. Editors won't print every letter, but the more you write, the greater your opportunities for publication.  Regular letter writers that follow newspaper guidelines and hone the points of their position have an increased chance of inclusion on the opinion page.
    
5. Start a personal e-mail and/or fax list of friends. Use the multiplier effect. Just because your letter to the editor wasn't published in the newspaper doesn't mean you can't fax or e-mail it to your influential list of friends and acquaintances.  Learn to use new technology.  Fax machines and computers have come a long way in user-friendliness.
    
6.  Meet your elected officials and get acquainted. This positions you for further dialogue. Whether you voted for them or not, show respect and they'll listen to you. Then write some follow-up letters with your viewpoints. Every writer who expresses himself writes for 99 more that don't.  Officials can make important decisions based on just a few letters.
   
7. Know who is against you and why. Remember if you're for it, somebody else is against it.  Know who those people are and why they are opposing you.  Then craft your arguments to counter their objections. Be respectful of every adversary.  Sometimes your worst enemy today can be your strongest ally tomorrow.
    
8. Provide volunteer services for groups making a difference. Giving your time is sometimes the greatest help you can give to organizations that are actively working for goals you are passionate about. Stuffing letters, answering phones, manning reservation tables, and running errands are all good ways you can support the "cause."
    
9. Financially support organizations which agree with your goals. Contributing regularly to organizations that represent your beliefs and ideas is a fundamental part of being "invested" in an effort to effect change. It isn't the amount as much as the commitment. Giving money just to get on a mailing list is not the same as giving monthly to keep the lights on.
    
10. Keep positive and never give up. Once stood a great wall that divided a city and also a world. The wall stood for 28 years until a 76-year-old optimist said it must be torn down. Now countless pieces of that wall are on display in museums around the world. (The wall was in Berlin. The optimist was Ronald Reagan!)