When a giant tree topples in the forest, it leaves a huge hole in the tree canopy but provides much needed nutrients to the fledgling trees around it. Your community may be one of the ones affected by the recent announcement of Walmart store closings and you may be bracing Read more…
Last week we passed the most popular day out of the year to look for a new job. No, really. At least according to Monster. With the holidays and busy end of year, not to mention that most companies aren’t pushing hiring as a main objective at that time either, Read more…
Whether you run a chamber, a local merchant association, or you are a local merchant, if you have dreams of creating a community where people think to shop local before running to a box store or ordering something online, you’ll need to implement social media best practices and use the following Read more…
Everyone knows local currency is the perfect gift for the people on your list but there’s one organization that is using local currency as a reward to “catch” locals following safety protocol (like good driving) and doing good deeds. The Shenandoah, Iowa Police Department, in cooperation with the Shenandoah Chamber and Read more…
Small Business Saturday, the day after Black Friday, is coming up this Saturday. It’s an important day (and weekend) for local merchants as some bring in as much as 30% of their year-round revenue just in that weekend following Thanksgiving! While that can be a real boon to the Read more…
As a chamber you probably have a larger web audience than most of your local merchants. You probably also have a more established, higher ranking website than most of them. Because of this larger audience you can help your member businesses quite a bit through web referrals. Leveraging Content by Read more…
Image credit via Flickr by David Blackwell There are things that stick with us the whole year — we remember whatever holiday celebrations we conduct, we remember the end and beginning of school for as long as we have school-aged children or have to drive through school zones, and we Read more…
One of the largest complaints we hear from small businesses is that they simply don’t have time to market themselves to the extent that they’d like. They also don’t have the resources to dedicate to hiring someone who solely does marketing. Hiring an agency is also out of the question Read more…
Customers who feel valued become return customers and are a great source of word-of-mouth referrals. For that reason it’s important to make an impression on them. You do this with excellent customer service, providing world-class service or products, and delighting them. Whether you are a business owner or a chamber Read more…
People love free and often when we incentivize their “good behavior” they tend to repeat it. Here’s a creative idea your chamber can use for the holidays to get more people to shop local. Catch Them in the Act with Chamber Bucks One of the most effective positive reinforcements occurs Read more…
