If you’re a business owner or entrepreneur, networking should be at the top of your list of priorities to help your business grow. In the business world you quickly realize that often, more doors open for you not based on what you do, but who you’re doing it with. Knowing the right people and circulating your name into the right circles will provide many networking opportunities for you to make your business well-known.
If you own a young business or have recently relocated to a new area, it’s important to start your networking journey by connecting with your local community. One of the best ways to do this is getting hooked up with your local chamber of commerce. Membership in the local chamber offers promotional perks, exclusive advertising and networking options, and additional exposure for your company or organization.
Consider the following information from the TJE American Business Magazine:
Being active in the local chamber of commerce is an effective business strategy overall. It’s 29 percent more effective for communicating to consumers that a company uses good business practices and 26 percent more effective for communicating that a business is reputable.
If a company shows that it’s highly involved in its local chamber (e.g., sits on the chamber board), consumers are 12 percent more likely to think that its products stack up better against its competition.
When a consumer thinks that a company’s products stack up better against the competition because the company is highly involved in its local chamber of commerce, it is because he or she assumes that the company is trustworthy, involved in the community and is an industry leader.
Joining your local chamber offers you great opportunities to connect with your peers, potential audience and people who need your services by exposing you to the chamber’s network (which is probably bigger than yours). Being a chamber member also gives you more credibility within those circles of prospective associates, clients and buyers. According to a 2012 study conducted by the Schapiro Group, 49% of consumers were more likely to think favorably of a local business if it was a member of the local chamber and 80% were more likely to purchase a product or service from a chamber member.
Social Advisors is a proud member of the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce. Through our membership, we are constantly exposed to great networking events, fundraisers, workshops, and other activities, all with the aim of connecting and educating local business owners. We get the opportunity to interact with people JUST LIKE US who share the same ideas, worries and dreams for building our community of businesses. We get great insight, support and knowledge from our peers, AND we get an opportunity to showcase our business to OTHER local businesses and THEIR networks (sometimes our mugs even make it on the Daytona Chamber’s Facebook page! Talk about exposure!).Grasshopper Blog writer Kaleigh Moore explains that if you’re trying to build local B2B relationships or grow a local business, the local chamber of commerce is a great place to start.
For just a few hundred dollars a year, membership in your local chamber offers numerous benefits and keeps you on top of important, ever-changing issues and trends within the community and local marketplace.
So what are YOU waiting for?
If you’re ready to get involved in your local Chamber of Commerce, check out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s handy chamber directory. Select any state from the drop-down menu and click “Search Directory,” or click any state in the U.S. map below to view a list of chambers in that state. Already doing it right? Tell us how being a local chamber member has impacted your business!!