The story of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business is often retold as some kind of personal crusade. It was that to a point, but the idea that I did anything alone would not tell the story of the hundreds of people that came out of nowhere to help me. I would have died if there was not such a strong network of supporters cheering me on and providing tangible support.
It started with members providing me with furniture which we used for at least ten years. Then every time I challenged the government on an issue, authorities came out of the woodwork and offered to help me. I had a network of experts on taxation, pensions, unemployment insurance, macroeconomic policy, competition law, labour law and so on. None of them ever charged us for their services until we were viable and able to pay our way.
Part of the reason it took so long to build a substantial support staff was trying to figure out the nature of what I was doing. The first thing I learned was that you could not represent members in one province without being in all provinces, because they all work together sharing expertise. The labour expert in one province, for example, is often developing legislation for every province. Then you discover a host of issues that are part of the agenda of both the provinces and the federal government, and you have to work both jurisdictions at the same time. Complicated.
In the 1970s I created an Advisory Committee of two well- respected members in each province whom I could use to get a personal feel for what was happening on the ground. I might, for example, have a Governor in Winnipeg, but an Advisory Committee member from Brandon that often gave me a different personal perspective on membership issues.
And these wonderful people helped me find three of our sales stars of the 1970s. It was also beneficial to bring an Advisory Council member to meet the Premier of his or her province. It gave us a stronger local presence. Note the photo of a meeting with Premier Bennett of B.C. with both the local Director and Advisory Committee member.
It was in 1978 that I figured it out, and hired a Director of Provincial Affairs, Brien Gray, to build provincial legislative offices across Canada. He served with distinction for over 36 years. It was in 1978 that we achieved our goal of 50,000 members, making us the largest small business advocacy group in the world relative to our population.
My experience reinforced what a Small Business 101 basic principle is. That the best way to judge a small firm is to investigate their network. The most successful small business owners always have the strongest networks. A small business owner is never a lone wolf.