Progressive state lobbyist, drafter of laws, developer of innovative public policies, startup founder, attorney, adviser to founders of charities, work well with those who want to change the world
A few options: increase your prices, lower your costs and/or increase your volume. Sounds like you've got a low-margin growing business, but as you can see, it's not what you make, it's what you keep. A staff of six on a $300,000/annual budget doesn't leave much room for profit. You might want to lower your head count. If not, then drop your lowest-margin services altogether. And raise your prices on your mid-margin services to make them high-margin. If you lose the customers, then that frees you up to focus on your high-margin services. Happy to go over any of this in more detail on a call.
The way you become a state legislator is you get more votes in the primary election than anyone else and then you get more votes in the general election than the other nominee. Hiring staff, raising money and endorsements by national figures are all secondary to getting more votes. There are about 40,000 residents in each representative district. Start getting to know your neighbors. Knock on doors, every night, on behalf of other candidates or on behalf of an issue you and your community cares about. And when the incumbent decides to retire or run for a higher office, then you're in a good position to be the next legislator.
Depends. How much do you really need to build out your app? If you don't need investor money, better to avoid it. And how will you disrupt the space? I don't think there are any shortcuts to organizing.