The Accidental Entrepreneur
Corrected on 5/22/08: An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified the Institute for Justice.
How much do entrepreneurs need to fear regulation? It turns out that you can be punished for being an entrepreneur inadvertently. This is an unbelievable story out of the Miami area:
A man who said he thought he was just helping a woman in need is accused of running an illegal taxi service. Miami-Dade County's Consumer Services Department has slapped Rosco O'Neil with $2,000 worth of fines, but O'Neil claims he is falsely accused.
Hat tip: Antiplanner blog.
Miami's established taxicab services have less competition to worry about because there's a law against unregistered taxi services. That makes it expensive for new entrepreneurs to get their feet in the door. But that's not true everywhere. For example, in Denver, a small group of cabdrivers was able to found a cab company by getting the state licensing laws overturned in court. The Institute for Justice, the public-interest law firm that represented them in that case, keeps track of many of the other instances around the country where established businesses benefit from local regulations that nip start-up businesses in the bud.
Tags: transportation | entrepreneurship | law | Miami
Tools: 
Share
|
| Comments (2) | Print
Reader Comments
Seeking Advice for getting my business started...
I have a great idea for a business, but I always get stopped by my fear that I'll fail. Anyone have any advice for how to get over that?
Protection you may not need
Some magazine (maybe USNWR) recently ran an article about how the requirements for licensing too many occupations has become a new "unionism" raising prices for licensed services and protecting existing players from new competition more than ostensibly "protecting the public".
They cited that some locales even license "flower arrangers." When you hear of some new business or occupational license requirement, always ask yourself who demanded it. Chances are fair that it wasn't the government itself, but rather an outside "professional" group doing the lobbying for such things.
advertisement
