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Speaking Out
Chris Essel: Creating a Small-Business Friendly Los Angeles
By Rieva Lesonsky
Unless perhaps they’re a Kennedy or a Bush, most people aren’t born into politics, instead it’s something they intentionally choose to pursue. Most of us can’t imagine living life under a microscope, shaking hands with strangers and never losing your cool in public (even when provoked). But despite all that, some are called to serve.
That’s why Chris Essel is running for Los Angeles City Council. Certainly her background as a music major in college or her first several jobs as an accountant were not obvious paths to running for office. But while working for (and rising through the ranks at) Paramount Pictures, Chris Essel got a taste for what it means to make a difference.
While at Paramount, Essel created mentoring and internship programs for the city’s youth. She was appointed to the Community Redevelopment Agency board by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and then to Commission chair by Mayor Richard Riordan. While there she led the efforts to revitalize Hollywood Boulevard and turn it into a destination spot for locals and tourists alike.
When she left Paramount in December Essel knew she wanted to stay in public policy and “be of service to help create change and give back to my city.” Essel acknowledges that “the city has tremendous problems” and thinks the city’s business community can help make it better.
Essel is a big supporter of small business. She thinks the city has to change the way it treats business owners, and labels the current system “fairly dysfunctional.” Essel decries the lack of clout business owners wield because “small businesses don’t have advocates to help them” get what they need. One of Essel’s goals is to “change the culture in City Hall” concerning how they deal with small businesses.
Essel doesn’t just talk in broad platitudes like many politicians. She has plans, real goals in mind, including:
- Make City Hall more small-business friendly
- Tax reform—currently businesses are taxed on their gross revenues, regardless of their expenses
- Create an Economic Development Department, with a small business advocacy unit and personnel to help small business owners work thru the issues
- Recruit businesses to relocate to Los Angeles and keep existing Los Angeles businesses from leaving the city
- Develop a 10-point plan for helping small businesses “survive and thrive in Los Angeles”
Small and mid-sized businesses already play a vital role in Los Angeles. Essel wants to help these businesses and those still emerging take it to the next level, because she believes you can’t “tax your way out” of the problems we currently face; you have to “increase revenues.” One way (among many) to do that, says Essel, is to help bring the entertainment industry back to the city.
For decades that industry has been a prime generator and source of business employment in Southern California. However, in the last several years, many film and television projects have fled Los Angeles for more business-friendly cities. Essel , who served on the California Film Commission, says too many people don’t realize that the “big studios are only a small piece of the film industry.”
Essel wants to “fight to get films back” to Los Angeles, because the overwhelming majority of businesses involved in the industry are not the big studios, but small and mid-sized businesses that serve the industry like catering companies, accounting firms, dry cleaners, fashion, furniture and set designers, hundreds of retailers and thousands of freelancers. In fact many of the people involved in filmmaking themselves, like directors, screenwriters, production companies, stylists and scores more run their own entrepreneurial enterprises.
Women business owners are of interest to Essel as well. She wants to work closely with the city’s WBO to address the issues they see as the barriers to their success. Essel particularly wants to “increase the capacity for women business owners to apply for and receive” government contracts.
Essel’s vision for Los Angeles is one of a city where small businesses can thrive in a business-friendly environment. She believes that there are so many issues in Los Angeles and all too often the focus is on solving other challenges. But Essel strongly believes that “someone needs to make [small business] the issue of the day” because a revitalized, energized small-business community in Los Angeles will lead to not only a flourishing city, but a more prosperous California.
Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. A nationally known speaker and authority on entrepreneurship, Rieva has been covering America's entrepreneurs for nearly 30 years. Follow Rieva on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Rieva. Visit SmallBizDaily.com to read more of Rieva's insights on small business and entrepreneurship.
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