Cocktails with Founder of the Small Business Initiative

Yesterday afternoon I met with Mark Schreiber for cocktails in Noblesville, Indiana. Mark is a former Marketing Director with the Libertarian Party. During his tenure with the LP, he developed what has become the Small Business Initiative ("SBI").

The SBI is an effort to reach out and become the political party of the small business constituency. Mark determined in his research that a large number of Libertarians tend to be small business owners, so therefore it is a natural constituency for the LP to represent in the political process.

At the State Chairs' Conference in Houston, Texas in 2003, Mark asked for the small business owners to raise their hands. Most everybody in the room rose their hands. The room was full of state chairs or their designees, as well as several members of the Libertarian National Committee. Mark's point was made - let's reach out to small business owners first because that's who we are. We already speak their language and understand how government is stifling their freedoms and abilities to make the lives of Americans much better.

Efforts to implement the SBI are well underway in Missouri, Indiana and Ohio. Other states are interested in it, and I'm sure there are other efforts out there to implement it of which I'm not aware.