Welcome to the show. I'm Anita Campbell, the host of Small Business Trends Radio and I am so glad that you could join us today. We have an excellent show, with not one but two featured guests today. Our show is called "Speaking with a Big Voice." And it's all about how advocacy is really not someone else' problem, but how it can result in a bigger bottom line for small businesses. Now normally at this time in the show we do something called the Today's Trend segment, where I talk about trends in the small business market. But in light of the fact that we have two guests with us today on a very special topic, I'm not going to do the Today's Trend show. We're just going to jump right in and we'll start talking about advocacy.

If you would like to read about trends, do visit the main website, Small Business Trends at www.smallbiztrends.com. With that, let me welcome our featured guests today. I'll introduce them one by one. First we have Steve Millard, executive director of the 16,000 member northeast-Ohio based small business organization called COSE. Steve is executive director of the Council of Smaller Enterprises, or COSE, he is chief operating officer of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, which is the primary voice for businesses in Greater Cleveland, Ohio. Steve serves on the board of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, the National Small Business Association, the President's Council Foundation, and the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture. So welcome to the show. Steve.

Thanks, Anita. Glad to be here today.

Also with us is Louis LaCotta, who is chairman of the board of COSE. Lou is founder and president of his own law firm, LaCotta and Associates and Company. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, the professional fellowship program at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management, and Cleveland State University. So welcome, Lou!

Thank you.

All right. Well, Steve, I'd like to start out if we could by just having you tell our listeners a little bit more about COSE, the organization...
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