Episode 228: Three Questions to Answer Before Allowing Your Business to "Get Political"

In light of several recent news stories that have involved the intersection of local small businesses and divisive national politics, including the stories of Masterpiece Cake Shop vs Colorado and the Red Hen vs Sara Huckabee Sanders, I thought it was time to address the subject in a podcast.

Specifically, I thought it was time to do a podcast to help local business owners think through whether or not they wanted to use their businesses to take a public stance on a divisive political issue. 

The reason I am recording this episode now is that I think that in many of the stories about this topic that have been in the news lately, possibly including those involving Masterpiece Cake Shop and the Red Hen, the business owners in question may not have fully thought thru the potential consequences of their actions before taking those actions.

I make no judgement about whether their actions were right or wrong, and I am not suggesting that local business owners should never under any circumstances take a stance on a political issue.  However, I do think that if they do take a stance, they should do it only after going through a discernment process to help them decide if it is the right thing to do for them, their business, their employees, and their customers. 

In this episode, I lay out a suggested process for doing just that, including three questions business owners should answer for themselves before deciding to "get political".