small business activist

Why Independent Businesses Must Do More Than Donate

October 25, 2010 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

RG4N worked to keep Austin Neighborhood & Small Independent Business friendly.

Next month, it will be four years since I became the Business Liaison Chair for Responsible Growth for Northcross (RG4N).

I chose to get involved because I am a business owner, a small business activist and I live and work in the area.

Last night was the VIP opening of the more neighborhood-sized WalMart on Anderson Lane in Austin, Texas. The RG4N board was invited and several of us went including the original President, Paige Hill.

Our efforts to stop the supercenter were not about size as much as about the impact of that size. That impact includes traffic, litter, security, safety issues for those with disabilities, crime, air and water quality. It was also about the impact on locally owned stores that do not fare well with a big box, especially a WalMart, nearby. [Read more…]

Adequate Government Brings Neighbors & Businesses Together

July 31, 2010 By Jan Triplett 2 Comments

There must be a better way to bring neighbors and businesses together. And, I went tonight to see if I could find someone to lead the way and what an adequate government could do.

Former Houston Mayor Bill White is running for TX Governor.

I was invited by Bijoy Goswami of Bootstrap Austin to attend an event sponsored by the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) in Austin that was billed as an “Intimate Conversation with Bill White”. Bill White, former mayor of Houston, is running against Rick Perry for Texas Governor this fall. It turns out that White is an honorary EO member.

It was intimate as promised. I was about two feet away from the man who started by saying that he was pleased to be here for this “job interview” which brought some chuckles. In his prepared remarks, he said if he were “hired”, he would run the state like a customer-centered business. He would focus on what people want, not what the state wanted to “sell”. Sounds pretty good.

When Q&A time came, I asked Mayor White a question about how he viewed the state’s role in something that is near and dear to my heart: the role of government especially in hard economic times when there are tough decisions to be made. [Read more…]

4 Concerns about the City of Austin’s March Small Business Summit

April 22, 2010 By Jan Triplett 1 Comment

City of Austin Seal

I would like to congratulate Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and the City Council for holding its first Small Business Summit in March.

Forty of us were invited by Council Members and the Austin Independent Business Alliance to come and give our thoughts on the major ways the City could address business owners concerns. I was invited to participate by Council Member Laura Morrison, who was the former President of the Austin Neighborhoods Association among her other achievements. [Read more…]