perspective on the business environment
of franchising,” he says.
“Their Government Relations Depart-
ment achieves this by monitoring
leg islative and regulator y activity,
conducting lobbying and grassroots
campaigns, participating in national and
local coalitions, creating forums and
educational tools for experts in the
franchising community, and promoting
positive relations between franchisors,
franchisees, and elected and appointed
government officials and employees.
Their relationship with the federal
government has been less than helpful
recently, however, mainly due to tax rates
and franchisors’ 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 perspective investors
and existing business owners 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
government policy the IFA was successful in
influencing was the Small Business Jobs Act
that was passed into law in 2010. They
lobbied for higher loan limits and higher loan
guarantees as part of the bill. One of the IFA
members even attended the bill signing at
theWhiteHouse. “It increased the loan limits
and loan guarantees in the programs that are
used by a great number of new franchise
May 2014
| BusinessWorld | 89
