What Is A Lobbyist & Does Your Business Need One?
A lobbyist is a professional that works to help influence political decisions on behalf of individuals or organizations. In essence, they can help your business lobby for different policies, actions, or decisions by the government. You work together to enact change that doesn’t just benefit your business, it benefits industries and the wider picture as well.
There are plenty of famous lobbyists throughout the years, but current President Joe Biden’s son is perhaps the most well-known right now. It’s estimated that a large part of Hunter Biden’s net worth came from his time as a lobbyist. Naturally, lobbyists need to have an understanding of politics, but does your business need one? Some businesses won’t need a lobbyist at all, but yours could. Here are some things to consider:
Are there any roadblocks in your way?
Many industries will have numerous roadblocks that can stop businesses from doing important things. The healthcare industry is a fantastic example of this, with all sorts of rules and regulations determining what businesses can or can’t do. If you run a company that develops new healthcare technology or products, you may need a lobbyist to help fight for new regulations – or for existing ones to change – allowing you to carry out your important work to its full potential.
Effectively, this is one of the key uses of a lobbyist for businesses. They can help you promote different rules, regulations, or actions that the government can take to remove roadblocks. Of course, you have to prove why these roadblocks need to be changed or removed. If you can do this, your lobbyist will do everything they can to help you get the desired outcome.
Do you want to raise awareness about something?
Similarly, lobbyists are great at shining a light on particular things within businesses or industries. They bring awareness to situations, ensuring that politicians and the government know they’re happening. As a result, they can lobby for changes that help a particular issue or cause.
One perfect example of this is climate change. Your business may be a massive advocate for climate change , which is fantastic. You’ve carried out your own research, demonstrating that things need to change within your industry. You want sanctions or regulations to be put in place that demand companies follow certain rules. Your company might be the only one that’s doing certain things to reduce its carbon footprint. As such, you know this is nowhere near enough to help battle climate change . So, having a lobbyist on your side can help you raise awareness about this. You present your findings to politicians and campaign for change. If you’re successful, it could mean new regulations are put in place to reduce carbon emissions throughout your industry.
Of course, climate change isn’t the only issue. What about things like the gender pay gap? If this is a cause your business is keen to shine a light on, a lobbyist can help you fight for change by pushing the government to introduce fair waging policies.
The point is that, if your business has a cause it’s fighting for, you could benefit from working with a lobbyist or a lobbying firm.
Are there lots of laws and regulations in your industry?
Finally, a lobbyist can be very useful if your industry is packed full of laws and regulations. We already mentioned the healthcare industry, but other i ndustries with lots of regulations include insurance, oil & gas, utilities, and investments. These laws exist to help regulate the industry and ensure businesses aren’t doing anything wrong. However, they can be extremely hard for you to understand or keep updated with.
In this sense, a lobbyist can help you understand all of these regulations. They can keep you updated, while also providing a line to governing bodies to explain what you need to do and why you need to do it. This can help your business maintain compliance throughout its existence.
Of course, if you are going through these regulations with a lobbyist, and don’t like the look of some or feel they should be changed, you can work with them to create a campaign to change them. At this point, you’re back at the first point we made!
Don’t worry, your business doesn’t need a lobbyist. There are only a few instances where you can benefit from working with one, so be aware of what your company does and the industry you’re in. If you feel like you can benefit from working one – and help exact some real change – your best bet is to search for and contact a lobbying firm.
