t's look at the Illinois Trucking Association and their various Premium and Gold Star Members. We find insurance agents, publishers of regulatory compliance materials and firms that make money helping members deal with regulations from government. But if the If you own a small or medium sized business and you believe that by joining an industry association they will some how help you, then you might be rather upset in the future to learn that your association acts more like a bureaucracy than an actual business operation. Some say that organizations and associations act like bureaucracies in order to deal with the government bureaucracies better. This might be so but;

Anyone who thinks that an Industry Association somehow helps the little guy, well they simply do not understand how all this really works. First thing you need to know is who is funding the association? Who are its members and who is paying its bills? If you have service vendors to the industry paying its bills then you need to be very careful, because these companies make money off the regulations in place. Parasite companies if you will - Insurance, leasing companies, on-going education firms and lawyers.

As a case study, let's take a look at a Trucking Association for instance and specifically let's look at the Illinois Trucking Association and their various Premium and Gold Star Members. We find insurance agents, publishers of regulatory compliance materials and firms that make money helping members deal with regulations from government. But if the a

peration. Some say that organizations and associations act like bureaucracies in order to deal with the government bureaucracies better. This might be so but;

Anyone who thinks that an Industry Association somehow helps the little guy, well they simply do not understand how all this really works. First thing you need to know is who is funding the association? Who are its members and who is paying its bills? If you have service vendors to the industry paying its bills then you need to be very careful, because these companies make money off the regulations in place. Parasite companies if you will - Insurance, leasing companies, on-going education firms and lawyers.

As a case study, let's take a look at a Trucking Association for instance and specifically let's look at the Illinois Trucking Association and their various Premium and Gold Star Members. We find insurance agents, publishers of regulatory compliance materials and firms that make money helping members deal with regulations from government. But if the

do not understand how all this really works. First thing you need to know is who is funding the association? Who are its members and who is paying its bills? If you have service vendors to the industry paying its bills then you need to be very careful, because these companies make money off the regulations in place. Parasite companies if you will - Insurance, leasing companies, on-going education firms and lawyers.

As a case study, let's take a look at a Trucking Association for instance and specifically let's look at the Illinois Trucking Association and their various Premium and Gold Star Members. We find insurance agents, publishers of regulatory compliance materials and firms that make money helping members deal with regulations from government. But if the

e these companies make money off the regulations in place. Parasite companies if you will - Insurance, leasing companies, on-going education firms and lawyers.

As a case study, let's take a look at a Trucking Association for instance and specifically let's look at the Illinois Trucking Association and their various Premium and Gold Star Members. We find insurance agents, publishers of regulatory compliance materials and firms that make money helping members deal with regulations from government. But if the

t's look at the Illinois Trucking Association and their various Premium and Gold Star Members. We find insurance agents, publishers of regulatory compliance materials and firms that make money helping members deal with regulations from government. But if the association is so strong why are all these regulations even there?

Simple really, you see the associations help the bigger players, larger companies and they actually lobby to put into place restrictive measures to slow the fast moving smaller entrepreneurial competitors. In reality this makes the bigger companies weak and weakens the entire industry and hurts the consumers, but that is another story. Today we are talking about Industry Associations.

Industry Associations which operate in this fashion are controlled by the bigger fish, who wish to retain control and in doing so need information from smaller fish, or entrepreneurial companies, thus anything a smaller company does within an industry association often benefits the bigger companies and the Machiavellian Leadership of that organization.

For instance no independent Trucker ever got rich by joining a Trucking Association, chances are they were run off the road on the way to their reward for their many years of hard work. Not asking for anything