After the manufacturer component was out of the way, the phone case project seemed much easier. To be certain, a lot of work remained to be done, but the pathway was clear — finish the website, hear back from our customers, and start selling.
On the legislative part, things were more complex. We had had an informative meeting with our local representative months ago, but despite him always being polite and helpful, he oftentimes didn’t get back to us for weeks at a time. I felt slightly frustrated, but decided to retrace the steps of what had gone wrong. Our local representative was focused on developing business and regulating taxation, not health or restaurants or allergies. He was kind enough to meet with us, but it wasn’t worth the sustained effort to constantly help us — our goals were simply too far apart. Suddenly, it became clear what we had to do — we had to find not just any representative, but someone who cares just as much about allergies as we do. We contacted an allergy organization in Hartford, our state capital, who had worked on legislation to mandate allergy training in restaurants, and they quickly put us in touch with a state senator, Robin Comey, whose kid suffered from bad allergies and who had years of experience in the restaurant industry. And that’s how our legislative project restarted.
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