Page 31 - BWM Dec 2012

December 2012 | Business World Magazine | 31
jobs from franchising in their local commu-
nities and how different policies – whether
it’s taxes, health care or workforce policies –
impact IFA members.
“We work to advocate advances in those
policies, and work to remove policies that
provides too much regulation from our
perspective on the business environment of
franchising,” he says.
Their Government Relations Depart-
ment achieves this by monitoring legislative
and regulatory activity, conducting lobby-
ing and grassroots campaigns, participating
in national and local coalitions, creating fo-
rums and educational tools for experts in the
franchising community, and promoting pos-
itive relations between franchisors, franchi-
sees, and elected and appointed government
officials and employees.
Their relationship with the federal gov-
ernment has been less than helpful recently,
however, mainly due to tax rates and fran-
chisors’ inability to start-up at flexible rates.
There is an uncertainty surrounding tax rates
because they will increase at the end of 2012
if U.S. Congress doesn’t act, Haller explains.
“It’s creating a lot of apprehension from per-
spective investors and existing business own-
ers about hiring more workers or expanding
their business for next year and the years
ahead,” he says.
On the other side of the coin, a govern-
ment policy the IFA was successful in in-
fluencing was the Small Business Jobs Act
that was passed into law in 2010. They lob-
bied for higher loan limits and higher loan
guarantees as part of the bill. One of the IFA
members even attended the bill signing at
very and growth