Want government to work for you? Get on the bus

The hoary political saw has it that you're either on the bus or off the bus. Some of us, though, are not even aware there is a bus.

I had occasion in recent days to peruse a few donor lists required of office holders by the Federal Election Commission. The exercise drove home the point that, to continue my analogy, some of us are tooling around the political landscape in limousines. Money gains access, and if you're a significant donor to successful political candidates you can have your viewpoint chauffeur-driven home.

But the rest of us beer-budget constituents are not without recourse.

Without wishing to be derogatory in any way, I met one of the bus drivers Sept. 28.

Brad Douglas was in Springfield recently. He's the regional advocate for small business for the four-state area that includes Missouri. The Office of Advocacy is an adjunct to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Douglas began in the Kansas City-based position in March after a stint in Washington, D.C., with the SBA.

His job is descriptive: Douglas advocates for small business. By disseminating information to small-business owners and listening to the concerns of those same people and conveying them upstream, Douglas performs his duty.

The government the SBA's local branch office and the Office of Advocacy in particular offers a wealth of information useful to the conduct of your business. My concern here, however, is with the flow of information in the other direction. Get your message conveyed upstream to the government.

This is particularly useful for southwest Missouri entrepreneurs. To an even greater degree than elsewhere in the nation, small business in these parts is truly small business